“This is an express train that departed ten years ago, traveling through my teenagehood, heading to the moon. It was a journey in which I’m so grateful that there’s always the company of his music.”

Moon-Bound Express is a dedication to the 10th year of me listening to, being supported and inspired by Taiwanese musician 張宇 (Phil Chang). In this interactive website, I constructed six rooms based on the stories, imaginations, and cultural narratives associated with six songs of his that held the most significant meanings to myself.

I see Moon-Bound Express as not only a fan-art piece. I have been exploring whether the traditionals, sorrow and tenderness of the last century can be integrated into the wonder, magnificence and dreaminess of my art. I don’t want to only reproduce the familiar images from music videos and album covers. I want to pay tribute to his creation with my creation, leaving new interpretations and infinite possibilities.

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A series of ongoing animated collage music visualizers that explore the technical and stylistic possibilities of digital collage in relation to fashion and pop music.

Dazies︎︎︎
Portals︎︎︎
Salt Rain︎︎︎

Lotus Lake is an interactive web art that explores the topic of nostalgia and romanticization of a cultural root considered as “home”. By interacting with visual and literary elements, a fictional past based on mandarin culture unveils from stories of different characters. Inspired by 90s Taiwanese band Mayday’s signature song Embrace, the lyrics are deconstructed and weaved into each “chapter” to form an unconventional, experimental non-linear narrative.

Growing up, I’ve always been exposed to the narrative of a “glorious past” in daily life and mandarin-based art. The late 80s and early 90s are signified as pure, romantic, and full of hope. The idea of “now” in China, in comparison, has become something threatening. Influenced by 90s mandarin literature, music and films, an admiration of a fictional past that I’ve never experienced in reality has grown within me. In Lotus Lake, I become an alternate me, observing and experiencing the artistic construct of “past” as a young maiden from the 90s.

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S-1229-075 is a storytelling artificial intelligence designed to create stories that record human histories or showcase future possibilities. Until one day, the engineer found out that the a universal bug exists in all stories of S-1229-075. That is, the characters all fall in love.

In the stories of S-1229-075, you and I can be everything and anything. From lonely housewife and kitchen salt to human hero and alien spy; big as the mother of creation or small as two atoms in a rock... In every storyline, we fall in love.

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Lost In Wonderland is the first visual novel game produced by Exitall Studio. It depicts a young girl Mi Chen’s journey to explore and find answers in the wonderlands of the lost of her 22-year-old.

The game was born out of the "virtual travel" series of digital collages made by Shanshan and Mi during the COVID-19 pandemic. The surreal scenes collaged from digital images in the game, as well as the characters photographed by the two in Shanghai and New York respectively, are an exploration of multimedia art and human bonding in the era of the pandemic. They are also a combination and reconstruction of the real dilemmas of the 22-year-old and a digital virtual world.

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Your favorite professor Andrew is being trapped in the digital world! Only you can save him by guiding him to the exit with sound. Will you be able to bring him back to reality?

Hi, Andrew is a live performance under collaboration of Shanshan and Valia Liu, utilizing programming languages in ToughDesigner and MaxMSP.

Vimeo︎︎︎