Yuxiao Wang (Kimi)

Intimacy in Wandering

Thinking of the evolution and history of mobility in time and space, we could easily find a practice that has never changed: the practice of walking. We changed our itineraries, the necessity to walk, the surroundings, the features and characteristics of the streets, the tracks, and the pathways, but the way we move one step after the other has remained similar throughout history. For Husserl, walking is the experience that enables us to grasp our own bodies concerning the world. 

What is the relationship between intimacy and the public when intimacy is out of private space? What is the role of walking in this process? Walking constitutes a path to freedom, a tool for humans to reconnect with lost interactions with environment territory. It helps individuals find their place in public space and thus gain a sense of necessary intimacy from being needed.

Intimacy in wandering doesn’t require familiarity toward the chosen territory as today's territory, is not just land in a geographical sense but can be understood as a specific space that shapes us as individuals and projects our behaviour, an environment that shows who and where we are. I aim to develop an immersive experience exhibition through projection mapping that reveals intimacy-related ideas both mentally and spiritually. It invites the audience to build a geopolitics-sensitive experience directly and evoke new perspectives on intimacy while wandering in society.

In the age of digital media, how do we take a look at the five senses? "The power of reality is not the only measure of the world." By my ordinary perception, we cannot see the impermanence of things because these things are hidden by the illusion of continuity.

Wandering Therapy seeks to construct a meditative wandering experience through interactive projection experiences. Also, I plan to make five shoes with tiny metal objects to enhance and improve the walking experience. The sound clashes will be like a symphony at that moment. This way, I want to explore the boundaries between abstract and figurative, spiritual and material, to heal the mind and body. The inspiration comes from the Buddhist practice of walking meditation, which meditates by controlling one's walking pace and thoughts. Although we do not intentionally use this walking meditation method in our daily lives, our personal consciousness will unconsciously enter a meditation-like state during the walking process. As we walk, our self-consciousness alienates our walking experience, passing through crowds of people, trees and cars, as if a mixture of the spiritual and physical reconstructs the experience. 

Look Around You——St Paul's Cathedral

The project takes the tourists of St. Paul's Cathedral as the target users and finds out the pain point that tourists in the early afternoon when it is dark in winter time cannot enjoy the view of the church well.

We were inspired by the sight and sound of birds homing in on a cathedral dome at sunset and a story about a falcon in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral

We wanted to have light installations on the lawn that would lighten the surroundings of the church in the evening in a gentle way. At the same time, combined with somatosensory XR technology, more tourists can enjoy the architectural details of St. Paul's Cathedral and the scenery of birds homing through XR headsets. We hope that through the design, tourists can understand the habits of birds and call on everyone to protect the ecology of birds in the city.

Life Menu

Life Menu is a self-help cookbook for your daily problems. This publication is the outcome of our vast problematic "Healing through food".

"Have you ever struggled with the question of what to cook after a break-up? Have you ever thought of healing yourself with certain types of food? When you are feeling homesick, what can you eat? What would you eat after a fight with your parents? Single for too long? What could you eat to forget the feeling of loneliness? After an exhausting day, what is the best meal to recover energy? PMS is making your life really hard; how can food help alleviate your pain? If you have ever considered one or several of the previous questions, do not hesitate and get a copy of Life Menu!"

Life Menu is a self-help cookbook for your daily problems. This publication is the outcome of our vast problematic "Healing through food" derived from our initial idea of gathering people with food. We hope that people from different cultural backgrounds and of all ages will empathise and connect through the stories in the menu. And in the process, people can know about each other's experiences and cures through the medium of food. Even extensive social networks can be created through food to provide social and emotional support to individuals. 

Our project is on-going research on day-to-day based problems, emotions related to them and the caring process with food. We explore how to help ourselves and others through food and plant-based medicine (vegetables, teas, herbs, meals, etc) that can contribute to elevate our mood. After conducting research about healing with certain ingredients, we organised a workshop to collect stories and recipes, with the aim to co-create this cookbook. With a group of ten participants, we described emotions related to certain situations, and then created some menus. It was a playful collaboration gathering people and mentally cooking together.