This series of works unscramble the Chinese’s everlasting exploration of the universe based on a triple Mingling Space. The major body mingles Chinese Classical Literature’s imagination of the universe with contemporary Chinese aerospace projects. The visual styles are inspired by flying apsaras in Dunhuang frescoes, where we blend religious motifs with the scientific exploration of the universe. The audience can scan the artworks to experience immersive storytelling in Augmented Reality (AR) by mixing the virtual and the physical.

#1 / Fly to the Sky

The first piece of work depicts the change in the understanding of the sky. Ancient Chinese interpreted that the sky was symbolized as a circle and the earth was symbolized as a square (Theory of Canopy-Heavens). Thus, we first borrow the Dunhuang Sunk panel as the imaginary, which is combined with the trimmings of lotus flowers to form a large ceiling on top of the sky.

Another space-time will be augmented to the ancient imagination – contemporary technology. The black unknown center is filled with the Tiangong space station. A list of Shenzhou rockets is shown in a counterclockwise direction according to the launch time of each rocket. They break through the ancient Theory of Canopy-Heavens and present the people with a bright new and real universe.

#2 / Touch the Moon

The second part of the work mingles modern lunar exploration with ancient verses about the moon. The base image describes a classical scene where ancient Chinese thought of the moon rising over a willow.

By scanning in AR, we place a word cloud in the bright moon, summarizing how ancient poets named the moon in various ways, for example, 玉兔 (Jade Hare), and 金蟾 (Gold Toad) means the mythical creatures related the Moon. Surrounding the moon halo, spacecraft passed by, leaving trails based on the lunar exploration durations. In the moonlight, representative versus hanging in the tree blow gently.

#2 / Gather the Stars

The third work narrates the Chinese Mars Exploration Task named by an ancient long poem Tianwen meaning Asking Heaven. We present an apsara flying to Mars in the base image, where each footstep grows a cloud. The clouds summarize the question proportion in the poem (Asking Heaven) involving the sky (blue), nature (green), myths (red), and the real world (orange).

In AR, the audience can see a waving ribbon showing key milestones of the space probe Tianwen-I.