Onmyoji — WEILIN

my role in this project

Overall design (including concept, material selection and modeling) interactive design, testing, on set installation assembling and design

Display at PoweLong Museum 2022

Story background :

Night Parade of One Hundred during hot summer night Legend has it that during Heian period in Japan, Human and Spirits are all living together in the same universe. Humans would come out during the day while Spirits wanders around during the night. When the night comes, the street would be empty and Spirits and monsters of different shapes and forms would roam around the streets like a parade. This is the so-called Night Parade of One Hundred.

It is the Onmyoji’s duty to walk on both sides of the living and the dead, to fix both sides’ problems and dispute, protecting humans.

Theme:

Kyoto, travelling through dreams about living in the era of Pingan

Key words:

multi-censored, sense of ritual.

Three key elements for this interaction design exhibition:

Diversified artistic expression: the refinement and extension of aesthetics reflected in the game of Onmyoji, creating new spaces instead of direct reproduction of set-ups in the game.

Scenic offline socialization: a social experience that satisfies visitors need to take pictures, and share with their friends.

Immersive interactive experience: realizing game players fantasies of the game to extend their love and passion for this game, bringing them a sense of resonance.

Overall exhibition design:

The entire exhibition consists of five sections and its style refers to the game design of Onmyoji. We also added special interaction installations. The overall scene design moves from the suburbs to Kyoto city. The first three sections all contain elements of the suburbs and the last two included elements of the city.

1.Memory

The visitors would enter a narrow passage to enter the world of Onmyoji, which is rather surreal and like an illusion.

2.Chaos

While the demons are plotting for evil deeds, Onmyoji are working together to fight these demons.

3.Remediation

Onmyoji come in to action as night comes and the time comes for Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

4.Moderation

Demons are being defeated, the visitors can interact with cute fight assistant, which made of paper-cut.

5.Harmony

In Up-side down Kyoto, Onmyoji are guarding the peaceful and prosperous of human and monsters .

layout design

Section one: Memory

Consist of :

fog, video projection, holographic gray film.

Memory:

Everything begins in chaos. Visitors enter the first section, a corridor surrounded by fog and screens illuminated with light.

Size:

10*4*6.5m

Description for the first section:

The glass space is filled with fog, projection hanging from the ceiling, lights and image content around the walls.

Video content embedded in the wall

Preliminary idea of the video content:

The main characters appeared in the video are forms for the game character Shikigami, flower petals and flowing water. The purpose of playing this video is mainly to create an artistic conception, but there would be no concrete shikigami’s forms, but the visitors feel that a shikigami is drifting by. Sounds will also help to create this atmosphere.

Testing for the hardware

designing the smoke machine :

A total of 6 smoke machines from left to right convey smoke through pipes.

Cover the bottom of the section with 3cm black sand: prevent the audience from stepping on the water, making them feel that they are stepping on the beach.

Section two: Chaos

Material:

water, drum, video projection, mirror, fog

Chaos

It shows the state of the world in crisis with threats from monsters like the Yaqi Orochi, in the Heian era. Together with the Onmyojis, visitors would fight with the ultimate boss of the game, the Yaqi Orochi, giving them a multi-sensory interactive experience.

Size:

12*4*.5m

Description for the second section:

Right in front of the space is a screen, projecting videos of game bosses such as Yaqi Orochi. Mirrors hanging on the left and right sides, extending the video projection and the exhibition space. In front of the screen is a water tank with lED lights and wave generators hid under water. The space is filled with fog to match the atmosphere, adding tension and a sense of danger. There are four luminous drums set in the space as well. Waves would push the drums forward, and the lights change with waves of the water. When the wave hits the wall, visitors would be prompted to hit the Yaki Orochi in the video projection.

Interactive mode:

Visitors beat the Yaqi Orochi by beating the drums on set. When four visitors beat the drums together and the accumulated damage to Yaqi Orochi reaches a certain level, a notification will pop up to remind the visitor that if they hit the four drums together at the same time, they would activate the killing move to repel the Yachi Orochi.

On set testing

Wave-making style 2: 1. more similar to the real wave. 2. Two baffles need to be set up around the wave. The baffle will be made of acrylic material to make it as hidden as possible. — **Wave-making style 2:**
1. more similar to the real wave. 2. Two baffles need to be set up around the wave. The baffle will be made of acrylic material to make it as hidden as possible.

Wave-making style 1:1. Fast response 2. No need to set up two baffles around the wave. — **Wave-making style 1:**
1. Fast response 2. No need to set up two baffles around the wave.

Taiko: CurtainWhen visitors beat the drum, the light on the edge of the drum alsochanges.Pattern:The drum head adopts the style of the Japanese family crest.Hardwar… — **Taiko:** **Curtain**
When visitors beat the drum, the light on the edge of the drum also
changes.
**Pattern:**
The drum head adopts the style of the Japanese family crest.
**Hardware:**
Install a microphone on the drum, serving as a sound receiver.

Section three: Remediation

Consist of:

projection, fog, fiberglass sculpture, Wooden fence

Remediation

This section was inspired by the Pea Scattering Festival. Japanese believe that scattering soybeans has an exorcism effect. When the night comes and especially during Night Parade of One Hundred, visitors can scatter soybeans themselves to repel the monsters.

Size:

8.5*8.5*5M

Description for the third section:

In this semi-enclosed twisted space lit with groups of fireflies, moonlight travels across the bamboo forest. Monsters hide in between the shadows in the bamboo forests and grass (an interactive video projection on the wall , appearing randomly. Visitors can take the beans from the cauldron and throw them at the monsters hidden on the wall and the monster will dissipate after being hit by the beans.

Interactive mode:

Visitors will scatter the small yellow balls, symbolizing the soybeans, to repel the monsters appear in the surrounding interaction video projection.

Storyboard for the interaction video projection of Remediation：

The forest is flooded with fog, pedals of Sakura fall, and the rhythm is relatively gentle. Shikigami walks through the trees in the distant view. The scene gradually becomes lively, and the Kongming lanterns among the bamboo forests brightened. Fishes move through the air, and the Kongming lantern appears at the center of the frame.Fog rises again, the end.

Slope design: An inclined track and mechanical assistance to automatically collect the balls in the cauldron.Impeller pushing mechanism (the small yellow balls are driven by this impeller rotation mechanism, transporting them from the slot to the ca… — **Slope design:**
An inclined track and mechanical assistance to automatically collect the balls in the cauldron.
**Impeller pushing mechanism**
(the small yellow balls are driven by this impeller rotation mechanism, transporting them from the slot to the cauldron).

Designing the cauldron:It is a combination of fox statue and donation box. Foxes represent the guardian deity in Japan and usually appear at the door of the Yasukuni Shrine. The donation box is a box for storing donations from believers in front of … — **Designing the cauldron:**
It is a combination of fox statue and donation box. Foxes represent the guardian deity in Japan and usually appear at the door of the Yasukuni Shrine. The donation box is a box for storing donations from believers in front of the Japanese Yasukuni Shrine.

Section four: Moderation

Consist of:

video projection, table, stone, white sand, fiberglass sculpture,

Remediation

The style of Moderation is Japanese courtyard style. a Japanese Rock Garden is the main element of this section. After the chaos and Remediation, people's lives returned to normal.

Size:

8*8*5m

Description for the four section:

Cute fight assistants made of paper-cut are happily cleaning the courtyard and playing with the visitors. The surrounding video projection displays the ukiyo-e style animation with seasonal changes. The fight assistant acts as the protagonist of the video projection and interact with the visitors.

Interaction mode:

Visitors can create freely on the provided fight assistant cardboard, and then put their own painting into the mailbox of Jizo. After scanning, their own version of the fight assistant will be projected on the screen.

Layout design

Storyboard for the interaction video projection of Moderation:

Paper-cut fight assistants drawn by the visitors will fly out of the Jizo collector, they experience the four seasons. In spring, assistants would scatter sakura petals and do flower viewing. In summer they would have ice cream on the sakura tree with lanterns hanging around. Then after autumn and winter, they would bow to the visitor and wave goodbye.

Jizo：

Often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture. It also carries people's beautiful wishes.

It has a special function in the Moderation section, which is to collect and scan the paper-cutfight assistant drawn by the visitor.

Stone:

Main elements of Japanese Stone Garden. Stone Gardens are miniature garden landscapes originating from Japan They are mostly seen in small, quiet and remote Zen temples.

Cutting the stone in half for better fitting for the video.

On set testing

Scanner: Scan the content drawn by visitors and project them on the screen through the programming.

Sample cards of Paper-cut fight assistant : Visitors can draw their own version of the fight assistant on this card and their paintings will be scanned by the scanner to be projected on the screen later on.

Paper-cut fight assistant: serve a substitute for game players and doing player’s deeds while they are away yet the game is still running (equivalent to robots in modern ages)
It appears in the video projection in this section and plays a leading rol — Paper-cut fight assistant: serve a substitute for game players and doing player’s deeds while they are away yet the game is still running (equivalent to robots in modern ages) It appears in the video projection in this section and plays a leading role.

Section five: Harmony

Consist of:

Fog generation, video projector, laser, plastic construction.

Harmony

Harmony takes a holistic perspective to express the grand scenes of the Heian era, including the changes in the four seasons and the alternation of day and night. When visitors stand on the pentagram projected on the ground, electronic fireworks will be ignited, pushing the atmosphere of the entire exhibition to a climax.

Size:

Size: 8*8*6m.

Description for the fifth section:

The inverted three-dimensional Kyoto is suspended on the top, and the image change on the three-dimensional Kyoto white mold is completed by 3D projection. Mirrors are installed on all sides and the ground and the ground mirrors will be darkened to prevent light leakage. A kaleidoscopic three dimensional Kyoto will be brought to the visitors.

Reverse Kyoto City:

According to the formation of a pentagram, ancient Japanese-style buildings are planned. The city consists of the main tower, residential buildings, city walls, moats and the outskirts of the city.

Interactive mode:

A pentagram will be projected on the reversed Kyoto, and the visitors will be prompted to stand on the five corners of the pentagram. When visitors are standing at all five corners, the pentagram will gradually become brighter. When the Pentagram is complete, electronic fireworks will be ignited and the reversed Kyoto will be illuminated by the fireworks.