Work — Vivian Feifan Qiao

Vivian Feifan Qiao

Floatineer (2024)

Video Game
Collaborator: Zhuo Cheng
Demo on Steam

An RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world submerged by a cataclysmic tsunami. Players take on the role of a visionary architect, helping communities to rebuild homes on water using modular blocks, while facing natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes. Each project tests their ability to balance safety, aesthetics, and the unique demands of a shifting marine landscape.

The project has been exhibited at FutureLab, West Bund Art Center (November 2024, Shanghai).

Glitch (2024)

"Glitch" is an interactive VR experience that simulates a museum tour to critique misogynistic practices in the cultural industry. The tour starts with a typical audio introduction, leading the audience to admire the breathtaking beauty of artifacts celebrated by art history. It is then interlaced with "unexpected glitches" — the female voice awakes from the recording and shifts into an uncanny tone that bitterly criticizes the narrative used to educate generations of audiences. The lighting also changes to reveal the sordid truth hidden beneath the halo of canonization: the ubiquity of violence, objectification, oppression, and erasure of women in the art world.

During these "glitches," the audience is led to use weapons to destroy the exhibited artifacts that perpetuate misogyny. These weapons reference classic feminist conceptual artworks. By incorporating controversial acts of destruction, it prompts the audience to contemplate how we should handle these toxic yet "historically significant" cultural elements.

The project has been exhibited at FutureLab, West Bund Art Center (November 2024, Shanghai).

Tick Tick (2024)

Interactive VR experience critiques how contemporary capitalism affects individuals’ perception of time, particularly its erosion of personal space and rest periods. The constant push for productivity has made traditional markers of time less meaningful, leaving us with this sense of timelessness, or unending daytime.

Within a vacuum-sealed environment, a collection of clocks rhythmically ticks away at a uniform pace, their synchronized beats resonating through the space. At some point, these clocks would pause one by one, prompting participants to manually wind them to realign with the others—a metaphor for the societal pressure to adhere to predefined temporal norms. As each clock halts, the space dims incrementally, symbolizing the encroachment of darkness upon the capitalist structure. Gradually escalating in intensity, the experience ultimately culminates in the cessation of all clocks, enveloping the room in darkness—a metaphor of the relentless march of time and the inevitable surrender to or escape from its demands.

Green (2024)

The browser-based interactive narrative draws inspiration from Korean writer Han Kang's short fiction, Fruits of My Woman.

In this interactive experience, players step into the life of an ordinary middle-aged woman who constantly caters to her family's needs, absorbing subtle demands such as “By the way, we’re out of shampoo” or “It’s okay, the next one will probably be a boy.” The woman internalizes these requests, processing them like vegetables and simmering them into soup. Each time she consumes these demands, she turns a shade greener, inching closer to her inevitable transformation into a silent tree.

Visually, it simulates the format of a four-panel comic. The shade of green guides players through an endless loop, reflecting the stagnant nature of the woman’s existence—trapped on the same page, unable to progress. The immersive soundscape blends the hum of kitchen appliances, distant news broadcasts, and the murmurs of family members.

Sleep Talk (2023)

The interactive installation invites participants to lie on a sensor-activated pillow, triggering a projection of a stroking hand onto their body and an accompanying soundscape. Two hypnotic voices repeat “I should let it go” and “You should let it go,” with the former gradually overtaking the latter.

This work emerges from a deeply personal and intricate emotional landscape shaped by witnessing others endure profound trauma. I believe such experiences resonate with many: encountering a distressing news story about social injustice, one might feel an overwhelming surge of emotions—yet find themselves paralyzed, uncertain of how to respond, lacking the agency or means to effect change. These unresolved feelings often linger in my thoughts at night. When I attempt to articulate these experiences, my narratives often feel fragmented, akin to somniloquy—irrational, elusive, and seemingly devoid of coherence. A persistent voice in my mind urges me to "forget it, sleep it off, and return to the routines of daily life." Over time, I recognized that this voice does not stem from my own self-assurances but embodies the societal forces that seek to hypnotize us into complacency.

The hypnotic, meditative voice that the audience encounters within the work mirrors my critical interrogation of meditation itself—a practice often associated with cultivating positive thought by dismissing so-called "distractions." Should we not, instead, examine these disturbances within our minds more closely? Can their eradication truly lead to genuine transformation, or does it merely offer a fleeting escape into self-deception?

Random Pollock Generator (2023)

The interactive website generates random paintings in the style of Jackson Pollock, each paired with a sophisticated, algorithmically generated title derived from a pool of frequently used "International Art English" vocabulary.

The project serves as a critical reflection on the way we define and interpret "art." As a curator, I often question my role in mediating art for the public and the sometimes excessive complexity of titles and descriptions, particularly in modern and contemporary art contexts. Can an elaborate title impart profound significance to a randomly generated painting? Does the value of an artwork shift when accompanied by an abstract, sophisticated description? If meanings are assigned arbitrarily, does this process retain any inherent significance?

Link to website

Describe the City You Live In (2024)

This live performance on Twitch takes the form of a simulated TOEFL speaking class, where I assume the role of an instructor guiding students through practice exams. As the “lesson” unfolds, I intertwine technical breakdowns of exam strategies with personal reflections on my study-abroad journey, exploring the evolution of my ideals around global citizenship and my shifting perceptions of the “world” over the past decade. English was used to answer the exam questions, while the rest of the performance was conducted in Chinese, accompanied by real-time auto-translation.

The performance mirrors the structured, formulaic nature of standardized testing while exposing the emotional and existential layers beneath. During each segment, I juxtapose the rote mechanics of test preparation—templates, structures, and formulas—with my own fragmented memories and contemplation.

Meow Meow Food Truck (2023)

Video Game
Collaborator: Ella Pan, Liyanbing He
Playable Prototype on itch.io

"Meow Meow Food Truck" is an RPG game set in the bustling city streets late at night, where you play the role of a chef driving around in a food truck catering to stray cats. In this heartwarming adventure, players must fulfill the culinary needs of their feline customers while uncovering the stories of their lives as urban strays. As you travel through different neighborhoods, your goal is to provide delicious meals to the stray cats. Each successful feeding unlocks a fragment of their story, rewarding player with insights into the neighborhoods and the lives of these marginalized animals.

While the game offers a comforting experience, it also serves as a critique on human-centric attitudes towards animals. Through interactions with the stray cats, players learn about the challenges faced by these creatures in the urban landscape, such as the perilous dangers of highways where food, water, and shelter are scarce. The production team delivers in this game a message of hope for an ideal human-animal co-living utopia. By fostering empathy and understanding through gameplay, "Meow Meow Food Truck" invites players to reflect on their relationship with the world around them and envision a future where compassion and harmony prevail.

Billow Pavilion (2022)

This project aims to use architecture as a tool to bring out different emotions, through the exploration of materials, lighting, and scales of the spaces. The three layers of spaces are created between four kinds of materials: glass, suspended fabric, metal mesh, and concrete, and each layer conveys a specific emotional experience distinct from the others,
from relaxing and cheerful to stifling and somber. The journey through the museum shall allow visitors to focus on sensing their swaying moods, which echo the billowing shapes of the architectural elements.

MELLO (2022)

UI/UX Design
Menstrual Emergency Mutual Help Community

MELLO is a mobile application which provides a platform for women to help each other on menstruation related emergencies. It is designed with an aim to encourage women to voice their needs and let them feel that their needs are valued by the society.