The Idea

Becoming the Artist began with a simple curiosity: what did the world look and feel like to the person who painted it?

Having spent a lot of time in museums, I often felt a distance between myself and the paintings — I could observe them, but couldn't quite experience what may have inspired them.

The project explores what happens when that relationship changes. Instead of simply looking at historical artwork, visitors are invited to observe, move, experiment and create, experiencing aspects of Van Gogh's artistic process through gesture, projection, sound, letters and interactive artworks.

Building the Experience

Rather than presenting his work as something to simply learn about, I wanted visitors to feel their way through it — noticing details, responding to their surroundings, experimenting with gestures and gradually becoming part of the artwork.

Observe  →  Interact  →  Experiment  →  Create  →  Experience

Each stage uses movement, visual transformation, sound and interaction to create a relationship between the visitor's actions and the world around them.

Interaction

Gesture became the primary interface, allowing the visitor's body to become part of the experience.

Movement isn't simply used to trigger an animation. It influences what happens within the experience, creating a continuous relationship between action and response.

Testing shifted my focus from simply making the system responsive to making the visitor feel that their actions mattered.

The Experience

The final installation brings together gesture, projection, sound, visual storytelling and interactive environments to create a space where historical art can be approached through movement and participation rather than observation alone.

At its heart, Becoming the Artist asks the visitor to step beyond the role of the viewer and experience art through curiosity, movement, experimentation and perspective.

Reflection

This project changed the way I think about immersive design. I became less interested in simply making an environment visually engaging and more interested in what the visitor is actually doing, feeling and taking away from the experience.

For me, the project became an exploration of how design can close the distance between people, art and experience.

Alice, an ordinary girl who never sought adventure, falls into Wonderland after following a frantic White Rabbit. She discovers that the Red Queen has shattered the core magic of Wonderland in an attempt to merge it with the real world and rule both. The magic split into three powerful fragments hidden across dangerous lands.

To restore balance and return home, Alice must gather the three lost pieces before the Queen can reclaim them — mastering new abilities, defeating guardians, and discovering that courage and kindness are the strongest magic of all.

Each level features a single guiding NPC who serves as a narrative mentor and progression gatekeeper. Through semi-structured dialogue, the NPC provides story context, directs the player toward the fallen piece, and unlocks a level-specific combat skill required to defeat the boss, conditional on completing a prerequisite task.

3-Level Progression: Each level represents a shift in Wonderland's environment, mechanics, and theme, while escalating gameplay difficulty and narrative depth. Environment, mechanics, and theme all evolve to reinforce that Wonderland operates on alien logic compared to Alice's original world. Alice's journey is not just physical — it's a descent into increasingly distorted rules of reality.

The work translates fragmented memories into a poetic sensory journey, exploring shifting perceptions of depth, childlike wonder, confusion, and the sudden transition from calm to panic. Reconstructed through fragmented, distorted, and exploratory moments, the experience reflects memory as something fluid — shifting between sensation, perception, and emotion rather than following a linear narrative.

The experience was built around sensation: the distortion of sound underwater, the compression of visual field, the loss of spatial orientation. Each interaction state was mapped to a different emotional register within the memory.

The non-linear structure reflects how some moments surface easily while others require dwelling in discomfort to unlock — reflecting how involuntary memory actually works.

Scene Structure

1. 01Title — Ambient underwater hum, slow fade-in
2. 02Intro Fragment — Memory begins to surface
3. 03Swimming Forward — Calm exploration
4. 04Initial Drowning — Darkness, sudden shift
5. 05Underwater World — Interactive and dreamlike
6. 06Monster Voice — First moment of panic
7. 07Out of Breath — Heartbeat and dim visuals
8. 08Talking Creatures — Symbolic guidance
9. 09Ascending — Returning to the surface
10. 10Final Scene — Emotional closure

Three bubbles in dark environments represent persistent memories — fragments that remain deep in the subconscious. Their shattering effect reflects the fragility of recalling childhood experiences. Typography also reinforces symbolism: Montserrat (clean, geometric) contrasts with Finger Paint (childlike and handmade), echoing the tension between maturity and memory.

PC — mouse clicks · arrow-key navigation · spacebar hold