Sense of Nowhere VR | Interview with Hsin Hsuan Yeh

Sense of Nowhere explores a very common human experience of “zoning out” and it portrays an example of the surreal thoughts of our mind wandering when we drift away from the present. What inspired you to address this theme and what inspired you to define these particular minds’ thoughts?

Hsin Hsuan Yeh – I’ve always been someone who daydreams, so Sense of Nowhere is really a portrayal of how my own mind flows. Sometimes I let go of daily errands and simply allow my thoughts to drift whenever and wherever. I start by noticing subtle sounds and textures around me, and gradually, my mind begins to build associations, often drawing on things I cling to deeply. For me, “zoning out” happens precisely at that threshold, the edge where I begin to return to reality.

Interestingly, a major part of my inspiration comes from observation. It might sound counterintuitive for a piece about zoning out, but for me, when too much information hits all at once, I mute the noise and drown in a sea of fragmented thoughts. Through this work, I wanted to recreate that exact train of thought for the audience and illustrate how deeply human beings can dive into different combinations of mind-wandering.

To define how I structured Sense of Nowhere, I drew inspiration from two spiritual philosophies rooted in my cultural background: Buddhism and Taoism. In Buddhism, the world and everything in it are viewed through the concept of “Illusion”, a realization that helps one release pain and achieve true happiness. In Taoism, there is the concept of “The Way” (Tao), an invisible, indescribable force that flows through all things.

I portray my own interpretation of “Illusion” and “The Way” through the mechanism of thinking itself. Throughout the experience, elements appear and dissolve like fleeting thoughts, emotions, and illusions. Meanwhile, the audience follows a subtle path (the “Way”) that brings them back to reality. These two philosophies have profoundly shaped how I perceive the world, and they inherently became the foundation for shaping this experience.

In your artistic practice, you bring together crafted animation and immersive technology. When did you become interested in combining these diverse techniques? Could you tell us more about the creative process of the figures that appear in the experience?

HHY – I adore tangible things, more specifically, the tactile feel of physical objects. Coming from a 2D and stop-motion animation background, I find the hand-crafted marks and traces human hands leave on models and objects to be irreplaceable. Textures speak. When I decided to create a VR project during my master’s degree, I was eager to bring those tangible, crafted traces into a virtual format. Rendering human-crafted textures within an unreal, digital space creates an engaging tension, a contradiction that triggers our senses and curiosity to expand.

Since the experience stems from a person’s drifting thoughts, I embodied that individual into three figures across different life stages: a young child, a woman, and an elder. They represent different periods, mindsets, perspectives, and emotional states of the same person, like different facets of a single sphere.

All the other models are born from associative thinking: a broccoli transforms into a walking tree, and a paprika becomes a flame. The shapes and forms of everyday objects can easily be reimagined and reinterpreted. For me, using clay was the perfect medium for this project, as its transformative nature mirrors the fluid concept of mind-wandering remarkably well.

The experience starts with a minimal and poetic environment with simple elements such as dots and lines that the audience interacts with in a playful way. Interaction is done by an easy hand gesture, making it very accessible. How did you design the interaction  and why did you choose this approach?

HHY – Within this journey of thought, “inviting” and “receiving” information became the core concepts we transformed into two primary hand gestures. It was essential for these gestures to feel fluid, connected, and rich in meaning, reflecting the project’s central themes of repetition, mental association, the ebb and flow of thoughts, and the rhythmic cycle of breathing in and out.

Ultimately, I selected and adapted two specific Mudras as the foundational core: Pushpaputa (open hands, traditionally symbolising “a handful of flowers”) and Adi (a closed fist, symbolising “primordial origin”). While these gestures carry deep traditional significance, I designed them within the experience as open canvases, inviting audience members to project and discover their own personal interpretations. Besides, from a practical point of view, combining and learning these two gestures is not too difficult; at the same time, providing layers of meaning, which allows the audience to engage and contemplate.

During the experience the virtual ecosystem evolves through our interactions, as well as its elements and ourselves. The audience brings some elements to life, but it also unlocks strange or mixed feelings in certain scenes. Why did you decide to locate the audience in first person and give them such power? How would you like them to feel through the experience?

HHY – Throughout the experience, I perceived the audience not as a passive observer, but as a single “idea” or “thought” floating among many.

In the beginning, this idea arises in an abstract realm alongside countless other thoughts, without any form or material. Gradually, as the experience unfolds, ideas begin to materialise inlayers, and so does the process of your own presence in this world. That key moment is when you finally gain human hands. You become a realised concept navigating a sea (or primordial soup) of floating thoughts, a dreamlike space that offers a glimpse into the vast range of what human minds can conceive.

I believe that thinking is fundamentally what makes us human. By placing the audience in a first-person perspective and granting them this agency, I hope they can be aware of the full spectrum of human nature, both the cruel and the beautiful actions we are capable of. Ultimately, every decision we make, and every consequence that follows, stems from a single, fleeting thought.

Sense of Nowhere already had a beautiful path in France with its participation at the NewImages creative residency in 2024. How was the creative process in France and how did the connection with the French ecosystem influence the development of the artwork?

HHY – During my residency in France, my mentors, Yann and Stella, played a crucial role in helping me shape the experience into a much more legible project. Their guidance, along with their warm support, truly empowered me throughout the process.

Later, the audience testing at Cité des Sciences was also a key milestone. They were the first group of testers and provided invaluable feedback that enhanced the narrative and interaction design. The collective efforts truly pushed Sense of Nowhere to its full potential.

Furthermore, visiting institutions like IRCAM, as well as various French animation and distribution companies during the residency, influenced part of my decision-making. Those exchanges directly shaped our sound design and inspired our choice to port the experience into a standalone format.

Overall, the residency in France opened my perspective and unlocked doors for me within the XR community and industry. To this day, I still carry their advice with me and benefit deeply from the time I spent there.

The experience featured at Venice Immersive 2025 and it has been exhibited around the world, at ART*VR, at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Kaboom Animation Festival, the Anifilm Festival, the Museum of Moving Image (MOMI) in New York. How has the international audience reception of the artwork been so far? Where would you like to take the experience next?

HHY – Sense of Nowhere is an experimental piece. I wanted to explore a form I hadn’t seen before in VR: an experimental montage that deconstructs elements within the XR space. By breaking down sound and image into associative fragments distributed across different chapters, I wanted to test just how much information the audience could absorb and how deeply they could piece these connections together.

Rather than a linear narrative, Sense of Nowhere is a piece that challenges the audience. Because of this, I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to tour it globally. The work has always been searching for its own audience, and the reception has been quite polarising.

Some viewers become completely immersed in discovering whimsical details and deeply resonate with its underlying Buddhist and Taoist philosophies. At Venice Immersive, I met a Buddhist audience member from Vietnam who listed almost every design detail and metaphor I embedded in the experience. I was astonished that someone could grasp that level of depth on their very first run. Others love its unique visual style and playful interaction design, while some find it completely cryptic. I knew this division would happen before even starting the project, but pushing boundaries and challenging the medium is precisely what I aimed to do. For that, I am deeply thankful to all the curators and festivals willing to present Sense of Nowhere.

Looking ahead, we will be exhibiting at festivals and events in Toronto and Seoul, before returning home to Taiwan at the end of the year. I look forward to bringing the experience to even more places around the world and encountering new audiences along the way.

Which XR artworks have inspired your work? Which experiences and tips could you recommend to new artists willing to create using immersive technology?

HHY – Early on, I was deeply inspired by several exploratory pieces that utilised innovative interaction design; these works helped me understand how the unique language of VR functions. I also observed how other creators conveyed the concept of meditation within immersive space. Seeing how different artists approach the same spiritual and reflective spectrum sparked a great deal of creative juice for my own process.

My advice for artists entering the immersive medium is to focus on discovering your own distinct way of storytelling. Because XR is a relatively young and constantly evolving format, there are no fixed rules or rigid blueprints. The immersive space inherently offers far more narrative possibilities than traditional media, so give yourself permission to explore and be truly free.