XINYAN
Xinyan XU is a visual artist and spatial designer based in Ningbo and Shanghai. She is currently a research resident at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Media Arts LowRes.

Her artistic focus is on supermodernity, contemporary culture, and metropolitan experiences. She uses spaces, places, and computational techniques to create visuals, spatial experiences, soundwalks, and art installations.
创作者及设计师，现居于宁波和上海。目前是纽约大学帝势艺术学院互动媒体艺术的驻留研究者。她通过空间、地点及数媒来体现城市超现代化下的人际关系、都市体验和网络文化。


Spatial works at naynix_dot_com
Contact xinyan at xuxinyan_at_yahoo_dot_com
STORY OF A 100-YEAR-OLD APARTMENT ｜ 钟琪 许茗



AR Experience
Interactive Sightseeing
Immersive Outdoor Theater
Urban Revitalization

(IN COLLABORATION WITH HE LIYANBING & ELLA PAN)

 Standing in front of this 100-year-old historical building, we sensed the multitude of stories embedded within its facade—stories of those who had once stood on the same pedestal and touched the same bricks as we did. 

The sense of connection inspired us to traverse time and narrate a story about the people who once inhabited this space between 1920 and 1950 in Shanghai. 

The story unfolds around a boy and a girl who fall in love during their adolescence but lose contact when the war breaks out. The boy remains unaware of what happened to the girl. The narrative begins when he returns to the apartment where they once lived. As he reminisces about their past and explores the space they shared, he discovers why the girl never responded to his letters after he went abroad to study before the war.


BY COMBINING HISTORY, CULTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE THROUGH AN XR EXPERIENCE, WE HOPE TO IMMERSE VIEWERS IN A UNIQUE URBAN-HISTORICAL STORYTELLING JOURNEY.






Photo ©David Chipperfield Architects, Christian Richters, 小红书 @炀炀籽


The Yuanmingyuan Apartment, standing four stories high, is one of the earliest Western-style apartments and the oldest surviving building on Yuanmingyuan Road in Shanghai. The entire building exhibits the typical British Queen Anne Revival style. The interior decoration is luxurious, while the exterior features strong color contrasts created using white plaster and bricks, along with intricate brick carvings.

The female protagonist in the story is based on Sheng Aiyi (1900-1983). Sheng Aiyi was intelligent, perceptive, and well-versed in various subjects from a young age. In 1932, she invested in and founded the famous luxury entertainment venue, the Paramount Ballroom, becoming China's first female entrepreneur to enter the entertainment industry.



Photo ©小红书 @三眼鱼

We specifically selected walnut-colored, raised decorated door panels to represent the style inside the apartment, immediately drawing people into the era. As the experience starts, there is an array of wooden doors placed and wrapped around the facade of the Yuanmingyuan Apartment. The story unfolds sequentially from the first door to the last. 

The doors turn at the corner of the main street to a smaller and more secluded street, with the narrative shifting from sweet to bitter. As the story reaches its conclusion, the final door opens to the real world, bridging the gap between years and blending the unreal with reality.


As users start to explore the story and trigger the door openings, objects that symbolize or visually represent this part of the story will appear behind the doors. This allows people to enter and closely observe the old, story-embedded objects while immersively listening to the narrative.



As the voice actor immerses listeners into the ups and downs of the story, an English summary of each part will be generated as the backdrop of the door and object, serving as the third layer of the visual element. The text wall, much taller and wider than the door, is closely attached to the architectural facade. The texts will remain even after the doors close. When all 10 doors have been opened, users will see the texts and doors displayed together in front of the architecture as a spectacular word wall installation, narrating the entire story.


On-site testing and showcasing using Rokid AR glasses



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