Sayion II
- 2018
Project Type | Performance
Client | Taiwan Design Center, Egret Foundation
Agency | IF PLUS CO., LTD.
Location | eslite Performance Hall
Credits :
Director | Jeff Hsieh
Art Director | Akibo
Concept Design | Yi-Hsuan Lee
Visual Design | Ke Jyun Wu, Yi-Hsuan Lee
Interaction System | Ke Jyun Wu
Dancer | Lien Hsu
Photographer | Terry Lin, 基奇
A real-time interactive media performance at eslite Performance Hall. Co-created by Egret Foundation and Eslite Performance Hall, produced by IF PLUS CO., LTD.
Sayion II is the sequel to Sayion (2015), an interdisciplinary stage play that combined live performance with real-time interactive visuals. For the second edition, the technical systems were rebuilt from scratch, and the narrative expanded from a single story about Taiwan into three interwoven stories about how people navigate the modern world. They look separate at first, but they circle the same question: what do you hold onto when everything around you is moving too fast to see clearly?
I was invited to the project by Hsin-Chien Huang. Working alongside visual artist Akibo, director Jeff Hsieh, and choreographer Li-Chuan Lin, the project brought together people from very different disciplines. My role covered visual design and the interaction system connecting the dancers' bodies to the digital world.
The Performance
The Technology
The core of the system is real-time: every visual on stage is generated live, responding directly to the dancers' movements. Nothing is pre-rendered.
3D Motion Tracking
- Xsens MVN
The dancers wore Xsens MVN motion capture suits throughout the entire performance. The system captures six degrees of freedom from the human body in real time and feeds that data into Unity. Lifting a foot could grow a tree. Waving a hand could scatter a starry sky. The range of interaction was broad because we could analyze specific gestures and postures, not just position.
Realtime VFX
- Particle System
- 2D Fluid Simulation
We developed two custom VFX systems for the show. The first is a real-time GPU particle system that constructs particle-based worlds inside Unity and simulates physical behaviors like wind, smoke, water, and explosions through algorithms. The second is a real-time fluid simulation system focused on more detailed, controllable fluid mixing.
With the motion capture feeding into both systems, the dancers could shape the visual environment through their bodies. Every movement had a consequence on screen.
The Concept
The story starts in darkness. We have to look inward and build our own world step by step when facing the unknown. Along the way, we become someone else and lose the confident self we started with. Playing, chasing, fighting, retreating. The colors get brighter but the clarity fades. Eventually, what we realize we've lost is the simplest thing: our own hearts.
Chapter One
- Intro
In my hazy memory, I'm blind but sensitive in the dark. I'm not afraid. I want to get closer. The power of sound evokes the journey. A call from the outside, or maybe from somewhere deep within.
Chapter Two
- Human, the Nature,
and the cycle of time.
Create the sky with your palm and build the mountains and rivers with your steps. Walking brings you time, and your every pursuit will end at the origin.
Chapter Three
- Lost/One and oneself
People were lost in the splendid space. They and their hearts never catch up with themselves.
