InSync
A blindfolded interactive maze where your senses awaken, and a living creature responds to your touch.
Storyboard
Artwork by Shunran Shen
An explorer passes through a desolate world searching for life signs.
As if compelled by a deep, irresistible pull, they descend into a cavern of darkness.
Their touch awakens the cavern, stirring the ancient beast of life, Omu, from its slumber.
Omu answers with voices that echo through the chamber, gently guiding the explorer closer.
Explorer and Omu merge in connection, their bond pulses like a long-awaited ritual, reviving the cavern itself.
With the source of life revived, the world outside flourishes, as the sacred cycle begins anew.
An interactive, tactile Maze
Hidden Path
In InSync, you navigate the enviornment with your full body. Walk, crawl, sit, stretch, lie down, every gesture becomes a way of sensing, an intuitive, bodily exploration of space.
The lights are gone. Under your hand, walls and floors lead you toward changing terrains: hidden tunnels, secret corners, looping detours - passages that only touch can reveal.
Sonic triggers
A real-time pressure sensor network animates the environment with audio cues.
The maze feels and responds. At your touch, the maze awakens. Audio cues mark turning points, signaling your next moves. With every step, the distant call of a mysterious being grows nearer.
Shifting Landscapes
Zones evolve dynamically around you. Textures guide you across zones through shifting surfaces—moss and fabric closing in as soft walls, leaves and twigs brushing with a living rustle, while metal and plastic intrude with sharp, artificial resonance.
The maze detects your arrival and transforms its soundscape: each zone’s layered ambience and soundtrack reveals traces of the world’s unseen ecology.
Omu, Our Animatronic Creature
Curious Mind
We built Omu’s “neural network” through a central server and complex state machine, allowing it to recognize touch, tilt its head, nod, and lean into your hand.
Its voice shifts across a range of sounds to express emotion. It calls to you, leans in, and nuzzles close—warm and insistent, like a cat brushing against you in affection.
Embracing Wings
Through puppeteering, Omu draws you close once trust is built.
A pair of fantastical wings unfold into a soft, enveloping embrace.
Flexible Limbs
3D-printed joints and bones give Omu the ability to flex and move its tendrils in playful interaction.
Something soft brushes against your arm. It hesitates, then returns, tracing along your side with a searching curiosity.
Breathing Skin
Soft-circuit touch sensors detect location, pressure, and rhythm.
Under your hand, you feel its pulse quicken when pressed, its breath turn short and uneven, then steady again under a gentle stroke, accompanied by a quiet, purring hum.
Flexible limbs invite approach and curiosity, responsive skin builds intimacy, the head seeks closeness and communication, and finally the wings open in embrace. These interactions unfold in sequence, layering touch, motion, and sound into a living bond with Omu.
Layout & Guest Flow
Image by Rosie Gao & Quinn Liu
Technical Work
We use 3D-printed tentacles and motor-driven feedback to create realistic creature interactions. The 3D-printed tentacles dynamically respond to player actions, such as dragging and wrapping, enhancing environmental immersion.
Pressure-based input system for close contact and soft bodies.
Motors simulate the creature’s breathing and heartbeat, providing lifelike feedback that intensifies the sense of presence and tension.
We built a state-machine–based control system. Multiple Arduino UNO R4 WiFi boards collect sensor signals and transmits them over Wi-Fi to a central server.
