No.202 Spiritual Essence Space

This is a small part of the 202 Spiritual Essence Space Project. The apartment where my grandparents lived, built in the 1970s, is considered a dilapidated building by modern standards. I don’t know when it will disappear, so I am slowly recreating this home as it looked in my childhood within a virtual world, using my graphics card.

Here is my grandfather (in his robotic form). His actual soul, in his previous reincarnation, was born into a poor family in Beiping at the end of World War I. The reason his character is designed this way is because I spent many years thinking about what kind of grandfather to place in this virtual space. When it comes to recreating deceased loved ones, as long as one is willing to put in the effort, the technology has long been able to make them look just like they did in real life. But what is real? After all, we only want the version of the person we remember—should we recreate them in their youthful vigor, their kind and gentle old age, or their final moments in the hospital? There is no such thing as absolute reality. Thus, pursuing an artistically accurate yet abstract cartoon representation, which can later be animated, seems like a better approach. Placing a robotic version of my grandfather in this recreated home allows one to feel the presence of his soul.