Ting Yuan

The Sunchaser is a 3D animated film presented as an abstract, non-linear narrative. The work integrates 3D modelling, motion capture, performance, hand-drawn sketches, and graphic compositions. I began by developing visual motifs inspired by mythological archetypes, which were then sculpted in digital space. Motion capture translated performative dance into virtual forms.  The film unfolds in four parts: in the opening scene, the protagonist floats within a “melting pot” of the information cocoon; in the second and third scenes, the figure transforms into Kuafu and Icarus, enacting a digitised pursuit of the sun; in the final scene, the protagonist—now fully parameterised—dances within a completely parameterised world, dissolving the boundary between human and computational form.

The Sunchaser examines how algorithmic systems extend beyond technical tools to become agents of cultural production, capable of fabricating belief structures and shaping collective consciousness. In my earlier work Trophy, I explored the authoritarian logic embedded in systems that standardise and control organic life. Chaotic Paradise shifted focus to the semiotic instability of the digital age, where symbols lose their fixed referents and reality becomes increasingly negotiable. The Rift Of The Sunchaser investigates the algorithm as a contemporary myth-maker: a force that encodes ideological narratives into data flows. By reinterpreting the ancient myths of Kuafu and Icarus through a digitised lens, the work draws parallels between humanity’s enduring pursuit of unreachable ideals and our immersion in networked systems that promise connection while enclosing us in information cocoons. For me, as an artist, what is at stake is not merely documenting these conditions, but interrogating the invisible architectures that govern perception, and questioning how human agency can be reclaimed within them.

In contemporary art, The Sunchaser aligns with practices that probe the entanglement of technology, cultural narratives, and power. Trevor Paglen exposes the opaque mechanisms of algorithmic surveillance; Hito Steyerl dissects the politics of the image in a hyper-mediated world; Cao Fei builds speculative virtual spaces to reframe social realities. Positioned within this discourse, my work combines performance, mythological semiotics, and digital fabrication to question how fiction and simulation not only mirror the present but also script the futures we inhabit. As reliance on algorithms grows and identity becomes harder to define, are we expanding our awareness—or merely pursuing a light whose source has slipped from view?