A collection of visual experiments,
interactive works and creative research.
He Kaiyao
Animation and Interactive Media
Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University
2026
Form before function. A sequence of visual studies exploring type, perception and the space between them.
FIG. 02.1INTERFACE SPECIMENS / ORIGINAL STUDIES CREATED FOR THIS ARCHIVE. PERSONAL WORK CAN BE ADDED TO THE INDEX.
CHANGE THE FRAME. DRAG THE IMAGE, OR USE THE SLIDER.
Portrait frame, 3:4.He Kaiyao 2330031084
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The project began with my interest in Angel’s Egg, particularly its treatment of religion, faith, isolation, and ambiguity. Its atmosphere encouraged me to explore religious imagery more deeply and to develop a project around similar questions.
Inspired by The Great Flood and The Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel connects humanity with a single monumental structure reaching upward.
It inspired the idea of an entire civilization contained within one tower, where the tower itself becomes their world.
The Great Flood represents divine punishment and humanity’s vulnerability before a higher power.
It also inspired the idea of a world where rising waters compress human existence into a single surviving structure.
A civilization forced to survive inside a single tower after the world is submerged by flood.
No one knows how the flood began, nor who built the tower that rises above the endless waters.
The origin of both the disaster and the refuge has been erased from human memory.
Unable to understand the forces beyond their control, the survivors created their own explanation:
the flood was the punishment of a higher power, and the tower was the final sanctuary granted to humanity.
Over generations, this belief transformed into a religion.
The unknown became divine will, survival became a sacred duty, and the tower became a symbol of salvation.
Born in the lowest levels of the tower, the boy grows up in a world shaped by faith and forgotten history.
Everyone believes the tower is the entirety of existence, and the flood outside is the will of a higher power.
Yet he notices birds flying through the tower — a glimpse of a world beyond the walls.
Believing that something greater exists above, he begins his journey upward, chasing the birds toward the unknown.
As the boy climbs higher, he discovers that the tower is not only a shelter, but also a system built upon belief and control.
In the upper levels, he encounters the priests who preserve the mythology of the tower. They shape the history of the flood, define the meaning of salvation, and maintain humanity’s faith in an unseen god.
Yet, when he finally reaches the highest point of the tower, he finds no promised world beyond it. The endless flood surrounds the entire civilization. The tower was never above the disaster — it had already been swallowed by it.
The birds he had followed toward the sky reveal their true form: fish moving through the water. The “birds” were never proof of another world, but an illusion created by a mind shaped by generations of belief. The boy does not escape the illusion. He only discovers another layer of it.
Beyond the entire world of the tower exists a higher-dimensional reality completely beyond human perception. The magnificent sanctuary they worship is only a structure of blocks built by a child, and the endless flood they believe to be divine punishment is merely water spilled from this higher world.
The “god” they pray to does not exist. Their suffering, faith, and struggles are never witnessed or answered. Unaware of the civilization within the tower, the child simply destroys and rebuilds it as part of a game.
As the tower falls and rises again, humanity repeats the endless cycle of destruction, forgetting, mythologizing, and rebirth.
This world reflects Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where humanity lives within the limits of its own perception.
The inhabitants of the tower are like the prisoners in the cave, mistaking the shadows before them for the entire reality. The priests act like those who control the fire behind the prisoners, shaping the “truth” they are allowed to see through religion and belief.
The boy becomes the prisoner who breaks free from the cave and seeks the truth beyond the shadows. Yet, his journey does not lead him to the true outside world. Instead, he only enters a larger cave, discovering that the reality he escaped to was another illusion.
This project will be created using Blender and Unreal Engine 5 to construct the world of the tower.
The final work will take the form of a 3D phenakistoscope. When stationary, the tower will appear as a sculptural object, presenting a frozen world. As it rotates, the hidden movements and narratives within the structure will be revealed, transforming the sculpture into an animated experience.
Small decisions. Failed attempts.
Things worth returning to.
Eastern mood (Net Art 02) combines MediaPipe hand gestures with a kaleidoscope, irregular shards, starfields, light trails and ripples. Gentle and still viewing modes offer lower motion. This static release is prepared for GitHub → Cloudflare Pages; the deployment URL and automatic redeploy result will be recorded after publication.
NET ART 02PUBLICATION IN PROGRESSThin rules and quiet labels give the page a measurable rhythm. The grid is revealed gradually, making the act of reading feel like moving through a document.
OBSERVATIONLAYOUTThe same image changes character when its frame shifts from portrait to landscape. Hover or focus on a visual study to see its crop unfold.
EXPERIMENTMOTION“A collection of visual experiments, interactive works and creative research.” The opening sentence defines the archive as a place for inquiry, with room for unfinished things.
STARTING POINTARCHIVEA response to the work, a question or a reference.
Keep your feedback alongside the archive.
Animation and Interactive Media
Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University
2026
This is a personal space for visual experiments, interactive works and creative research.