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02 / IDEA PRESENTATION2026HOME ↗

The Tower
of Doxa

He Kaiyao 2330031084

Inspiration

Angel’s Egg restoration poster
1

Angel’s Egg

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.

A landscape with standing figures from Angel’s Egg
Street silhouettes and illuminated fish sculptures from Angel’s Egg
An ornate tower among dark buildings from Angel’s Egg
Rooftops and chimneys from Angel’s Egg

The Flooded Tower

Inspired by The Great Flood and The Tower of Babel

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.

Illustration of the Tower of Babel rising above a city

The Great Flood

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.

Illustration of an ark among floodwaters and heavy rain

A civilization forced to survive inside a single tower after the world is submerged by flood.

The Birth of Faith

A tower rising from turbulent floodwaters beneath a golden sky

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.

The Boy Who Chased The Bird

Black and white engraving of a bird released from an ark
Black and white engraving of worshippers inside a cathedral

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.

The Truth Above The Tower

Golden fish swimming through a submerged architectural world

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.

The Child Beyond The Tower

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.

The Allegory of the Cave

Diagram of Plato’s allegory of the cave showing prisoners, shadows, fire and the world outside

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.

Production Method

Architectural rotating sculpture with figures arranged around a dome
Detail of figures and columns on a rotating sculpture
Layered sculpture with sequential figures arranged on circular platforms
Mechanical circular sculpture with repeated figures and drums

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.

Art References

Blue architectural ruins and towering columns
Ornate arches surrounding an illuminated architectural scene
Dark architectural fantasy with columns and statues
Blue monumental arches and a golden doorway
Illustrated courtyard with a reclining lion and patterned columns
Floating rocky structure with columns and statues
Engraving of a domed interior with columns and sweeping stairs
Circular gateway overlooking an intricate city
Painting of birds among gothic architectural forms
ARCHIVE RECORD

QUESTION
PROCESS
STATUS
Original interface study / 2026