02 The Inner Carbon Classic

The Inner Carbon Classic

2024
GAME IN DEVELOPMENT
Estimated length: 60 min

Directing, Writing - Wendi Yan
3D Modeling, Art Direction - Wendi Yan
Level Design - Yi Xie
Interaction Programming - Yi Xie
Animating - Wendi Yan

Support by The Steve Jobs Archive

The Inner Carbon Classic is a puzzle game about aligning individual breath with planetary circulation. Set in an indefinite future, the game pretends to be a facsimile of the “Internal Carbonic Alchemy” that reharmonized the planetary breath in the 21st century. The player becomes a character inside a dynamic world-scripture, performing the procedure of three stages of “Internal Carbonic Alchemy.”

It is a cosmotechnic practice combining Daoist body-ecological philosophy with climate biotechnology, bringing the player on a journey to feel their oneness with Earth, linking personal breath to planetary circulation. It presents a cosmic ecology, in which meditation becomes an action, and scripture powers technology.

The Inner Carbon Classic is based on a classic image, Chart of the Inner Landscape (Neijing Tu), which uses a collaged landscape to illustrate the inner workings of the human body. Practitioners of Daoist Inner Alchemy (a real and still practiced tradition) meditate on that diagram to push “vital energy” from the Tailbone Gate (Coccyx) to the mountains of the brain, transcending by the Daoist “Third Eye.”

Using this diagram as a philosophical frame, the game shifts attention to Earth. At a time when an atmospheric element becomes integrated into the global financial system, this game is concerned with the question of cosmophilosophy in the geoengineering project of reharmonizing the earth’s circulatory system—specifically its carbon cycles.

How can geoengineering be exercised in alignment with spiritual beliefs and practices? This game attempts to develop a sense organ to connect the individual human body with Earth’s body, via breathing, in play.

CINEMATIC STILLS

GAMEPLAY RECORDING STILLS

GAME TRAILER

TANK NYE EXHIBITION: GAME OM
油罐艺术不眠夜2025

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐎𝐦社会游戏 𝐱 𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐢

Artists:
卑鄙的我们 (Despicable Us)
蔡宇潇 Rhett Tsai , supported by Allfather Productions (Justin Bortnick)
曹澍 Cao Shu
童年象限 XYZ (Childhood Quadrant XYZ)
突凸秃 2pm to 2am
温小舟 Wen Xiaozhou
武子杨 Ziyang Wu
颜文笛 Wendi Yan & 谢弈 Xie Yi
CNYOB
转塘黑肺姥 (Zhuantang Black Lung Matron)
zzyw (汪洋 Yang Wang and 漆贞贞 Zhenzhen Qi , 李骄阳 Jiaoyang Li , 刘宗鹰 Zongying Liu, 李茜霖 Qianlin Li

Curated by:
Open Media Department, School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art (Ziyang Wu, Rhett Tsai, Cao Shu)
Visual Design: Lin Zhuangxiang
Exhibition Coordination: Zeng Yuxin
Supporting Unit: Ministry of Education’s Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Sciences — Mixed Reality Lab of Art Media at China Academy of Art

Opening: December 31, 6:00 PM

Organizer:
TANK Shanghai
2380 Longteng Avenue, Shanghai