02- INNER CARBON01 - MAMMOTH TECHNOLOGY00- PRIMORDIUM
InformationExhibitions
WritingsSpeaking
Interviews
Gather essences of the cosmos
Harness the cosmic timing
Attain the Carbonic Elixir
Correspond with the Heaven
Inhale and exhale the
waxing and waning of the Cosmos
吸日月精华
造化火候
修得碳丹
与天地感应
一呼一吸
为宇宙盈亏
The Inner Carbon Classic
Game in Development
Estimated length: 60 min
Level 1 Completed. Exhibition copy available.
Gameplay duration: 45 minutes.
Directing, Writing - Wendi Yan
3D Modeling, Art Direction - Wendi Yan
Level Design - Yi Xie
Interaction Design and Programming - Yi Xie
Animation - Wendi Yan
Support by The Steve Jobs Archive
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
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
Archive
Figure for the Cultivation of the Spirit (Carbon Alchemy)
Tapestry
62 in x 62 in
Lavender Town, curated by Miles Peyton and Cori Cannavino
Archive
A Magnetist Dreams of Universal Healing
Single-channel video
1920 px x 1080 px
1:26 min
Commissioned by Flora Weil for Design in Rising Winds, a research project sponsored by M+ Museum and Design Trust
In 1779, Franz Anton Mesmer declared his discovery of “animal magnetism,” a “universal agent” with magnetic qualities subtly flowing through all of nature. In the same year, An anonymous Jesuit mis sionary brought Chinese concepts of yin-yang into Enlightenment France, documenting its hydraulic vision of the body maintaining a balance of energy.
Joseph Marie Amiot, a missionary based in Beijing, believed that Chinese natural philosophy could guide European science. While Mesmerism was quickly discredited by chemists, Amiot continued trying to bring Daoist philosophy into Enlightenment France. He outlined a plan to form a secret society, Order of the Universal Figure, that would unite European science with Chinese natural philosophy.
What if Mesmerist magnetism is a real scientific mechanism? What if Amiot’s secret society came to fruition? What if the intellectual products of the Enlightenment are turned upside down? A magnetist may dream of a hydraulic planet-body, a jade satellite orbiting the earth to perform remote healing.
Design in Rising Winds, research project led by Flora Weil
2024
Sponsored by M+ Museum, Design Trust
Lavender Town, curated by Miles Peyton and Cori Cannavino
2024
Archive
Diagram for Carbon Alchemy
LINK
Website. Essay.
Commissioned by Berggruen Institute.
FUTURE WUNDERKAMMER TEAM
Claire Isabel Webb, Creator & Editor
Director, Future Humans at the Berggruen Institute
Adrianne Toomey, Program Lead
Senior Program Manager, Future Humans
Liv Foss, Program Coordination & Support
Senior Program Coordinator, Future Humans
Theo Detweler, Editorial Support
Research & Editorial, Future Humans
Public/Offical, Design & Art Direction
Two-Eyed People, Development
Former Team Member: Ulysses Yarber, Program Coordinator (2022–2024)
Archive