02 The Inner Carbon Classic

The Inner Carbon Classic

2024
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

The Inner Carbon Classic (ICC) is a series of 3D games that explore the alignment of human breath with the planetary circulation of carbon. Inspired by the Daoist Inner Alchemy "Chart of the Inner Landscape," ICC presents a rite of passage within an alternative science-fiction universe. Through a series of simulated somatic tunings via the game controller, the player-adept—embodied as a bundle of Daoist qi—enters into a dynamic exchange of energy with a metaphysical landscape rendered from the human body's inner rhythms. Using system worldbuilding and philosophical mechanics derived from Daoist cosmotechnics, ICC stages a porous self, situated between the human and the planetary, the material and the spiritual.

At a time when an atmospheric element becomes integrated into the global financial system, ICC is concerned with the question of how geoengineering can be exercised in alignment with spiritual beliefs and practices. Instead of mechanical gimmicks imitating divine forces, technology in the ICC game world is a sincere means of seeking the Dao, the experience of cosmic truth, and a higher dimension of conscious existence.

Exhibitions

If/then, Ujazdowski Castle CCA, Warsaw, Poland (2025)
Lagrange Point, Slash, San Francisco (2025)
Game Om, TANK Art Center, Shanghai (2024)

If the Daoist adept strives to return to the state of “sacred embryo”, could our epistemic self, one day, return to the original intuition, while maintaining a higher level of resonance with the cosmos?

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