Royal College of Art | Digital Direction

Join us for the MA Digital Direction showcase from the @royalcollegeofart , featuring innovative work in immersive technology, interactive design, and digital storytelling. The Big Screen Showcase at the 23rd of July 📍 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London W12 7FW 🏛 @thisistvc home of the @bbc Edit by @sloshua.exe @alexismultiverse Score by @sloshua.exe

Some moments I captured 📸 @katterpil and I's "The Veil" first movement workshop, created with support from @cssdlondon PTEQ residency. Our participants were invited to move (or remain still) in whichever way felt most comfortable and natural to them, with the visuals adapting to each moment in real-time! #touchdesigner Thank you so much to the movement artists : @jiffane_1108 @aida_in_focus @shirdaniel @_rosecco for showing up and showing out on such short notice. <3 videos loading...🥰

＜If Pigs Could Save the Minefields＞ 3D animated short film This project imagines a dystopian post-war world, where pigs—once slaughtered for meat—become humanity’s last hope for survival, detecting landmines with their heightened sense of smell. The work draws from the real legacy of the Sino-Vietnamese War, which left millions of landmines scattered across Yunnan’s borderlands. These silent remnants still restrict agriculture and life today. During my research, I became fascinated by pigs’ double role in culture and survival. After moving from China to the UK, I noticed pork here carries a stronger gamey odor than in China. Later I learned this difference comes from farming and slaughter practices: In the UK, animal welfare laws allow male pigs to keep their glands, giving pork a distinct hormonal smell. In China, early castration and boiling-water hair removal aim for “odorless” pork. In times of peace, pigs are disciplined into “odorless” meat. But in a minefield world, that same raw “gamey” odor could become a life-saving oracle. 3D modeling & animation: @24xunuoooo Pig portraits: @zoeyzhaoz Music sample from Obfuscate by @eliosheyack & Jordan Tierney (used with permission) Screening: July 16 BFI Southbank ｜ London, England

From 5–7 August, IED students joined forces with peers from Digital Direction and Innovation Design Engineering for Prototyping Realities: Designing XR with Purpose — a three-day workshop co-hosted by the Royal College of Art and Meta. Congratulations to all participating students for their creativity, energy, and teamwork! Organised by Bjorn Sommer and @carolina_ramirezfigueroa #RCA #InformationExperienceDesign #XRDesign #MetaQuestPro #ImmersiveActs #PrototypingRealities

Big thanks to @royalcollegeofart and @outernetglobal ! So proud to see my work displayed on this huge screen, and thank you to everyone who came that night. It was an incredible exhibition! Congrats to all @rca_digitaldirection —we’re the best! 🎉💐✨

💙RCA2025 Perfect Ending💙 #rca #Outernet #digitalart #art #chinesedreamcore #dreamcore #nostalgia #2000s #childhoodmemories #immersiveart #3d #animation #3dart #blue

The Vegetarian (2025) is an immersive digital film directed by Jiahui Liu @leah_66835 , with sound design by Quanfeng Li @blue1redge . The work is rooted in ecofeminism, inspired by the intuitive bond between women and nature in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. It incorporates the symbolic gesture of the “human chain” — embracing, hand-holding, and encircling — drawn from historical protests led by women in movements such as India’s Chipko and the UK’s Greenham Common. Created in collaboration with women/nature collectives The Bridge and Trapped in Zone One, the project integrates shared painting practices into its narrative and witnesses the transformation of individual action into collective ecological solidarity. Exhibiting: 31 July Outernet, London WC2H 8LH #digitalart #3dmodel #immersiveart #digital #artwork #socialnetworking #emptiness #multiscreen #blender #visualart #visualstorytelling

Synaptic._null at Outernet London #audioandvisual #digitalart #vj #dj #digitalmedia

Cycles (2025) an immersive 360° virtual reality dance film Ventcislava Nekova (@ventciii / @ventciful )as a part of MA Digital Direction (@rca_digitaldirection ) The bodies we bring into virtual environments, our physical, social, and present selves, carry with them the norms and rules of the material world, shaping how we move, interact, and perceive within immersive spaces. With Cycles, we explore how dance and immersive technology can reveal the invisible structures of control that shape movement and identity in a setting known by everyone: the dining table. The project combines dance, projection, and sound to surface internalised power structures and reimagine digital space as a site of embodied resistance. Rooted in feminist theory, performance studies, and immersive tech, it questions how familiar domestic settings like the dining table become sites of discipline and repetition. Developed collaboratively with dancer Emma Poyer (@emmapoyer ), Cycles invites audiences into an intimate, affective encounter with control, memory, and transformation. This was made using Unity, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Adobe Audition, filmed on a Black Magic 4K camera. Technical support by Rodrigo Canas, Kitty Choi, Charlotte Raymen, Kyle Ramsay, and Joe Hirst. The work premiered on 2nd July 2025 at Frameless Gallery. #VRArt #ImmersiveDance #360Film #EmbodiedResistance #DigitalPerformance #FeministArt #Biopolitics #CyclesVR #FramelessLondon #RCADigitalDirection #DegreeShow2025

Excited to be showing my latest immersive work at Outernet London, as part of the Digital Direction graduation showcase! @rca_digitaldirection @royalcollegeofart 📍 Outernet London, Now Building @outernetglobal 🗓️ 31 July, 6–9 PM “Where Spirit Begins”is a multi-channel digital film. Centered on Eastern civilization and symbols of the supernatural, it explores how nature has shaped human spiritual civilization, deepening the symbiotic awareness and spiritual connection between humans and nature. Nature is not only a physical environment, but also a source of culture, belief, and spirit. Early humans developed emotion, imagination, and language through interaction with natural beings. In ancient Chinese philosophy, humans and nature are seen as sharing a common origin and interdependence. The imagination and interpretation of nature are the origins of Chinese culture. Rituals served as a medium to communicate with natural forces through non-verbal expression—movement, dance, and chant. Drawing on Eastern symbols, mythical totems, and fractal visual language, the project constructs a space that transcends time and civilization. Rooted in the Eastern philosophy that all things possess spirit, it conveys a cosmic order shaped by supernatural forces. It reflects on how civilization emerged from nature, invites reflection on the spiritual rupture between humanity and the natural world, and offers a sensory and emotional entry point for reconstructing that connection. Created by: @cynara_lynn / @lynn_art1001 #outernet #royalcollegeofart #digitaldirection #outernetlondon #newmediaart #rca2025 #immersiveart #digitalart #immersiveexhibition

CLOSER, YET SO FAR “No man is an island,” wrote John Donne, yet in today‘s hyper-connected world, many of us are drifting further apart under the illusion of closeness. While digital technologies have enabled unprecedented forms of connection, they have also quietly reshaped how we relate to ourselves and to others. Sherry Turkle captures this contradiction in Alone Together (2011): “We are connected, but alone.” In this environment, virtual networks simulate intimacy but often leave us feeling emotionally unsatisfied and isolated. This project is a critical exploration of the psychological and emotional consequences of online social networking. Set in a multi-sensory virtual space, it invites the audience to reflect on the fragility of digital bonds, the longing for connection and the underlying emptiness that often follows online interactions. Using the metaphor of the island, the project visualises how each person inhabits a private emotional territory, separated not by physical distance but by the limitations of screen-based communication. Exhibition: 31 July, 6 PM BST Location: NOW Building, @outernetglobal Part of: @royalcollegeofart ’s RCA Festival of Communication @rcasoc Project Credits: Creative Direction: Huiyu Yuan @vickieyuen2000 3D Animation: Cynithia Meng @cynthiam0101 3D Modeling: Sandra Li @sanddra_liii Sound: ChunS!ut @immachunslut & Zitong Li @jellyeeee #digitalart #3dmodel #immersiveart #digital #artwork #socialnetworking #emptiness #multiscreen #blender #visualart #visualstorytelling

%The Rift of the Sun Chaser🧑‍🚀 📍 Outernet Now Building, London @outernetglobal 📅 Opening: July 31st Proud to be part of the Digital Direction programme’s graduate showcase at the Royal College of Art. @rca_digitaldirection @royalcollegeofart Join us as we explore the future of storytelling through immersive media, critical narratives, and experimental design. “The Rift of the Sun-chaser” explores how technology silently reshapes our stories and sense of self. Like the Sun-Chaser, we are trapped in myths we no longer recognize, in a world ruled by invisible code. Across four chapters, he begins to lose himself, becoming part of a legend the machine keeps rewriting—a metaphor for our growing faith in algorithms and shifting ideologies. @dear_junooo @yt1041729901 #rca #digital #outernetglobal #outernetlondon #exbitionart