Qingming: A VR Experience (Vanish)

Qingming: A VR Experience (Vanish)

Qingming is a festival in which Chinese pay homage to their deceased loved ones, it is sometimes also called Tomb Sweeping Day and this celebration is held annually.

This VR experience was created to educate young adults about the traditions and procedures of Qingming and also allowing young adults from other races and cultures to experience first hand how Qingming is like.
User can expect to experience the future of Qingming where we can send digital memories to the deceased as an offering due to the scarcity of land and global warming.

Immerse in the role of a son of a Chinese Singaporean family reminiscing his childhood memories from the early 2000s, when his father was still around. Just as he was looking through his old doodles, his mother instructs him to light up joss sticks for his late father. 

Deployment:
ART SCIENCE MUSEUM "THE WORLD AROUND THE CORNER" EXHIBITION
5-8 December 2019

The World Around The Corner looks at the speculative futures of Singapore through the literary lens. Dystopias, utopias and the many evolutions — read about the changes that could be, use technologies that would change the way we live and question ideas of the future.

VR Qingming was chosen among other projects by ASM to exhibit.
At least 500 visitors of different ages & ethnicities came & tried out the VR Qingming Simulator. 

This project was also published in the Chinese newspaper, Lianhe Zaobao, on the 20th May 2020 and the Malay newspaper, Berita Harian on 26th May 2020.

Snapshots from the VR scenes (from left to right):

The Living Room
Columbarium
Burning of incense paper

Pictures from the deployment in the Art Science Museum

Newspaper Feature (from left to right):

Lianhe Zaobao (20 May 2020)
Berita Harian (26 May 2020)

Design Documentation

Full and improved gameplay

Future Enhancements

Aside from allowing others to experience this culture, our project can take a step further by using this immersive VR Technology. We can simulate a Qingming that is customised to adapt to different families' context and memories. Families can now pay tribute and remembrance to loved ones without having to be at the actual columbaria and cemeteries. This concept is similar to delivering a video to pay tribute to someone who passed on.

We could also expand to other concepts & content. It could range from introducing other festivals from various religions or changing it to any topic.

Make impossible experiences possible with immersive VR Technology!

Team members and roles:
Irene - Design
Adawiyyah - Design
Chu Ning - UX/UI
Farzanah - Coder