Aurora Leaping on Nerve Endings

'Aurora Leaping on Nerve Endings' is a site-specific light and shadow interactive installation. A giant curtain sways in synchronization with the sea surface of Quanzhou Harbor; faint lights hover, audio flickers, and scent and touch are linked to construct a perceptual trap.

Through light installations and Nanyin lyrics, the work slowly unfolds a fictional story set in a fishing village on the southeast coast of China: On a midsummer night, fishing trap lights illuminate the calm sea. A young girl gradually approaches the green light and eventually sinks underwater, developing synesthesia with non-biological entities. The trap lights in the story are products of both ancient wisdom and modern technology, revealing the deep connection between sensory mechanisms and media between humans and non-human life. The lights of thousands of fishing boats turn into green stars in satellite images, jokingly called 'man-made auroras.' This sight not only hints at the reality of ecological plunder but also forms an aesthetic trap within the perceptual system—squids are attracted by their phototactic instinct, and humans are similarly captured by the light of technology and images.

The installation translates this experience into a spatial one: green 'man-made aurora' images are projected onto mimetic rocks and giant transparent 'biological skins'; algorithmically simulated squid nerve pigment cells discharge abnormally, creating dynamic flickers. The soft fabric breathes slowly driven by motors, attached with the seductive scent of ylang-ylang, inviting viewers to approach and touch like a giant creature, echoing the distant sea surface and moonlight.