P008 → Constructed Sanctuaries
Concept
These digital environments propose tranquility as a constructed experience, questioning whether serenity can exist independently of natural authenticity. Each sanctuary operates as a thought experiment: if we can synthesize the visual and atmospheric conditions associated with peace - golden hour light, expansive landscapes, minimal human presence - does the artificiality of their origin diminish their capacity to provide genuine refuge?
The work develops on what philosopher Roger Scruton called "aesthetic emotion", suggesting that our response to beauty and calm may be more about formal relationships than material truth. By placing solitary furniture in impossible landscapes, these scenes become portraits of contemporary isolation - the desire to retreat from hyperconnectivity into spaces of radical simplicity.
The cycling between day and night, the placement of a single chair facing an oversized moon, the architectural fragments that suggest shelter without enclosure: these are the components of an emotional grammar. The sanctuaries exist in that peculiar digital realm where everything is perfectly controlled yet nothing is tangible, raising questions about whether peace is something we find in the world or something we project onto it.
Notes
This project investigates the aestheticization of solitude in contemporary visual culture - how platforms and media have trained us to recognize certain configurations of light, space, and minimalism as inherently "peaceful." By creating hyper-designed environments that fulfill every visual criterion of tranquility, the work asks whether we've outsourced our capacity for calm to curated aesthetics. The 360-degree functionality and day-night cycles weren't merely technical features but conceptual tools: the ability to exist within these spaces, to watch time pass in them, reveals how deeply we've internalized the connection between visual harmony and psychological states. The intention is not to critique this relationship but to examine it - to create genuinely beautiful spaces while simultaneously questioning why they feel beautiful.
Context
Developed as an interactive digital installation exploring the intersection of virtual environments and psychological space. The work was created in Berlin as part of ongoing research into how digital tools can generate experiences of contemplation and refuge. The project utilizes real-time rendering to allow viewers to navigate and inhabit these spaces, transforming passive observation into embodied experience.