Traces
project overview
Traces is a WebVR narrative experience that explores the immigrant journey through a "metaphorical memory box," designed to foster empathy and awareness around displacement and belonging. The project was selected as an MIT Reality Hack 2024 Finalist and was later showcased as part of the XR Playground at AWE 2025.
Traces is a WebVR narrative experience that explores the immigrant journey through a "metaphorical memory box," designed to foster empathy and awareness around displacement and belonging. The project was selected as an MIT Reality Hack 2024 Finalist and was later showcased as part of the XR Playground at AWE 2025.
project type
Immersive Experience
year
2023
my role
Art director
client
MIT Reality Hack
process
Serving as Art Director and World Builder during a 2.5-day hackathon, I established a cohesive visual language that balanced emotional weight with technical constraints. To ensure accessibility across headsets, the project was built on A-Frame WebVR. I led the environment design and look development, creating a fractured "memory palace" aesthetic where minimal lighting and low-poly assets guided the player through emotional story beats without breaking immersion.
Serving as Art Director and World Builder during a 2.5-day hackathon, I established a cohesive visual language that balanced emotional weight with technical constraints. To ensure accessibility across headsets, the project was built on A-Frame WebVR. I led the environment design and look development, creating a fractured "memory palace" aesthetic where minimal lighting and low-poly assets guided the player through emotional story beats without breaking immersion.
Serving as Art Director and World Builder during a 2.5-day hackathon, I established a cohesive visual language that balanced emotional weight with technical constraints. To ensure accessibility across headsets, the project was built on A-Frame WebVR. I led the environment design and look development, creating a fractured "memory palace" aesthetic where minimal lighting and low-poly assets guided the player through emotional story beats without breaking immersion.
key contributions
Art Direction: Defined a minimal, monochrome aesthetic with strategic spotlighting to ensure visual impact and legibility within a compressed timeline, allowing color-popped "hero assets" to drive the narrative.
Worldbuilding & Spatial Design: Designed eight unique, fractured environments—from domestic bedrooms to skateparks—arranged on an infinite plane to function like theatrical sets, using lighting cues to seamlessly guide players between memories without disruptive scene loading.
Technical Asset Pipeline: Created and optimized stylized low-poly assets in Blender for A-Frame implementation, validating scale and spatial quality in Bezi to ensure performance on the web without sacrificing visual fidelity.
Collaborative Leadership: Directed the visual vision within a cross-functional team of storytellers, developers, and designers, trusting in specialized roles to deliver a polished, emotionally resonant prototype in under 72 hours.
Art Direction: Defined a minimal, monochrome aesthetic with strategic spotlighting to ensure visual impact and legibility within a compressed timeline, allowing color-popped "hero assets" to drive the narrative.
Worldbuilding & Spatial Design: Designed eight unique, fractured environments—from domestic bedrooms to skateparks—arranged on an infinite plane to function like theatrical sets, using lighting cues to seamlessly guide players between memories without disruptive scene loading.
Technical Asset Pipeline: Created and optimized stylized low-poly assets in Blender for A-Frame implementation, validating scale and spatial quality in Bezi to ensure performance on the web without sacrificing visual fidelity.
Collaborative Leadership: Directed the visual vision within a cross-functional team of storytellers, developers, and designers, trusting in specialized roles to deliver a polished, emotionally resonant prototype in under 72 hours.
Art Direction: Defined a minimal, monochrome aesthetic with strategic spotlighting to ensure visual impact and legibility within a compressed timeline, allowing color-popped "hero assets" to drive the narrative.
Worldbuilding & Spatial Design: Designed eight unique, fractured environments—from domestic bedrooms to skateparks—arranged on an infinite plane to function like theatrical sets, using lighting cues to seamlessly guide players between memories without disruptive scene loading.
Technical Asset Pipeline: Created and optimized stylized low-poly assets in Blender for A-Frame implementation, validating scale and spatial quality in Bezi to ensure performance on the web without sacrificing visual fidelity.
Collaborative Leadership: Directed the visual vision within a cross-functional team of storytellers, developers, and designers, trusting in specialized roles to deliver a polished, emotionally resonant prototype in under 72 hours.
