Pastry Artist

Pastry Artist - Title
User Interface 1 in the Final APK
User Interface 2 in the Final APK
User Interface 3 in the Final APK
User Experience 1 -in the Final APK
User Experience 2 in the Final APK
Beginning User Interface in the Video
Sugar Cooking
Sugar Drawing Tests
Sketch about the Process of Making

Inspiration

Chinese Intangible Culture Heritage "Tang Hua" (meaning "Sugar Drawing").

What it does

Pastry Artist is an immersive art project that interprets intangible cultural heritage, Tanghua (Chinese Sugar Drawing), through embodied interaction and spatial dynamics. The project invites participants to engage with sugar, a physical, liquid material, through visual expression, gestural interaction, and spatial prompts, transforming the act of making into an experiential and participatory art-making process.

How we built it

The project emerged from an initial conceptual exploration of how immersive media could re-contextualise traditional art practices that rely on tactile, physical materials. Rather than approaching mixed reality as an instructional tool, the project focused on how spatial dynamics, embodied interaction, and visual expression could translate the gestures and rhythms of sugar drawing into an immersive experience. This approach aimed to create a light, playful, and creative encounter that supports cultural and artistic transmission through participation and sensory engagement. The project was developed collaboratively by an interdisciplinary team. Shujing Shen led the artistic vision, conceptual development, and cultural research as a visual and conceptual artist. Jiachen Zeng contributed to project coordination, animation, and video production, while Sowilo Xiong supported the technical implementation and interface design.

Challenges we ran into

One key challenge in the project is engaging with traditional tactile, fluid materials. The project treated these constraints as part of the creative process, focusing on how visual expression, performative interaction, and spatial dynamics could effectively communicate the intended experience and artistic concept. This approach allowed the project to articulate its core ideas while acknowledging the evolving nature of immersive media as an artistic medium.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The project successfully brought together artistic expression, food culture, and immersive technology to create a participatory way of engaging with traditional cultural heritage. By combining sugar drawing with XR experience, Pastry Artist offered a playful and reflective encounter with traditional art, allowing participants to experience the making process as both sensory and culturally meaningful. Through the immersive art journey, participants were able to create sugar drawings within the mixed-reality environment, reinforcing the project’s focus on process, gesture, and experiential engagement.

What we learned

The project put its focus toward experimental experience and emotional engagement, reframing the act of creation as an open, sensory, and exploratory process. By prioritising visual expression and tactile experience, immersive experience functioned as a medium for interpretation. The immersive experience embodied art-making, fostering emotional connections and reflective engagement in cultural heritage.

What's next for Pastry Artist

Future development of Pastry Artist will focus on building collaborations with museums and cultural institutions to situate the work within broader contexts of cultural interpretation and public engagement. Through partnerships with organisations working in the field of intangible cultural heritage, the project aims to create opportunities for audiences to encounter art practices within traditional cultural contexts through experience, interpretation, and embodied interaction.