Today we’d like to introduce you to Nix Liu Xin.
Hi Nix, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
During my childhood, I was captivated every week by watching various films on the computer or through DVDs, particularly blockbuster films with special effects by directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. What intrigued me the most were the behind-the-scenes features. The physical set models, props, cameras, lighting, smoke, and explosive effects had a magical quality, creating an atmosphere where the magic happens on the set. The film set felt like a dream factory to me. It was during my upbringing that I knew I would someday tell stories, create experiences, and build dreams in some way. And now, this magical way is realized through multimedia and multisensory immersive storytelling experiences.
Later on, I pursued architecture at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom and the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in the United States. These studies sparked my interest in creating experiences through spatial design and shaped my design logic and aesthetic foundation centered around constructing the built environment. Subsequently, I pursued media arts and technology at Harvard and MIT, where I explored how different disciplines such as AI, mechanics, biology, engineering, robotics, and expressive media intertwine to create future-oriented interactive and immersive artistic experiences.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Born and raised in a small city in central-western China and later studying, working, and living in the UK, the western and eastern parts of the United States, I can only say that I am incredibly fortunate, but it has never been easy. Many times, I faced the dilemma of whether there would be opportunities for what I wanted to do and whether there would be sufficient resources to support those aspirations. Additionally, I pondered how to make the voice of an Eastern creator heard in Western society and how to ensure that my work would be seen and embraced by a broader audience. Fortunately, I had the experience of living in the most rural areas along the Yellow River in China, which has provided me with abundant memories and cultural insights that many people around me haven’t had the opportunity to experience. As a result, the vertical and horizontal scope of my life experiences is quite vast.
Throughout this journey, I found the most valuable thing was repeatedly asking myself what I am interested in and, more importantly, what I am not interested in. The key to overcoming challenges on this path is knowing what I want to do, what I excel at, and wholeheartedly pursuing it without hesitation.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I believe in the concept of a creator’s multiple identities, where our various identities nest within each other like Matryoshka dolls. As a creator of multi-media experiential art, my diverse range of identities encompasses being a director, architect, designer, sound artist, electronic technician, as well as a producer, project manager, and bookkeeper. However, my primary roles can be defined as director and designer. As a designer, I envision future-facing environments, objects, and characters, while as a director, I meticulously arrange elements within a timeline to present them in a specific manner, regardless of the medium—be it film, AR, VR, installations, or others. By creating fictional worlds and combining static designs with dynamic timelines, we can establish emotional connections to concepts and challenges that we may encounter in the future.
I am the founder of Play.Work studios, where we collaborate with top brands and organizations, utilizing emerging mediums and technologies such as motion visual arts, architecture, extended reality, 3D scanning, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Our creativity centers around the fusion of physical and digital realities, blending fluid forms, movements, visual effects, colors, and sounds at the intersection of the real and virtual worlds. Alongside the creative studio, I am also a co-founder of HarvardXR, a non-profit organization at Harvard. We recently hosted the inaugural conference in 2023, providing a platform for artists, students, researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs to discuss how extended reality (XR) is shaping the future across various industries.
One of my recent works is Illusory Iceberg, a fictive immersive experience located at Gund Hall, Harvard University. This design fiction serves as a speculative story and an allegory of the Ship of Theseus, symbolizing the replacement of the world’s last iceberg with plastic waste. It conveys a contrast between the ephemeral and the permanent, the fragile and the solid. Some other notable works include “Follow the Cyborg,” a mixed-reality music video for Korean-American singer Miss Grit; “At Mosp Here,” Mercedes-Benz’s virtual launch event, marking the first use of 4D scanning (volumetric video) technology in music videos and commercials in China; “Runway 2.0” for Burberry, a CGI film featuring musician Victor Ma and virtual dancers in a summer pool party setting; and the “Phygital Supermarket Trilogy,” exploring the diverse expressions of everyday objects, showcased on Nowness and recipient of the CGarchitect 3D Awards.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I am constantly enthusiastic about collaborating with individuals from diverse backgrounds and possessing various skills. I firmly believe that creativity thrives through collaboration. As exemplified by the name of our studio, Play.Work, I believe that what something is becomes less important than whether it is playful or not. I work with a group of interdisciplinary studio members, including directors, designers, architects, musicians, engineers, programmers, etc., which can be flexibly combined according to project needs. If you possess a fascinating idea and would like to collaborate, feel free to contact me on Instagram @nixliuxin or via email at [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Website: liuxin.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nixliuxin/
- Other: https://www.play.work/
Image Credits
Nix Liu Xin
