Cartographies of Control examines cultural erasure under algorithmic governance in East Turkistan by foregrounding Uyghur culture, memory, and history. Originally conceived as an ephemeral, immersive pavilion at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, the project unfolds as a participatory, game-based dinner where visitors gradually encounter how algorithmic systems map, classify, and control bodies, territory, and identity. Translating this pavilion into a virtual environment expands its audience and opens new conceptual possibilities for architecture. The digital medium allows real-time experimentation, rapid alteration, and the removal of physical constraints, shifting the focus from technical precision of form to the crafting of interior atmospheres, details, and experiential narratives. Freed from the necessity of fixed circulation or conventional program, the virtual space becomes a field for exploring speculative materiality and meta-materials while amplifying the project’s political message through a scalable, accessible platform. By digitizing the experience, the work transforms architecture into a distributed medium of awareness, while future explorations will investigate the interrelation between threads in a textile weave and wireframe of a digital mesh.

CONCEPT & INSPIRATION

researching algorithmic governance and cultural erasure in East Turkistan;

game dynamics;

game aesthetics;

game player data tracking mechanics;

FINAL OUTCOME

CREATIVE & LEARNING PROCESS

simplifying sketchup model to import with datasmith plugin

POSSIBILITIES AND ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUAL PARADIGM

NEXT STEPS

implementing character design, gameplay symphonies and morphing textile patterns

implementing real time game data tracking mechanism

exploring meta-materiality by implementing morphing patterns inspire by handwoven silk, ‘etles’