Tongktongktong：怀旧未来的数字灵性
Tongktongktong: Digital Spirituality of a Nostalgic Future
Writer: Sylvia Tan
Date: 18/09/2025
Keywords: audio-visual performance / cross-media / surreal imagination / game-based aesthetics / cosmic mysticism
Date: 18/09/2025
Keywords: audio-visual performance / cross-media / surreal imagination / game-based aesthetics / cosmic mysticism
Tongktongktong (Yuehan Yang)’s practice weaves together retro aesthetics, digital illusion, and spiritual experience. Through immersive audio-visual performances and experimental game-based imagery, Tongktongktong sketches a mediated space of spiritual perception—where emotions, memories, and life flow between reality and fantasy, transforming digital technology into a philosophical field of affect and vitality.
Tongktongktong, Untitled, 2023, Cinema 4D. Image courtesy of the artist
从木板油画、平面作品、动画至视听项目，Tongktongktong 的创作经验源于跨媒介的探索，并在数字实践中转化为独特的视觉语汇。在 VJ 现场视听项目[1]《Digital Flow Years》中，艺术家重访 TikTok AI 名人、“QQ秀”角色舞蹈、古早 MV、短视频等中国 Y2K 与网络亚文化的图像记忆，通过物理模拟、光照、渲染等技术实验，以明亮的高饱和色彩和动态镜头营造梦幻而草根的流动氛围，在超现实的实时场景中重塑互联网怀旧美学。
From wood-panel painting, still images, and animation to audio-visual projects, Tongktongktong’s artistic experience emerges from cross-media exploration and has gradually crystallised into a distinct digital visual vocabulary. In the VJ[1]project Digital Flow Years, Tongktongktong revisits images from Chinese Y2K and internet subcultures—TikTok AI celebrity avatars, “QQ Show” character dances, early music videos, and short videos. Using physical simulation, lighting, and rendering, she creates a dreamy yet grassroots atmosphere of flow with high-saturation colours and dynamic camera work, reviving the retro aesthetics of the early internet through surreal environments.
[1] VJ为影像骑师 (Video Jockey) 的缩写，是一种现场视觉表演艺术实践，包括通过技术中介为观众实时创作或操纵图像，并与音乐同步。
[1] VJ stands for Video Jockey, a form of live visual performance practice involving real-time creation or manipulation of images through technological mediation, synchronised with music.
Tongktongktong and XY-1002 (DJ), Digital Flow Years, 2024, Unreal Engine. “It’s Your Birthday!”, Avalon Café, London, 2024. Image courtesy of the artists.
《Digital Flow Years》 作为 Tongktongktong 为艺术家 XY-1002 的 DJ set 创作的视听项目于 Avalon Café 首次呈现，于金史密斯 (Goldsmiths)「in律」CONTEMPERAMENT 音乐节中再次演出，如音乐节旨在以新律制实现东亚文化、身份及多媒体艺术的重新诠释、协调与转化，艺术家捕捉质感与节奏的稍纵即逝，以反思性怀旧 (reflective nostalgia) 的疏离化异议重组早期互联网怀旧美学的记忆碎片。
Originally created for XY-1002’s DJ set at Avalon Café, Digital Flow Years was later performed at Goldsmiths’ “in律” CONTEMPERAMENT music festival. As the event sought to reinterpret, reconcile, and transform East Asian culture, identity, and multimedia art through new tonalities, Tongktongktong seized fleeting textures and rhythms, reassembling fragments of early internet memory through “reflective nostalgia,” producing an alienated yet critical dissent from within retro aesthetics.
Tongktongktong, Fantasy Dreamscape, 2024, Unreal Engine. Rendering still, image courtesy of the artist
这一美学倾向在 Tongktongktong 的创作中拓展出以游戏为技术路径的怀旧幻境与数字灵性。在《Fantasy Dreamscape》中艺术家以 PlayStation 1+2 为代表的千禧年代电子游戏怀旧美学为背景，通过发光十字架、体积光和丁达尔效应勾勒出迷离而神秘的视觉仪式感，营造超现实想象与神性交织的感官幻境。
This aesthetic tendency expands in Tongktongktong’s work into nostalgic dreamscapes and digital spirituality through video game grammar. In Fantasy Dreamscape, Tongktongktong evokes the retro aesthetics of millennial-era gaming, particularly PlayStation 1 and 2, to stage a mysterious visual ritual. Glowing crosses, volumetric light, and Tyndall scattering form an ethereal atmosphere where surreal imagination intersects with a sense of the divine.
Tongktongktong and Yuna, Snake Run, 2025, audio-visual performance. Rendering still, image courtesy of the artists
对游戏主题的视觉探索逐渐转为运用互动式的游戏机制构筑生命与灵性的反思空间，成为 Tongktongktong 重要的实践方法。Tongktongktong 与声音艺术家 Yuna 阿尘合作的现场视听表演《小蛇快跑》 (Snake Run) 在伦敦 Somers Gallery、New River Studios 及广州南碱 (Alkaline) 多次呈现，作品基于游戏，玩家在其中操控蛇形化身，穿越天堂、大地、地狱与再生天堂关卡的的四重循环。游戏的规则与结构本身成为论证方法，即 “程序性修辞” (procedural rhetoric)：无限延展的轨道象征无尽的欲望循环；小蛇跳跃、滑行与冲刺在音频与视效响应间化作光与幻象，在交互体验中展开欲望、堕落与重生的寓言。
Tongktongktong’s exploration of game-based aesthetics evolves into using interactive game mechanics to construct spaces that reflect on life and spirituality, which becomes one of her central practices. Collaborating with sound artist Yuna, the live audio-visual performance Snake Run has been presented at Somers Gallery, New River Studios in London, and Alkaline in Guangzhou. Built with a game structure, players control a serpentine avatar navigating four symbolic stages—Paradise, Earth, Hell, and Rebirth. The rules and structures of the game act as an argumentative device, a “procedural rhetoric,” where the endless track signifies cycles of desire, while the snake’s jumps, slides, and dashes translate into light and illusion with audiovisual responses, unfolding an allegory of desire, downfall, and rebirth through interactive experience.
作品的创作过程及呈现方式以极度复杂的技术框架为基石：游戏基于 Unreal Engine 5 开发，结合程序化生成关卡与无限延伸的轨道设计。Niagara 粒子系统、TouchDesigner、TouchDiffusion 形成即时图像及视觉特效反馈；Reaper、MobMuplat、ducking、Metasound 系统实现音频随机采样和实时互动；iPhone OSC 集成允许跨设备联动……技术并非炫技，而是实现了感官及互动反馈的不可知性，并将其转化为一种哲学体验，一场穿越矛盾、创伤、顿悟与回归的迷幻精神之旅。
The work’s process and presentation rest upon an intricate technological framework. Built with Unreal Engine 5, it integrates programmed game levels and infinitely extending tracks. Niagara particle systems, TouchDesigner, and TouchDiffusion generate live images and visual effects feedback; Reaper, MobMuplat, ducking, and Metasound systems produce randomised audio sampling and real-time interaction; iPhone OSC integration enables cross-device coordination. Yet the complexity is never mere virtuosity. Technology here becomes a conduit for unpredictability in sensory and interactive feedback, transforming into a philosophical experience—a psychedelic journey across contradiction, trauma, revelation, and return.
Tongktongktong, Future History, 2024, Unreal Engine. Rendering still, image courtesy of the artist
亦如游戏视频作品《Future History》的理念延续：形态宛如大脑的虚拟行星 Kamu 象征着记忆与智慧，行星内部生长着受文明与科技驱动而生长的 Kata 树，在枝干生长即将戳破行星外膜的毁灭之际，文明延续面临一场抉择……这一临界瞬间转化为视觉与叙事的双重张力：光晕弥漫的虚拟氛围将空间笼罩于朦胧飘渺的超现实滤镜之下，行星外膜散射出神圣的包围感，也在幻境中暗示着文明边界的脆弱与可渗透性，同时叩问超越的可能。
This logic extends into the game-video work Future History. Inside a virtual planet named Kamu, whose brain-like morphology symbolises memory and intelligence, grows the Kata Tree, nourished by the advancement of technology and civilisation. As one of its branches threatens to pierce the planet’s outer membrane, destruction looms, and survival demands a choice. This critical moment becomes a double tension of vision and narrative. A haloed, otherworldly atmosphere saturates the space in surreal haze, while the translucent planetary membrane scatters light with a sacred aura—at once protective and fragile, suggesting the porosity of civilisational boundaries and the possibility of transcendence.
在叙事层面，艺术家通过游戏机制引入互动性。文本以角色对话框的形式呈现，AI 生成的诗性韵律将作品叙事置于逻辑与梦境间的模糊状态。文本中，“Kata”与“Kamu”的命名源自古老日本字符体系 Katakamuna，“Kata”象征有形物质，“Kamu”象征无形精神，“Na”则意为转化或传递，被认为是沟通物质与精神世界的媒介。AI 生成技术与神秘学文本的并置形成科技发展与自我毁灭悖论的语言学再现。
On the narrative level, the work incorporates interactivity through game mechanics. Dialogue unfolds via character text boxes, while AI-generated poetic language situates the story in an ambiguity between logic and dream. The terms Kata and Kamu derive from the esoteric Japanese script Katakamuna, where Kata denotes the material, Kamu the immaterial or spiritual, and Na signifies transformation or transmission—believed to mediate between matter and spirit. Juxtaposing AI generative techniques with mystical textual traditions, Future History enacts a linguistic allegory of the paradox between technological progress and self-destruction.
Tongktongktong, Future History, 2024, Unreal Engine. Rendering still, image courtesy of the artist
若《小蛇快跑》展示了欲望、幻象与重生的循环如何在游戏机制中被建构为程序性修辞的论证，《Future History》则拓展了这一逻辑：不仅在游戏规则与关卡设计中体现叙事，更通过 AI 生成的语言将程序本身作为叙事主体，技术流程直接构成了叙事核心。观众在选择与互动中步入一段关于灵性、毁灭与文明抉择的数字生态寓言，思考人类对“未来历史”的覆写，及其中的抉择与责任。
While Snake Run demonstrates how cycles of desire, illusion, and rebirth can be constructed through game mechanics as procedural rhetoric, Future History extends this logic: not only embedding narrative in rules and levels, but making the programme itself the narrative subject, with technological processes constituting the story’s core. Through choice and interaction, audiences enter a digital ecological fable of spirituality, destruction, and civilisational decision-making—meditating on how humanity rewrites “future history,” as well as the responsibilities entailed.
从 Y2K 网络文化的再访，到电子游戏美学与宇宙神秘主义的转译，再至游戏机制对灵性循环与科技文明的反思，Tongktongktong 以复杂的视觉、声音与互动技术构建怀旧美学、游戏交互与技术灵性交错的仪式空间，形成跨越感官与思想的生成性探索。在数字时代，新媒体实践如何面对祛魅世界的无比荒凉？在虚拟环境间构筑情感与灵知的精神体验，或为人类在技术文明中的生命和存在提供了新的实践与反思路径。
From revisiting Y2K internet culture, to translating video game aesthetics and cosmic mysticism, and to game mechanics as a reflection on spiritual cycles and technological contemplation, Tongktongktong constructs ritual spaces where nostalgia, interactivity, and techno-spirituality interweave. In these spaces, sensory experience and philosophical reflection converge into a generative exploration. In an age of disenchantment and digital acceleration, Tongktongktong’s practices suggest that the virtual may yet offer sites of emotional resonance and spiritual gnosis, opening new pathways for life and existence in a technological civilisation.
关于笔者
谭欣然，策展人及研究者，现工作生活于香港和上海。
About the Author
Sylvia Tan, curator and researcher. Currently based in Hong Kong and Shanghai.