Calculation Is Slow // Space Between Words Is Infinite is a speculative design project exploring possible forms of separation in future human–AI relationships. Rather than imagining technology only through efficiency or companionship, I looked at what might happen after a relationship has already formed: how people and non-human agents may grow apart, change each other, remain entangled, or separate without reaching a clear ending.

The project developed around two connected tensions: present and future, and virtual and physical. I used these relationships to build a performative framework in which graphic elements, projected characters, sound and human movement could influence one another, while still leaving space for uncertainty and interpretation.

I developed this idea through a series of command–action experiments, testing how one form of information could guide or trigger another. Visual experiments explored how drawn lines, geometric shapes and movement trajectories could act as commands for performers or projected characters. I also tested auditory commands, using sound as a cue for physical response. These experiments helped me understand that visual following created a more immediate and legible relationship between command and action, and it became the basis for the later film and performance system.

These experiments were translated into a two-screen moving-image system. The left screen uses abstract graphics to represent the present, while the right combines filmed environments with animated virtual characters representing the future. The two screens are visually dependent: geometric movement on one side appears to drive the trajectory of the virtual character on the other. Across three chapters, Grow, Love and View, the visual relationships develop through reflection, interchange and overlap.

The project then moved from screen-based storytelling into physical performance. Projection, scenography and improvised movement brought human performers and virtual characters into the same space. Without real-time motion capture, their apparent interaction was created through repeated adjustment of projection scale, timing and choreography, allowing physical and virtual bodies to meet, dance, embrace, argue and separate.

Audience participation extended this relationship further. Visitors received folded invitations containing hidden identities and movement instructions. Some remained observers, while others became Infin and entered the performance. By following and imitating one another’s movements, participants repeatedly shifted between giving a command and responding to one. The work therefore moved from representing separation to letting people experience dependency, imitation and change through their own bodies.

The final installation brought moving image, graphic design, performance and audience participation into a single spatial experience. For me, the project marked a shift from treating graphic design as a primarily static medium towards understanding it as something that can unfold through bodies, space, time and participation. It also became an early exploration of a question that continues to shape my work: how designed systems can structure interaction without fully determining what people think, feel or do.