The team from ULTRACOMBOS was invited by Cogitoimage International Co., Ltd. to participate in the creation of a theme at the Discovery Pavilion in the Houli Forest Expo Site of the 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition. The concept design of the Discovery Pavilion is “Seeing Half the Earth in Taichung,” narrating the ecological journey from 0 to 3886 meters above sea level along Dajia River.

Taiwan is an island located in both tropical and subtropical regions. Starting at sea level at Gaomei Wetlands in Taichung, which is an administrative district in Taiwan, one can travel along the Dajia River to the highest altitude at Snow Mountain. The difference in altitude is almost 4,000 meters, and, thus, creates the ecological diversity in this small place. 0-3886 has become the theme of the narrative in this project. We hope, through different scales and angles, to create a theater that leads the audience to re-”discover” the ingenuity and beauty of creation through the perspective of living creatures.

0-3886 is split into 5 areas of different altitude ranges throughout the pavilion, and in response to the Dajia river, we had the theme of “water” running through the different areas. We selected five characters with the radical “water” representing the various areas, which are defined, respectively, as Marshy Land, Everglade, Trickle, Mountain Stream, and Limpid, and these were then converted into visual connotations. The images on the walls and the floors all switch according to this theme. In order to enhance the experience of the continuous rising of the altitude, a few methods are used in the design, such as “the overall color temperature is changed from warm to cool,” as an attempt to visually display the change in body temperature. The images “start from the bottom of the ocean and end in the universe” and “organisms from different altitude appear one after another,” etc.

Discover rich vitality at the junction of the ocean and river

Understand the relationship between water, plants, and people, and humanistic development

Area where mountain and forest animals often appear, coexist with living creatures

Diverse and prosperous plant species

The place with the most rainfall in the mountain area

In addition to matching the curatorial context of the venue, "High-degree Immersion and Meaningful Afterthoughts" are the design missions that we set; therefore, how to delicately handle "perception" has become the most important task.

The three major items dealing with perception are the eyes, ears, and body. For the eyes, films are undoubtedly a great narrative form. After understanding the overall concept, the team we cooperated with from Moonshine Studio perfectly produced a fascinating film by using fantasy-like visual styles and smooth rhythms, which is then projected onto an 18-meter wide curved surface. For the ears, Lim Giong, a well-known sound worker, used the natural soundscape as a basis and carried out the formation of the sounds in the entire space in coordination with the content of the film. For the body, we created a computational visual with real-time interaction on the floor, so the position and movement of the audience become part of the picture.

Through the combination of the aforementioned forms, an immersive space that fully covers all types of senses is completed.