Son to Sun 孙噫阳
Experimental Animation ｜China；Estonia
“你将经历一场象的葬礼，与图像重生的仪式。“
很久很久以前 有一个国王
她收藏了一头大象
但是国王不相信这是一头大象
于是她找到了五个盲人
第一个盲人摸了摸了大象的鼻子
第二个盲人摸了摸了大象的眼睛
第三个盲人摸了摸大象耳朵
第四个盲人摸了摸大象的尾巴
第五个盲人摸了摸大象的脚
五个盲人各自摸了大象后 一起告诉了国王 这个世界的真相
INTRO
As a reborning animal，you are going to navigate a nesting doll in a cyclical adventure – a rite of passage in between image and Imagery.
As an unplaying game ，it combines “Elephant象” from Chinese Yijing and Liminal Space theory by animated childish things.
Be part of it , the king is waiting for blind people to tell her the truths of the world.
Welcome to the elephant’s funeral
Welcome to the World of Imagery .
Once upon the time
There was a king.
She had an elephant.
But the king did not believe that it was an elephant,
So she find five blind men.
The first blind man touched the elephant’s trunk. The second blind man touched the elephant’s eyes. The third blind man touched the elephant’s ears. The fourth blind man touchs the elephant’s tail. The fifth blind man touchs the elephant’s feet.
After each of the them has touched the elephant.
Together, They told the king
The truth of the world.
SYNOPSIS
Son to Sun is an experimental animation（screensaver） combine with digital puppetry interactive game，hybridizing AI-generated visuals with 3D-scanned antique toys of doll and elephants.
Through the recycling life of an elephant with the blind man and elephant fable, it interrogates image cognition crises in the technological singularity era. This project try to construct a liminal space in between Image（elephant） and imagery（Idoll） in contemporary， challenging material/immaterial/non-material boundaries as a philosophical artistic research project interrogating the ontology of image in the algorithmic age.
简介
《Son to Sun》这一艺术研究项目是融合AI图像与3D扫描古董玩具的实验动画与交互偶象游戏，通过大象的轮回重生与盲人寓言的超现实叙事，试图构建一个介于象与像之间的阈限空间，探讨奇点时代下关于（物质/非物质/无物质）图像的本体论。
Trailer ｜6mins30 secs｜color｜China；Estonia
Game video
Credit
导演 Director：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
动画 Animation：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
游戏Game：Taavi Varm 孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
合成 Composite：孙逸阳 Yiyang Sun
音乐 Music&Sound：Sava Plukhooii
纪录 Documentary：YuQing Jiang
Statement
“Son to Sun” is an experimental animation that combines AI-generated imagery and 3D scans of antique toys with the game mechanics of Yijing (Book of Changes) hexagrams. This project explores humanity’s crisis of image cognition in the era of technological singularity, using the ancient fable The Blind Men and the Elephant as a framework. Set in a surreal liminal space constructed from 3D scans of Soviet-era toys, children’s objects, and a Soviet amusement park, the film blends material and immaterial imagery—represented by an animated elephant—to question how we understand images in an age of ex nihilo creation under Animism.
The narrative unfolds in a fractured digital cosmos where reality and illusion blur. Governed by Yijing hexagrams, a child-animal hybrid protagonist navigates nested worlds where material puppets collide with immaterial AI-generated phantoms. A skeptical queen commands five blind seers to decipher the “truth” of her elusive elephant—a quantum entity oscillating between tangible puppetry and AI hallucinations. Their conflicting interpretations, drawing from Eastern divination, Western surrealism, and Gen-Z absurdity, reveal not a singular truth but a kaleidoscope of cognitive dissonance.
Central to the project is the concept of chirality—mirror-symmetry without superimposition, like left and right hands. This idea reflects the relationship between AI-generated images, video game characters, and the real world. While they may appear similar (e.g., avatars resembling humans), they stem from independent systems: the real world relies on optical indexing of physical objects, while digital images are algorithmically generated, detached from physical materiality. This “non-superimposable mirroring” suggests digital images are not mere replicas but self-sufficient virtual existences. The film raises the question: Can immaterial images and video game characters possess their own agency? This is embodied by the elephant, a symbol of duality, challenging the boundaries between material and immaterial, real and virtual.
The project merges Taoist Xiangwang (“formless images”) with critiques of techno-acceleration. Its “unplaying game” structure—where viewers toggle between passive watching and interactive rule-breaking—mirrors Gen-Z’s navigation of algorithmic alienation. The haunting score blends Animism with AI-generated synths, while the visuals oscillate between Weirdcore glitchscapes and the tactile melancholy of handmade puppets.
As a PhD artistic research project, Son to Sun interrogates how immaterial images—AI-generated or quantum data—destabilize humanity’s grasp on reality. It serves as a ritual for the singularity era, urging a re-enchantment of cognition before the elephant (象/Image) vanishes. Through its layered narrative and innovative use of technology, the project challenges viewers to confront the evolving nature of perception, truth, and existence in a world shaped by AI and digital abstraction. By exploring the chirality of images and objects, Son to Sun invites us to reconsider the agency of the virtual and the boundaries of reality itself.
Runtime: 70-80 mins
Format: Digital Puppetry + 3D Animation + Interactive Game Documentary
Conceptual Framework
Son to Sun emerges from my predoctoral research at the Estonian Academy of Arts, interrogating the ontology of images in liminal spaces—thresholds where materiality (Antique toys) collides with immateriality (AI, blockchain). Drawing from Eastern philosophy (Daoist Wu 无, Buddhist Śūnyatā) and Western media theory (Kittler, Žižek), the film deconstructs the fable Blind Men and the Elephant into a critique of humanity’s cognitive crisis in the age of AI.
My film game rule system
https://yiyangsun.com/gamegame/
Core Themes:
1.Chirality of Images: Immateriality vs. Material Index
Digital images (AI-generated content, virtual avatars) exhibit a “chiral” relationship with reality: mirror-like yet ontologically distinct. The film’s quantum elephant—simultaneously a Yijing divination symbol (Xiang 象) and an AI-generated Idoll—embodies this paradox. It flickers between handmade puppets and algorithmic phantoms, challenging Western art history’s material fetish while reincarnating Daoist Xiangwang (“image without form”) as a digital-age survival tactic.
2.Liminality as Cognitive Playground
Set in a mental space amusement park—a frozen “liminal space” in Victor Turner’s terms—the film’s nested worlds dissolve norms of time and causality. “Unplaying” the Game
Sun to Son invites viewers to “unplay” by disrupting its own logic. This interactive structure, blending passive viewing with participatory sabotage, critiques algorithmic control through Gen-Z’s subversive tactics: meme culture, absurdist humor, and collective trance.
Artistic Methodology
1.Endogenous Image Generation
Inspired by sensory deprivation and ritualistic practices (e.g., collective trembling, breathwork), the film explores how endogenous images—self-generated visuals without external stimuli—emerge from altered states. This aligns with the Yijing’s symbolic thinking: images as autonomous systems, divorced from material anchors.
Material Craft: Puppets and sets were crafted using photoscanned Soviet toys and my own handmade toys, reanimated via photogrammetry.
2.Immaterial Constructs: AI models trained on (AI-dolls), haunting the protagonist as digital ghosts.
3.Cross-Cultural Symbolism
Eastern Metaphysics: The elephant (Xiang 象) operates as a Yijing divination tool and quantum computing metaphor. Tartu’s obsidian caves, etched with hexagrams, clash with Blade Runner-esque holograms.
Western Critique: Žižek’s “ideological sublime” and Kittler’s media archaeology frame the queen’s algorithmic dystopia.
Impact & Audience
Academia: Contributes to post-human aesthetics and cross-cultural media archaeology, bridging Eastern Wuwei (non-action) and Western techno-critique.
Gen-Z: The “unplaying game” format and Weirdcore glitch aesthetics resonate with digital natives grappling with identity in algorithmic limbo.
Son to Sun is not a film but a ritual—one that asks: In a world where AI births images from void, can we re-learn to see? By fusing new materialism and animism , it offers a survival manual for the singularity: play the game, break the rules, and let the elephant (象/Image) remain ungraspable.