Portal: Another Path is a new 3 metre tall light installation that combines a strong forced perspective structure with projection mapping. The installation opens a doorway into a secret garden path hidden within the city, inviting audiences to pause along their everyday route and perceive the nature that exists within urban space from the perspective of tiny living beings. Visitors first see a glowing dynamic 2D image from the side. As they move around the structure and find the optimal viewing point, the image suddenly opens into a deep garden corridor with a strong 3D spatial illusion. As visitors move around the installation, the perceived depth and alignment of the image changes with their viewpoint, making the corridor feel like a magical tunnel with real spatial depth. Its appeal lies in its simple and direct form of interaction. The audience’s own movement becomes the trigger, and the installation turns “looking” into a feeling of “entering” The interaction is achieved through accessible, easy to understand bodily movement and visual perception, making the installation suitable for families and children to take part in, while also allowing groups to experience it together.

Zhiyan Cai is a digital and light artist based in London, working across projection mapping, holographic projection, public installation and 3D animation. Her practice explores cultural memory, mythology and contemporary technology through immersive moving image and light. Her commissions include Cody Dock’s permanent Portal: Cabinet of Curiosity No.2 and St James’s Piccadilly’s Changemaker commission Portal: Those Far Away. Her holographic projection work Zhongkui and audiovisual performance Nüwa Mends the Sky have been presented at LightSounds in London and Światłodźwięki in Poznań. She completed an artist residency at arebyte Digital Art Centre and developed her outdoor light practice through Light Up The North’s SPARK programme.