vio zhu
New York - Tokyo
Creative Technology
1/2 of HYZ Studio
Email
@vio.zhu
LinkedIn
Museum
Europe -
Palais des Beaux Arts
Lille
Weimar City Castle
US -
Artechouse NYC
New York Academy of Science
Dali Museum
Brand
LVMH, Coach, Cadillac, Microsoft
Festival
Genius Loci Weimar, Germany
Video Mapping Festival, France
Artist Collaboration
DJ Rebolledo, ASUKA, YY, HACOIRI, Kylie
Manami Sakamoto, Demsky
The Silent Carnival - Faust Themed
Interative Architecture Projection Mapping
@ Weimar City Castle, Weimar, Germany
September 2025
Performance, Visual Arts
Credit
Creative: Lois He
Technical and VFX: Vio Zhu
This seven-minute projection mapping transforms the building façade into a dramatic stage where Goethe’s Faust comes alive. Rather than abstract visuals, it follows a clear narrative—first animating Faust and Gretchen’s tragic encounter across windows and columns, then turning inward to highlight the very site of Goethe’s pivotal decision. Rendered in a bold red-and-black woodcut style, the piece echoes the printmaking of Goethe’s era while heightening Faust’s passion and moral darkness, ensuring striking clarity on the architecture. At the end of the story, a voting QR code invites the audience to scan and enter a web application to choose the ending. The majority decision will determine how the projection concludes in real time.
Credit
Creative Direction, Storyboard, Art Direction, Music Direction: Lois He
Web App Development, Loggigng Analysis, Media Server Integration, TouchDesigner and Unreal Engine VFX: Vio Zhu
AI Video Generation: Lois He , Vio Zhu
Technical Details
To enable real-time interactivity, I developed a cloud-hosted web application where each audience member can scan a QR code to vote for the ending of the projection. When the QR code is displayed at the conclusion of the narrative, the system allows 30 seconds for audience input. After this period, a Python plugin I programmed for the MXWendler media server sends a request to the web application’s server side to retrieve the aggregated votes. The script then clears the results for the current round and triggers the corresponding ending sequence in MXWendler based on the majority choice.
Since MXWendler was the organizer’s chosen media server, I self-learned how to work with it in a short timeframe and extended its functionality by writing a custom Python plugin, enabling the projection to achieve its interactive, audience-driven nature.
Animation Production
The animation was developed through a hybrid AI–human workflow. We began by using MidJourney and ChatGPT-based image generation to create concept art and storyboards, establishing the overall style and narrative direction. From there, we generated numerous start and end frames to lock in the aesthetic language and guide the animation approach. Individual animation segments were then produced with various video-generation AI tools.
To refine and integrate these outputs, we used TouchDesigner and Unreal Engine to add post-production visual effects, enhancing the AI-generated material with dynamic motion and atmosphere. Finally, Adobe Premiere was used to edit, smooth transitions, and shape the animation into a spatial composition—aligning the visual flow with the architecture’s form and creating a seamless dialogue between projection and building.
Voting Results Summary
We implemented a detailed logging system in our web application to track user behavior and participation across three festival days.
Over three festival days, the projection mapping was shown 44 times with 371 audience participants. Nearly half voted to save Gretchen, while others chose to side with the devil or leave the ending to fate. About 10% of voters required German-language support, with the rest comfortable in English. Participation rose significantly over the weekend, with total votes on days two and three increasing by 30% compared to day one.
Building Context
Exactly 250 years ago, in 1775, Goethe was summoned by Duke Carl August to his court in Weimar. To mark this memorable anniversary, the city of Weimar has dedicated its 2025 theme year to Goethe’s most famous literary work: Faust. In this drama, Goethe tells the story of the aging scholar Faust, who, in his pursuit of absolute fulfillment, turns to mysticism and magic and strikes a pact with Mephisto - only to be torn up between desire and moral decay.
At the Bastille, illuminated during Genius Loci Weimar 2025, the intersection between literature and reality becomes palpable. Here, the servant Johanna Catharina Höhn likely spent her final days in a prison cell - because the court official Goethe voted for her execution in 1783 for infanticide
This real-life case directly relates to the Gretchen Tragedy, the heart of Faust I. The pious Gretchen, seduced and driven to ruin by Faust, kills their child - this fate of the literary Gretchen is portrayed by Goethe as a moving tragedy. Yet towards the 'real' Gretchen, Johanna Catharina Höhn, the young Goethe pronounced nothing less than a death sentence.
Goethe’s Faust explores the paradox of human existence - the insatiable craving for fulfillment, the fragile boundaries of morality, the inescapability of guilt. These themes become tangible in the infamous Walpurgisnacht, where Faust, lost in a frenzy of intoxicated ecstasy, tries to escape human reason, only to be overtaken by tormenting remorse. In this surreal night of mystical beings and devilish pacts, Goethe unravels the dialectic of good and evil - embodied by the enigmatic Mephisto, who "eternally wills evil and eternally works good." This insight into moral ambiguity sharply contrasts with Goethe’s real-life clear-cut legal judgments.
The walls of the Bastille are more than mere backdrop: within their stones lies the question of personal guilt and societal responsibility; the intersection of good and evil. They force us to ask what would be if Gretchen’s and Höhn’s tragedies were not just historical anecdotes, but a mirror of our own time.