HEI QIANG

















 




EMBERS ECHO

Keywords: VR Game; Population Migration; Personal Memory; Collective Memory.

In the mass migration caused by coal mining subsidence, my personal frequent relocations and the loss of memories intertwine. This is not just my personal story, but also the collective memory experienced by our community. To capture these scattered memory fragments, I created an autobiographical VR game. It starts with my personal memories and helps this large group to revisit and reshape the abstract memories of that past era in our minds.





Research




2008
2010
2023
Between 2008 and 2010, all self-built houses on the mountains in the coal mining area were demolished, and nearly 300,000 people from the surrounding coal mines were relocated to the Heng'an New District, south of Datong. Using geographic information provided by Google Maps, I created a proportionally restored coal mine scene. This includes my childhood home, the homes of relatives who lived on the mountain, and the coal mine office building where my father worked. Based on field research, I transformed my memories into abstract shapes scattered throughout the space.