kat pod

Rotating metallic mecha-like figure (torso up) with machine guns as arms. Song playing is "Makeup" by The Soft Pink Truth

ProtoBabe21 presents to you a duo of our finest deluxe chocolates to satiate your tastebuds’ fanciest, most exotic desires. Sampled from natural  ingredients and infused with the essence of third generation cosmic exoplanets, our flavors will blast you out of orbit. Take the hands of these sexy ProtoBabes and connect with your sensual, playful, otherworldly self. 

Founded in 2100, ProtoBabe21 came to life from humble beginnings on the west coast of planet 34r-th. With the dream to unite pleasure of all senses into one bite, we took to the stars and deep within ourselves to find our deepest fantasies. Fall more in love and learn more about our origins at www.protobabe21.xxx.

Exxxo: Luscious milk chocolate filled with spiced rum caramel, layered with a thin slice of mint and chili jelly for an extra kick.

Diviniti: Rich, deep dark chocolate with a raspberry vodka filling, sprinkled with sea salt gifted to us from the Galatic Ocean.

18+ content/21+flavors

Magazine advertisement for Protobabe 21 chocolates. Featured in later project UXOLIS MAG: Octavia.

Suspended above the abyss up by bridges. Inside carries the most magnificent collection of books and artifacts to ever exist...or so legend claims.

A pocketwatch given at birth imbued with spiritual and magical powers of the abyss that power the watch. Made from mined minerals of the abyss.

Cistercian numerals: 1s-->10s-->100s
3 hands for each set of numbers.

Metal double sided stamp handmade by local blacksmiths. Embellished with stones and gems found in the abyss.
The staff includes a pull out Octavian alphabet to English translation guide.
Can be worn as a necklace pendant or attached to any type of chain.

The original Octavia that inspired this project.

GATE TABLET TEXT:
The eternal void with secrets beyond the nave,
For when the heart breaks and the clock expires,
Revere the womb of nature and return to her grave.

In Octavia the faith of the people lie in the force not above, but below. The abyss is where their loyalties lie. 
To open the gates and enter the temple, a Euecleum is to be inserted below the lower tablet. Doing so will activate the internal mechanics of the doors, opening up to allow the visitor enter.

(2020)
Rendered in Maya.

Inspired by early 2000s toys, I imagined a scene where these toys would come to life. Playing into the build-your-own/customizable aspect of miniature toys, I imagined myself as a mad scientist obsessed with mashups and ultimate cuteness.

(2020)
Using a maximalist aesthetic to represent material and digital hoarding. The overwhelming of items that exist in material collections and digital archives pose as a comforting environment for me as I eat up feelings of nostalgia, curiosity, and arousal.

I used photogrammetry to create a

3D model of my childhood table and toys which I think littered with 3D modeled objects and figures (a few adapted form past projects). The main action follows a creature with my face as it wanders around this landscape.

MEDIA:
Agisoft Metashape
Vroid Studio
Maya
Zbrush
RunwayML
Adobe After Effects

(2020)
In this animated short, you follow Warby, a friendly two legged ball creature, as he ventures through 5 uniquely animated dimensions. Warby builds a personality for himself through his interactions with his environment, each narrative inspired by the common tropes of the style.

I wish to be Warby...I just want to transcend differetn dimensions and run about 

REJECTED! DMA 2021 is an online exhibition hosted on New Art City and organized by UCLAartsmemes. The show feautures rejected works from current Design/Media Arts students at UCLA. 

I had the pleasure of collaborating with UCLAartsmemes and Natalee Decker in creating this virtual gallery space.

The gallery consists of four rooms: a grocery store, an office building, a bedroom, and a mysterious shrine; each with specially selected works. The gallery operates as a city, with a rotating centerpiece of the exhibition’s mascot surrounded by roads that branch off to different rooms.

MEDIA:
Cinema4D
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Photoshop

Illustration by Kat Sung.

- Greatly inspired by La Ciudad en el Espacio by Ricardo Bofill, a project that didn't come to fruition--represents a design for a city of the future. Approaches the design of housing complexes as a multifunctional neighborhood. Its structure is the synthesis of geometric and volumetric configurations.

- Rooftop garden with solar panels, open area seating, and modular planters. A space for students to engage with the outdoors and to create their own space of nature.

- CLT, bamboo, steel, glass

- The EDU will be built using modular construction, meaning that individual units will be built separately and simultaneously as the foundation of the structure.
conserve resources and reduce overall costs. 30%-40% faster construction.

- Two main sections of communal space composed of 3 floors: cafe, study spaces, computer labs, etc. inspired by the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, especially the Asakusa Culture and Tourism Center.

- Another big issue that students face is accessible and safe parking, thus we decided to incorporate a parking structure into the EDU that serves as the foundation for the building as well as allowing for safe and easy access for students to their vehicles

Examples of 2 types of dormitory arrangements and accommodations.
Illustration by Kat Sung & Amie Xu.

General Residential Wing Includes:
- Stairwells
- Water Fountains
- Student ID scanners for entrance
- Vending Machine
- Rooms with balconies
- Restrooms with showers
- Private gender neutral restroom
- First Aid Kit

East and West wing connected by a bridge with stairwells and ramps leading to outdoor study areas. Floors alternate with a study area located in center of the bridge.
3 sets of elevators run through each floor. Only center one runs down to the parking garage, others only to ground level.

Eco friendly, creates a thriving vertical neighborhood, emphasis on connectivity and importance of community.

Building breakdown into 5 parts:
- Residential Floors
- Study Areas/Pods
- Dormitory Unit Layout
- Rooftop Garden
- 3D Model Example

Screenshot from Miro Board. Shows how each element connects.

(2020)
Cinema4D

A mosaic of AI generated videos using RunwayML trained on BDSM Hentai images found online, and BDSM Hentai images mapped on 3D models of familiar personal spaces. A study of both artistic style and subject and how AI interacts with these imagined bodies. Instagram deleted both the videos and images for nudity looool

Generated in RunwayML.
Result of 500+ images.

Located on the roof of the building and shaded underneath angled solar panel roofs, the communal garden and its completely modular planters allow for students to collaborate outdoors and interact with nature. Only locally sourced plants and seeds are allowed and will have to be approved by the Garden Committee before planting as to prevent any disturbance to surrounding plants and local nature. The modular structure of these planters allow for easy set up and transportation.

A shared room layout that boosts efficiency and provides privacy with its clear physical boundaries between its residents. Includes a shared outdoor area where the separated living spaces lead towards to and large windows allow for natural lighting and air ventilation. 

Private noise cancelling study pods, open 24/7. Table and seating can be rearranged to larger desk or even resting area. To access, students can schedule/reserve time slots online or with walk ins and scanning their ID. Located on both communal floors and specific residential areas. Varies in sizes to accompany different group sizes (1-4). Storage space located within for shoes and other items to keep the area organized and clean for future users. Students with mobility disabilities are prioritized for first level pods.

Modeled in Blender.
By Steve Kaize Xie

The formation that the civilization of Octavia hangs over and feeds of off is the skeletal remains of a colossal being, its mouth being the opening to the abyss. Nature and time has done its due diligence in weathering remains, meanwhile life beyond imagination has sprung up atop and within the beast. But the teachings of the Old Religion speak of a fated awakening of the beast from its eternal slumber. The beast’s name--Egruir.

The legend tells of the collision of an asteroid and the Earth many millenia ago. The asteroid named Egrestar did not begin as one, but thousands of small pieces of space clutter, each travelling through all dimensions of space. Over time with each collision, Egrestar grew in size and complexity. By the time it entered our dimension, it had been touched by all corners of space, containing billions of life fragments locked within each of the different pieces that made up the asteroid. As Egrestar neared planet Earth, the heat from the friction 

The force from the impact sent a shockwave around the planet and buried Egrestar deep into it. The immense heat awoke the lives within and catalyzed a miraculous metamorphosis that would take place over the next billion years during which Egrestar would evolve into Egruir.

Stuck in its rock casing, like a grotesque larvae in a cocoon, Egruir lies frozen in time, waiting for its fated awakening.

No person has ever reached the bottom of the abyss as it is a journey too perilous and unpredictable and the Octavians know better than to try. 

Legend also says through Egruir is an opening in this hollow earth that leads to the mythical kingdom of Agartha. However, there are parts of this world and this life that is not ours to taint with our mortal touch. The citizens of Octavia do well to respect this fine balance. And so this legend continues to live on, and until the end of time it shall.

(View PDF for details)

Easily identifiable by their reflective skin that shimmers under the sunlight and glows in the moonlight, the Fanorgemun Sevit, or sevit for short, is an 8 legged spider-lizard hybrid found on the ground level of Octavia. The sevit can be domesticated by humans and are essential to the transportation of goods throughout the city due to their ability to swiftly scale up vertical surfaces and to carry 10-50 times its body weight. Year round, the sevit produces a valuable silk stronger than steel that is yet nearly weightless, making it a staple to Octavian life—it quite literally holds up the city itself.

(View PDF for details)

The Nerwyl Namealdi is an aquatic worm of the vertical cave lakes located found in the third level of the abyss. In the sub-freezing temperatures of the lakes where only the moonlight reaches its depths, the inhabitants have developed antifreeze that flow through their veins. The nerwyl have both male and female reproductive organs, therefore can give birth without mating. These creatures are human-like in child rearing, often producing only one, occasionally two, offspring which they raise and protect until adulthood before parting ways. Studies have shown that they even reconnect recreationally post separation.

(View PDF for details)

-OCTAVIA: HISTORY AND LORE

-AUYWELLE'S BLESSING

-THE COSMONAUT'S BESTIARY

If you choose to believe me, good.
Now I will tell how Octavia, the spider-web city, is
made.
There is a precipice between two steep mountains:
the city is over the void, bound to the two crests with
ropes and chains and catwalks.
You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to
set your foot in the open spaces, or you cling to the
hempen strands.
Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds
of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can
glimpse the chasm’s bed.
This is the foundation of the city: a net which serves
as passage and as support.
All the rest, instead of rising up, is hung below: rope
ladders, hammocks, houses made like sacks, clothes
hangers, terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas
jets, spits, baskets on strings,
dumb-waiters, showers, trapezes and rings for
children’s games, cable cars, chandeliers, pots with
trailing plants.
Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia’s
inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities.
They know the net will last only so long.
If you choose to believe me, good.
Now I will tell how Octavia, the spider-web city, is
made.
There is a precipice between two steep mountains:
the city is over the void, bound to the two crests with
ropes and chains and catwalks.
You walk on the little wooden ties, careful not to
set your foot in the open spaces, or you cling to the
hempen strands.
Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds
of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can
glimpse the chasm’s bed.
This is the foundation of the city: a net which serves
as passage and as support.
All the rest, instead of rising up, is hung below: rope
ladders, hammocks, houses made like sacks, clothes
hangers, terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas
jets, spits, baskets on strings,
dumb-waiters, showers, trapezes and rings for
children’s games, cable cars, chandeliers, pots with
trailing plants.
Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia’s
inhabitants is less uncertain than in other cities.
They know the net will last only so long.

Auywelle sighed herself into being and was
everything, a humming sea of candle wax unfurling
forever.
With her second breath, she left vacuums as she
contracted, fertile voids of absolute otherness, both
her lover and progeny, into which she birthed the
sun and the stars. And she breathed and contracted
and enveloped herself in the Other, knowing love and
awed by its power.
As the ether surrounded her, she broke into a
thousand silver lakes, moons dripping pure spirit,
cleansed by the aquifer of time on its return journey
through space. Drops of Auywelle’s soul materailized
in crude golems that formed the planetary bodies.
When they died, their spirits returned to Auywelle.
Thereafter, the great beasts, Egrestar and Eguir,
impregnated our world with life, their corpses
slumbering below us.
In its last iteration, Auywelle’s spirit coalesced like
dew upon the Earth, and humanity was born.
Auywelle sighed herself into being and was
everything, a humming sea of candle wax unfurling
forever.
With her second breath, she left vacuums as she
contracted, fertile voids of absolute otherness, both
her lover and progeny, into which she birthed the
sun and the stars. And she breathed and contracted
and enveloped herself in the Other, knowing love and
awed by its power.
As the ether surrounded her, she broke into a
thousand silver lakes, moons dripping pure spirit,
cleansed by the aquifer of time on its return journey
through space. Drops of Auywelle’s soul materailized
in crude golems that formed the planetary bodies.
When they died, their spirits returned to Auywelle.
Thereafter, the great beasts, Egrestar and Eguir,
impregnated our world with life, their corpses
slumbering below us.
In its last iteration, Auywelle’s spirit coalesced like
dew upon the Earth, and humanity was born.

The eternal void with secrets beyond the nave,
For when the heart breaks and the clock expires,
Revere the womb of nature and return to her grave.

Leiea O'metana is a priestess of the Temple of Octavia.

(View PDF for interview)

The Philter of Luck is a luck potion that imbues the drinker with the powerful magical essence of the moon. It can turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary one.

(View PDF for recipe)

The Flask of Ecstasy is an energy potion that awakens the spirit and stimulates the soul. This potion increases concentration and quickens critical thinking. It heightens all senses and emotions, especially positive ones.

(View PDF for recipe)

Color-coded map and descriptions of discovered areas of the Abyss. Flip out section of the magazine.

Carrier set for Fanorgemun Sevit.

"This is how the Skylec Traveller7 will look on me! This advanced carrier set design rests comfortably between my shoulder blades and atop my back."

Click to expand