一沙一世界

To See a World in a Grain of Sand unfolds as an experiential light environment that invites visitors into a heightened state of presence. Developed by installation artist Chi-yung Wong, the work emerges from a sustained dialogue with neuroscientists and psychiatrists on the nature of mindfulness, perception, and emotional regulation.

At the core of the installation lies a simple yet urgent proposition: emotions operate as a subconscious architecture shaping human behaviour, yet modern life has distanced us from the ability to recognise, negotiate, and care for them. Wong’s research suggests that immersive environments—particularly those composed of light, sound, and tactile sensation—hold the potential to become tools for stress relief and, in time, complementary therapeutic resources.

The project traces its origins to Wong’s residency in the artist-in-labs program at the Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts (ICS) at Zurich University of the Arts. Beginning in 2016, he engaged in a two-year transdisciplinary exchange with researchers from ETH Zurich and Sanatorium Kilchberg, exploring how artistic experience might intersect with scientific understandings of attention, emotion, and wellbeing.

The resulting installation is both a poetic and methodological synthesis: an artistic interpretation shaped by scientific insight, and a scientific inquiry expanded through artistic imagination. By situating viewers within a sensorial field that slows perception and amplifies awareness, Wong invites a reconsideration of how art and science might collaborate to support mental and emotional resilience.

To See a World in a Grain of Sand ultimately gestures toward a broader cultural aspiration: to bring the languages of art and science into closer conversation, and to cultivate spaces where reflection, care, and curiosity can coexist.