XR SHRINE: Mao-Che Chiu Imagines the Sacred Spaces of a Digital Future
At the Future Art & Design Award 2026 Summer Season, Mao-Che Chiu received the Gold Prize in the AI-Generated Art category for XR SHRINE – The Spirituality of Future Asia, a speculative visual project exploring how faith, ritual and memory might evolve through immersive technologies. Drawing on Asian shrine architecture and cyberpunk aesthetics, the series imagines sacred environments in which digital pilgrimage, holographic rituals and future spiritual infrastructures coexist.
Born in Taiwan, Chiu works across XR technologies, interactive design and education. His ten-part visual narrative asks whether practices rooted in physical places and shared traditions can retain their meaning in virtual worlds, and how new technology might amplify rather than overwhelm the experience of reverence.
XR SHRINE — The Spirituality of Future Asia is a speculative XR spiritual civilization project that explores how faith, ritual, memory, and human consciousness may evolve in the age of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies.
Inspired by Asian shrine architecture, cyber-zen aesthetics, and future spiritual infrastructures, the series imagines a monumental sacred civilization where holographic rituals, digital pilgrimage, soul archives, and synthetic divinity coexist within vast immersive environments.
Through cinematic spatial compositions, monumental shrine megastructures, and poetic futuristic atmospheres, XR SHRINE investigates the relationship between humanity and transcendent systems in a future where spirituality becomes intertwined with XR networks, AI consciousness, and digital memory preservation.
The project is presented as a visual narrative universe composed of ten interconnected works, forming a contemplative vision of future Asian spiritual civilization beyond physical reality.
Interview
Q. What initially inspired this project? Was there a particular idea, moment, or question that sparked its creation?
Mao-Che: Growing up in Asia, local religious traditions were a natural, vibrant part of my daily life. At the same time, I have always been deeply fascinated by Japanese shrine culture—its distinct, serene atmosphere, unique architecture, and how people interact with the sacred in their daily routines.
As an educator in virtual reality, I frequently ponder a fundamental question: Which of our physical, real-world activities can be meaningfully translated into the Metaverse?
While the digital realm is filled with virtual gaming and social interactions, traditional spiritual practices—such as worship rituals, ascetic traditions, and divination—are rarely explored in immersive environments. I envisioned using VR to bridge these deeply rooted traditions with futuristic technology, creating a space for reverence, ritual, and personal reflection. By experimenting with generative AI tools to brainstorm scenario concepts, XR SHRINE - The Spirituality of Future Asia was born.
Q. Looking back at the execution process, what proved to be the most compelling milestone or the most complex hurdle you had to overcome?
Mao-Che: Looking back, the most complex hurdle was establishing the visual style and seamlessly blending traditional shrine architecture with a cyberpunk aesthetic.
Narrowing down the artistic direction was a major challenge, largely because I struggled with decision paralysis. The main difficulty lay in balancing the serene, sacred atmosphere of traditional Asian shrines with the high-tech elements of cyberculture. I had to ensure that the cyberpunk elements didn't feel tacky or visually overwhelming, while ensuring the underlying traditional spirituality wasn't lost beneath the digital layers.
Overcoming this required countless iterations and style tests until I found the sweet spot: a harmonious blend where futuristic tech amplifies, rather than dilutes, the solemnity of the sacred space. Achieving that cohesive visual identity became the pivotal turning point of the entire project.
Q. How was your experience taking part in the Future Art & Design Award UK?
Mao-Che: Participating in the Future Art & Design Award UK has been an incredibly inspiring journey. It provided a fantastic international platform and gave me powerful motivation for my creative work. I am deeply grateful that XR SHRINE received the Gold Prize, which not only validated my creative direction, but also gave me great confidence to keep pushing the boundaries between emerging technology and human spirituality.
Editor’s Note
XR SHRINE offers a speculative vision of technology not simply as a replacement for physical space, but as a possible new setting for ritual and reflection. Its monumental environments combine familiar architectural cues with a future-oriented visual vocabulary, creating tension between continuity and transformation.
The project’s most significant design decision lies in restraint. Cyberpunk effects could easily dominate the scene, yet Chiu’s stated aim is to protect the solemnity of the shrine. Recognised with the Gold Prize, XR SHRINE opens a considered conversation about the relationship between cultural memory, immersive media and the human search for meaning.
Follow the Artist
Mr. Chiu was born in Taiwan. He earned his degrees in game multimedia, interactive programming, and related disciplines from Lunghwa University of Science and Technology and National Taipei University of Education.
In addition to game animation design, Mr. Chiu has long been dedicated to XR interactive technologies and user experience. During his tenure as a project engineer at AECOM's Immersion Technology Laboratory, he specialized in digital content R&D and the implementation of innovative technology applications within the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry. He also served as a technical artist at HTC, actively participating in the execution of various VR/AR application projects.
Currently, he serves as a faculty member in the Department of Photography and VR Design at Huafan University—a unique institution with a profound Buddhist heritage that features interactive technology, creative design, humanities, and the arts—teaching in areas such as game design and XR application design.
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