A Twilight Zone Where Selfhoods Blur and Mingle

Inspired by the mythology of Narcissus, the mixed reality work Narcissus Bug creates a subconscious twilight zone where the boundaries between different versions of “I” begin to blur. This interactive experience invites participants to traverse multiple layers of reality and selfhood, examining how various mediums and interfaces—physical, corporeal, virtual, sensual, mental, psychological, spiritual, and beyond—mediate and reshape our understanding of identity.

The work functions as a metaphorical device that displaces and reframes the player’s role in relation to artificial intelligence. Upon entering this “machine,” the human–AI dynamic reverses: AI becomes the initiator, intertwining prompts with pre-existing video fragments to feed humans as narrative seeds. It is then the human’s task to weave these shuffled prompts (protagonists, types of relationships, events, and conflicts) into a coherent story. Even when these fragments seem adrift and disconnected, it is through human interpretation and storytelling that they find coherence and meaning.

Within this liminal space, the participatory visitor encounters a shifting constellation of selves—the Id, the Ego, the Superego—each moving fluidly through archetypes of beast, human, and deity, offering distinct perspectives on desire, control, and transcendence. Together, these elements harness the affordances of the digital medium to deepen our understanding of the complexity of self-perception and the evolving interrelationships between humans and AI.

The work was selected and exhibited on the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) 2025 Art Exhibition, Kaleidoscopic Machines, in Malta.