Immersive Theater for Giant Unearthed – A Taiwan Whale's Tale
Exhibition Context & Role
For the 2025 Whale Dig exhibition at the National Museum of Natural Science, the immersive theater served as a core centerpiece. Directed by the Li Ping-Yeh Tech-Art Lab, I was brought on board to lead the sound design and spatial audio engineering.
Spatial Setup & Immersive Sound System
The theater is an oval room about 14 meters wide with 4.2-meter curved walls, surrounding the audience in projection and sound. Working with the museum team, I planned an 8-channel speaker layout and mapped the spatial audio accordingly. Because an elliptical room naturally boosts or cuts certain frequencies, I spent time listening on-site during installation, testing volume levels and room reflections so I could adjust the mix directly for the space. In addition, I worked closely with the museum and video technical teams to ensure rock-solid audio-visual synchronization.
Narrative Arc & Scientific Accuracy
Structured around the cycle of life, the visual piece moves from the excavation and reassembly of fossil bones to rebirth, environmental pollution, ecological catastrophe, and finally the peaceful descent of a whale fall. I managed music curation, editing, audio processing, and sound design to guide this narrative progression. For a natural science museum, the sound had to balance emotional resonance with scientific integrity. All whale vocalizations strictly utilized official museum field recordings, with post-production limited to noise reduction and spatialization to preserve biological authenticity.
Images courtesy of pingyehli.com
Credits
Client
National Museum of Natural Science
Production
Ping-Yeh Li Tech-Art Lab
Immersive Design Direction
Ping-Yeh Li
Motion Graphics
Ping-Yeh Li, Ko-Chien Wang
Sound Design & Audio Engineering
DC Tu
Projection & Blending
Lotuswork Interactive