Xiaohua Liu

Information Experience Design (MA)
A young woman with long dark hair and subtle pink highlights sits indoors against a dark blue background with framed artworks and a staircase. She wears a dark sweater with a white collar and looks slightly downward with a calm, neutral expression.
A panoramic view of a dual-screen projection in a dark space. The left translucent screen displays a street view with a red navigation arrow and dense blue movement traces. The right screen layers a historical map with video footage and floating pop-up images, creating a textured, multi-source composition.
A panoramic view of a dual-screen projection in a dark space. The left translucent screen displays a street view with a red navigation arrow and dense blue movement traces. The right screen layers a historical map with video footage and floating pop-up images, creating a textured, multi-source composition.
a panoramic view of the two-screen setup
A person interacts with a dual-screen video installation in a dark room. Two translucent curtains display layered projections: the left shows GPS navigation imagery with red directional arrows and chaotic blue path traces, while the right shows a detailed city map. Below, a screen labeled "perception tracking in progress..." suggests the installation is reacting to the participant’s movements.
A person interacts with a dual-screen video installation in a dark room. Two translucent curtains display layered projections: the left shows GPS navigation imagery with red directional arrows and chaotic blue path traces, while the right shows a detailed city map. Below, a screen labeled "perception tracking in progress..." suggests the installation is reacting to the participant’s movements.
The participant’s movement triggers feedback, visualized through layered projections and path tracking
A close-up of dual projections on translucent fabric.
A close-up of dual projections on translucent fabric.
a detailed view of the translucent fabric surface
(G)litching (P)hysical (S)paces
A panoramic view of a dual-screen projection in a dark space. The left translucent screen displays a street view with a red navigation arrow and dense blue movement traces. The right screen layers a historical map with video footage and floating pop-up images, creating a textured, multi-source composition.
A person interacts with a dual-screen video installation in a dark room. Two translucent curtains display layered projections: the left shows GPS navigation imagery with red directional arrows and chaotic blue path traces, while the right shows a detailed city map. Below, a screen labeled "perception tracking in progress..." suggests the installation is reacting to the participant’s movements.
A close-up of dual projections on translucent fabric.

About

Liu Xiaohua is a multidisciplinary designer whose work explores the quiet complexities of living within increasingly automated systems. She examines the tension between human intuition and digital automation, focusing on how technologies influence perception, behavior, and everyday decision-making. Using installation, video, and visual research, her practice critically engages with the systems that shape contemporary life, not to reject or resolve them, but to create space for reflection and nuanced questioning.

(G)litching (P)hysical (S)paces is an interactive installation that critically explores how GPS navigation systems restructure spatial perception by compressing sensory experience and displacing embodied spatial judgment. Rooted in the concept of cognitive offloading, the project contrasts two navigational modes: the directive logic of GPS interfaces, and the intuitive, exploratory logic of map-based movement.

Through a dual-screen setup responsive to participant motion, the work simulates the tension between being guided and actively orienting oneself. It makes perceptible the subtle perceptual shifts produced by algorithmic systems – where users follow pre-authored routes rather than build internal maps. Instead of offering a solution, the piece invites viewers to inhabit the system’s logic and reflect on what is lost when spatial agency is outsourced to technology.

contact: lauraliu1110@outlook.com

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