UDARA began as a competition entry for the Singapore National Gallery and evolved into a larger exploration of how AI can serve as a creative collaborator. Working alongside long-time collaborator Kristina Thiele, I led the art direction and 3D design, defining the visual language, building the environments in Blender, and shaping what calmness and air could feel like as a spatial experience on the web. Starting from a sketch and a small 3D sphere, we fed our 3D models into Midjourney to generate concepts, then assembled the full experience in Unity for deployment on Spatial.io.

Initial Sketch & 3D Model for inspiration.

This project was a testing ground for using AI not as a shortcut but as a creative partner — generating, iterating, and blending ideas between two people. Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Runway each played distinct roles in the pipeline rather than replacing any single step.

The space holds two meditation experiences, three sound areas, and a central sphere at the entry that greets users and guides them into the beginning of the journey. I designed the flow through each stage, including UI panels that indicate what's coming next, transition users between states, and keep the experience intuitive without breaking immersion. Voice actor Maria Garcia narrates throughout, bringing a human presence to the experience.

From process to final Product

In a space dominated by gaming, I've always been more interested in what else virtual environments can be. Udara was a chance to give that a twist, a meditation experience that remote users can step into from anywhere, no headset required. I document my process and exploration openly, because with emerging technology nothing is set in stone. Nobody knows exactly where this goes, but coming from a design background rather than a technical one brings a different conversation to the table about what's possible.

Udara

Immersive Meditation