Responding to the pervasive impacts of contemporary technology, Personhood is a continuously iterating work that evolves with emerging digital media, while remaining consistent to its physical spotlight-illusion. In the first version (Asian Art Museum, 2024), shadow movements were generated live in Unity via the motion-matching technique for motion-captured animations. The soundscape is generated on VCV Rack, blending ambience with an abstraction of digital chimes that evoke a virtual environment.

The subsequent versions were non-interactive video works that experimented with adapting the visual grammar of the work towards more precise narratives. A version of the work made for Slovenia explored the shadows as gallery visitors (Speculum Artium, 2025), and a later iteration in Stockholm uses the likeness of JJ to depict an artist perpetually at work—exploring the devaluation of craft by an age offering disposable simulations of creativity (Helix Art Space, 2026).

The latest version (MVR Gallery, 2026) relies on state-based branching animation trees that interpolate between pivotal keyframes. At every given moment, the artwork “decides” which pre-generated character animation to transition into next. The shadow is formed in the likeness of Xin.