IDEAS - Meridian Tower - by PhantaForma

Five participants enter Meridian Tower.

Each holds a different role, receives different information, and has a different degree of authority.

No one sees the whole situation. As an emergency begins to unfold, each decision affects what others are able to know and what they can do next.

Together, their decisions shape how the story ends.

MERIDIAN TOWER is an immersive computational narrative about distributed agency and collective responsibility. The experience unfolds across a 32-channel spatial audio system, five interactive projections, and individual participant interfaces.

Created by PhantaForma

Scarlett Shi · Lindsey Gu · Ruiqi Chu · Qianyi (Rose) Sun

Presented as part of IDEAS 2026 at UC San Diego.

Sessions of the Meridian Tower project are presented only to groups of 5, each spanning roughly 30 minutes each, Monday and Tuesday afternoon, October 26 and 27. Guests are encouraged to prioritize joining sessions to fill groups to 5.

Artist are available for Q&A and feedback following each session.

Please inquire for other visit times.

PhantaForma TEAM

Scarlett Shi — Concept & Sound

Lindsey Gu — Software & Visual

Ruiqi Chu — Software & Network Systems

Qianyi Rose Sun — Audio Programming

The Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (IDEAS) aims to encourage interdisciplinary performing, visual, and literary-artists, as well as engineers and scientists, to take advantage of the Qualcomm Institute’s advanced audio-visual facilities, services and personnel in staging performances and presentations of new and experimental works and research.

Visit IDEAS.ucsd.edu for more information.