Hungry Ghost 饿死鬼

Inspired by the Chinese myth of 餓鬼 (hungry ghosts), spirits cursed with eternal hunger, this work explores the insatiable appetite of contemporary AI systems. In folklore, hungry ghosts wander endlessly in search of food, never satisfied. Likewise, AI systems endlessly consume data in pursuit of knowledge and expansion. This act of consumption becomes an eternal journey, defined by accumulation without fulfillment. The animation adopts the structure of the video game Breakout, where falling data fragments are repeatedly struck and devoured by the character 餓, as a metaphor for this endless cycle of consumption and the perpetual data hunger of AI systems. At a pivotal moment, the character 餓 (hunger) fractures into its components 食 (consume) and 我 (self), and the player’s bar must choose which fragment to catch. Combining mythological imagery with post-internet aesthetics, the work reflects on cycles of accumulation and transformation, and the emergence of new forms of selfhood(我). I hope the work invites audiences to pause and reconsider the endless pursuit of consumption that shapes both technological systems and human desire.