Naive Babel

Inspired by Paul Klee's Castle and Sun, this work deconstructs his simplified, symbolic, hieroglyphic artistic style to reinterpret and translate the classic image of the "Tower of Babel" into a contemporary context. As an interactive installation, it invites the audience to participate in building with childlike innocence, personally completing the full cycle of construction – order – collapse. It visually presents the shift of language from clarity to chaos, exploring the nature of human communication, the dilemma of understanding, and the possibility of returning to authentic expression.

This is an interactive artwork. Click the canvas to focus, then use the keyboard:

S — add a square block to a randomly chosen tower R — add a wide horizontal rectangle block P — save the current view as a PNG F — toggle fullscreen

Each tower holds up to eight floors; the eighth is always a triangle cap. When all four towers are complete (32 blocks total), the multilingual inscriptions scramble and pulse—a babel of symbols replacing the shared phrases.

On load the scene breathes gently: an amber sun disc pulses behind the empty towers. Each new block triggers a brief ghost that expands and fades from the piece.

Created by Misty, Erin, and Chen as part of MDS221 – Interactive Multimedia Installation, University of Saint Joseph (USJ), Macau.