Dissolving the boundaries of reality: Inside Yoichi Ochiai's Liquid Universe at AMNC26
The traditional event and gallery model is fundamentally broken. Passive viewing leads to dead dwell time, low engagement, and zero first-party data capture for organizers. To capture the attention of high-level attendees, you cannot just show them something; you must immerse them in it.
At the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions (AMNC26), the Beyond the Frame exhibition pushed these boundaries with Liquid Universe Portal, an installation by artist and creator Yoichi Ochiai. Created in partnership with Augmento, this virtual reality artwork immerses participants in a breathtakingly fluid world.
Exploring the intersection of art, technology, and philosophy: Yoichi Ochiai discussing the vision behind Liquid Universe Portal.
The concept: Dissolving physical and digital realities
Liquid Universe Portal is an immersive AR installation inspired by Zhuangzi’s “butterfly dream”, where the boundary between dreamer and dream dissolves. Drawing on this philosophical foundation, the work transforms timeless ideas of perception and reality into a living, technological experience.
Rooted in Eastern concepts of fluid existence, interdependence, and the unity of form and emptiness, the work embodies Ochiai’s vision of digital nature, where the distinction between physical and computational worlds disappears. Forms continuously shift, liquid crystal becoming a reflective surface, solidifying into mineral, then dissolving again, creating a sculpture defined not by permanence but by constant transformation. The result is a boundless, evolving environment that invites viewers to question what is real and where reality itself begins.
Ochiai is a boundary-pushing artist, researcher, and entrepreneur whose work fuses computational optics, digital fabrication, and Eastern philosophy. A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, he holds a PhD from the University of Tokyo and is a professor at both the University of Tsukuba and the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.
The engine: High-fidelity spatial computing
Executing a vision of this magnitude requires flawless infrastructure. To deliver the highest fidelity interactive experience possible, Liquid Universe Portal was deployed through a dedicated Augmento iPad application.
During a special Hub session at the event, 20 IT-provided iPads were distributed to the audience. This allowed attendees to participate in a guided immersive demonstration simultaneously. The video below captures exactly what this looked like in real-time: a shared experience where the massive digital sculpture rendered flawlessly in the physical space right in front of the participants.
Transforming passive viewers into active explorers: Attendees simultaneously experience the Liquid Universe Portal AR installation during the guided Hub session.
The surface: Transforming passive viewers into active explorers
Through a dedicated user interface, the artwork becomes an interactive storytelling device. The dynamic environment includes:
A bilingual toggle allowing users to experience the narrative in English (EN) or Chinese (中文).
Expandable informational modules that dive deep into the artist's biography, awards, and past exhibitions.
A frictionless "START AR EXPERIENCE" trigger that launches the spatial immersion directly over the physical space.
The result? Total immersion.
Stop renting your audience, start owning them
Whether you are an event director trying to eliminate dead dwell time, a real estate developer selling off-plan to international buyers, or an artist breaking the physical limits of a gallery, spatial computing is the answer.
Ready to see what Augmento's spatial computing engine can do for your brand?
Reach out to us today and let's build your immersive world.
