Awakening Hammer-Ritual of Qi

A culturally-inspired wellness game prototype for rethinking sedentary breaks through play, breath, and movement.

It explores how wellness technology can move beyond tracking and control to joyful vitality and self-awareness. Inspired by Chinese healing rituals, it reimagines everyday movement as embodied reflection—turning stillness into energising motion and reconnecting people with the subtle flow of Qi.
West
Health & Wellbeing
Service & Innovative Design
Care
C1
Next Nature Museum
Noord Brabantlaan 1A
5652LA

Entrance fee

Location partially paid

Hosted by

clockcloud-lab x Tengjia Zuo research group
wing621@live.cn
0648198612
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Opening hours

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Free Wifi Free wifi available
Toilets Toilets available
Wheelchair Friendly Fully wheelchair accessible
Wheelchair Friendly Toilet Wheelchair friendly toilet available

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Reimagining Vitality Promotions through Cultural Wellness Games

This project rethinks the relationship between technology-based health interventions and human vitality. Rather than treating health as perfect data or a controllable object, it explores how design can activate human awareness, movement, and connection through cultural wisdom.

Developed as part of Ritual of Qi, a personal design research project by Xiangyu, design researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, in collaboration with the Game Design Research Group led by Tengjia Zuo at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (GZ), the project draws inspiration from the traditional Chinese body-tapping therapy “Pai-Ba-Xu”. It transforms ancient self-care rituals into interactive prototypes that integrate rhythmic guidance, sensory feedback, and playful experience.

It raises new questions: Can gamified technology empower people to listen to their own bodies? How might design translate the invisible notion of Qi into a joyful, co-creative experience? By integrating behavioural science, embodied interaction, and cultural insight, The Vitality Hammer invites people to rediscover balance between body and mind in our sedentary modern world.

Hosted by clockcloud-lab x Tengjia Zuo research group

clockcloud-lab is an independent design research lab founded by Xiang Yu, a PhD candidate at TU/e. The lab explores interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to design, aiming to bridge creativity gaps in how we respond to today’s complex societal challenges. Collaborating with academia, industry, and public institutions, the lab bridges creativity gaps through behavior change design, participatory methods, and gamified design experiments.

Colofon

Head of the Serious Game Design Research Team at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guang Zhou), providing design guidance and technical support for the game's development in this project.
Tengjia Zuo
Xiangyu – Initiator of the project; provided creative direction, design research, project management, and exhibition design.
Xiang Yu
Lead designer of the project; completed the full design and implementation process of Island of Qi, including concept design, character design, model design, and game app design.
Siyuan Liu
Participated in concept design and provided technical support.
Hainachuan Huang
Participated in concept design and provided technical support.
Yucong Cai

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