Descent into Concealment: Derinkuyu
VR + Web Art + Embedded 360° Video + Soundscape, 2026
Funded by,
Indiana University Presidential Arts and Humanities Program
Supported by,
University of Greenwich Center for SOUND/IMAGE
Plexus Projects NYC
Indiana University Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute
This web-based project reframes Derinkuyu Underground City—not as an archaeological site and museum, but as architecture of refuge: a living system built through ventilation, concealment, and collective endurance. At its core is a VR and YouTube 360° cinematic environment constructed from a 3D model reconstruction, paired with an original soundscape rooted in ancient devotional atmospheres. The work invites audiences to descend through narrow corridors, sealed thresholds, and communal chambers carved into volcanic stone—experiencing the underground as both survival infrastructure and ritual space.
The soundscape treats silence as resonance: breath moving through ventilation shafts, footsteps echoing in compressed passages, and the sonic texture of life practiced below ground. By situating this encounter on the open web, the project prioritizes accessibility and cultural transmission, translating archaeological wonder into a format navigable by phone, laptop, VR headset, or gallery projection. The result is a spatial meditation on hidden circulation, engineered resilience, and the quiet technologies that sustained an entire civilization underground.
Format: Single-page editorial site + embedded 360° video + stereo soundscape
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VR + Web Art + Embedded 360° Video + Soundscape, 2026
Funded by,
Indiana University Presidential Arts and Humanities Program
Supported by,
University of Greenwich Center for SOUND/IMAGE
Plexus Projects NYC
Indiana University Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute
This web-based project reframes Derinkuyu Underground City—not as an archaeological site and museum, but as architecture of refuge: a living system built through ventilation, concealment, and collective endurance. At its core is a VR and YouTube 360° cinematic environment constructed from a 3D model reconstruction, paired with an original soundscape rooted in ancient devotional atmospheres. The work invites audiences to descend through narrow corridors, sealed thresholds, and communal chambers carved into volcanic stone—experiencing the underground as both survival infrastructure and ritual space.
The soundscape treats silence as resonance: breath moving through ventilation shafts, footsteps echoing in compressed passages, and the sonic texture of life practiced below ground. By situating this encounter on the open web, the project prioritizes accessibility and cultural transmission, translating archaeological wonder into a format navigable by phone, laptop, VR headset, or gallery projection. The result is a spatial meditation on hidden circulation, engineered resilience, and the quiet technologies that sustained an entire civilization underground.
Format: Single-page editorial site + embedded 360° video + stereo soundscape
Research:
Fom October to December 2025, I undertook a two-month artist residency and research affiliate positions at the Sound/Image Research Centre, University of Greenwich developing Descent into Concealment: Derinkuyu—a web-based 360° work that combines a recreated 3D model of the ancient Derinkuyu Underground City with an “ancient” spiritual soundscape. The residency provided a focused context for research-and-development, supported by the centre’s immersive production infrastructure, including spatial audio facilities and immersive projection environments.
The project’s visual foundation was built from my own poly-metric 3D scans (24 different rooms, and areas inside the city), translated into a coherent architectural reconstruction that could be navigated and filmed as a 360° experience. Using scan data as a foundational point, matching it with the architectural maps and details, and I remodeled the structure involved a constant negotiation between evidence and legibility. This reconstruction approach treated Derinkuyu as infrastructure—organized around airflow, water access, thresholds, and communal space—while remaining transparent about the model’s interpretive status as a research-based visualization.
Reference Maps
3D Polycam Scans of 24 areas
3D Model
Details
