Ting-Tong Chang and Blast Theory Take SXSW Special Jury Award for ‘Unexpected Dance’ Between Tech and Human Behaviour

Ting-Tong Chang b. 1982, Taiwan Follow +

An interactive video installation by Taiwanese artist Ting-Tong Chang and U.K. artist group Blast Theory have taken the XR Special Jury Award at this year’s South by Southwest Film and TV Festival in Austin, Texas.

Premiering at the XR Experience Competition, Proof As If Proof Were Needed (2025) reflects on the economic context of Taiwan’s post-Asian Tiger surge and austerity in the U.K. with the artists exploring their long-term impact through the traces left in domestic spaces.

The work invites viewers to uncover the history of a couple’s fractured relationship by navigating various rooms, with each offering different interpretations based on the viewer’s exploration.

The XR Experience Competition Jury—Christina Lee Storm, Caspar Sonnen, and Diana Williams—selected the film. In a statement, they described the extended reality work as one that ‘made us feel lost, frustrated, and disconnected’.

‘What started as a slow burn became an unexpected dance between space, story, technology, and human behaviour.’ —[O]

Main image: Ting-Tong Chang and Blast Theory, Proof As If Proof Were Needed (2025). Courtesy the artists. Photo: Che-Chun Liu.