Kyle Xu

A Walk Through History

2026 · Interactive, Canvas, sound

One Assassin walks through sixteen centuries of picture-making, from illuminated manuscript to gold-leaf screen. Every pixel and every note is generated live in the browser.

Runs in the browser. Sound starts at your first click or key.

Enter the work
The sixteen pictures in a grid, each in a different period medium, a hooded figure in each
Live · The work, running in the page. Space plays and pauses; G moves between the grid and one picture; in a picture, scroll or pinch to zoom up to 4×.
Year
2026
Medium
Custom software (Canvas 2D, Web Audio). No bitmaps, font files or audio samples; one HTML file of about 480 KB
Dimensions
A 1920 × 1080 stage, letterboxed to the window
Duration
A 67.2-second loop: sixteen pictures of 4.2 seconds, the last leap landing back in the first
Interaction
Space, or a click on the picture, to play and pauseDrag the timeline to scrub; arrow keys step a second, with Shift fiveG between the sixteen-up grid and one picture; click a cell to enter it, Esc to go backIn a single picture, scroll or pinch to zoom from 1× to 4× and drag to pan; double-click, 0 or Esc to resetM to mute
Credits
Concept, art direction: Kyle Xu
Rights
A fan tribute, non-commercial. Assassin's Creed and its characters are trademarks of Ubisoft; no Ubisoft images, text or music are used, and the score is original.

Statement

Along a seamless 67.2-second loop, one Assassin crosses sixteen pictures, each drawn in the medium its own century would have used, from Jerusalem in 1191 to Azuchi in 1579. Each picture follows the visual logic of real works: three material layers (substrate, mark-making, age), one edge policy, and one action native to that game.

Each picture is drawn in three tiers. The sixteen-up grid draws only what reads at thumbnail size; a single picture adds a fine tier of far cities, crowds, objects, inscriptions and ornament; above 1.6× a micro tier appears, down to brick joints, tile courses, craquelure and tool marks. Textures hold their screen frequency and hairlines get finer as you zoom, so enlarging a picture shows more drawing, never bigger pixels.

The protagonist is a single articulated rig with sixteen builds, gaits and costumes, rendered in each picture's medium: ink line, chalk outline, hatching, woodcut black, transparent wash, red-figure reserve. The score is synthesised in Web Audio on the same timeline: an original vocalise restated in each picture's mode over a plucked ostinato and the instruments of its period.

The sixteen pictures

In the loop's order. Each was designed against the real works it takes its logic from: the Maciejowski Bible, Carpaccio, Matrakçı Nasuh, Paul Revere, Thomas Bewick, Battista Agnese, Gustave Doré, the Nebamun tomb-chapel, the Niobid Painter, al-Wasiti, Kanō Eitoku.

Jerusalem, 1191: the scene drawn as illuminated manuscript, with the hooded figure in it
Jerusalem, 1191 — illuminated manuscript
Florence, 1476: the scene drawn as fresco, with the hooded figure in it
Florence, 1476 — fresco
Venice, 1486: the scene drawn as tempera, with the hooded figure in it
Venice, 1486 — tempera
Rome, 1503: the scene drawn as ink and wash, with the hooded figure in it
Rome, 1503 — ink and wash
Constantinople, 1511: the scene drawn as Ottoman miniature, with the hooded figure in it
Constantinople, 1511 — Ottoman miniature
Boston, 1773: the scene drawn as copperplate, with the hooded figure in it
Boston, 1773 — copperplate
The Frontier, 1775: the scene drawn as woodcut and survey, with the hooded figure in it
The Frontier, 1775 — woodcut and survey
The Caribbean, 1715: the scene drawn as portolan chart, with the hooded figure in it
The Caribbean, 1715 — portolan chart
North Atlantic, 1752: the scene drawn as cold watercolour, with the hooded figure in it
North Atlantic, 1752 — cold watercolour
Paris, 1789: the scene drawn as etched broadsheet, with the hooded figure in it
Paris, 1789 — etched broadsheet
London, 1868: the scene drawn as steel engraving, with the hooded figure in it
London, 1868 — steel engraving
Giza, 49 BCE: the scene drawn as painted relief, with the hooded figure in it
Giza, 49 BCE — painted relief
The Aegean, 431 BCE: the scene drawn as red-figure vase, with the hooded figure in it
The Aegean, 431 BCE — red-figure vase
England, 873: the scene drawn as carved timber, with the hooded figure in it
England, 873 — carved timber
Baghdad, 861: the scene drawn as Abbasid manuscript, with the hooded figure in it
Baghdad, 861 — Abbasid manuscript
Azuchi, 1579: the scene drawn as gold-leaf screen, with the hooded figure in it
Azuchi, 1579 — gold-leaf screen
Stills, 1920 × 1080, one from each picture.

Up close

Seven of the pictures zoomed in, with the fine and micro tiers showing: what the grid leaves out, drawn for whoever leans in.

Close up: Altaïr leaping over a toy-house city behind a crenellated wall, domes and a bell gable against a starred blue ground
Jerusalem, 2.6× — the toy-house city behind the wall, its domes and gable, every course of the wall
Close up: Ezio leaping from a red-and-white flagpole toward a brick palace with arched, shuttered windows; small figures on the quay
Venice, 3× — brick courses and shuttered windows, the flagpole, the crowd on the quay
Close up: an old Ezio on a zip line above a pink domed mosque, a green hillside of red-roofed houses and cypresses, minarets and a blue sea
Constantinople, 2.4× — the hillside of red roofs, the minarets, the sea drawn in waves
Close up: a sailor in the rigging of a black ship with white gunports, drawn over a parchment chart with rhumb lines and depth soundings
The Caribbean, 2.4× — the rigging and gunports, soundings and rhumb lines on the chart
Close up: a steel-engraved viaduct of brick arches, a pub sign reading THE ANCHOR, silhouettes in top hats beneath gas lamps
London, 3× — the viaduct's brick joints, the pub sign, top hats under the gas lamps
Close up: Basim running along a beam above a market, hung tapestries, an arched door, merchants in turbans under a striped awning
Baghdad, 2.4× — hung tapestries, the stucco band, the awning's fringe and dotted cloth
Close up: a white castle keep with rows of gridded windows and grey roofs, gold clouds around it, a samurai helmet at the gate below
Azuchi, 2.4× — every window grille of the keep, the gold clouds, a samurai at the gate
Stills, 1920 × 1080, taken at the zoom shown.

The figure

One skeleton with a neck, a waist, tapering limbs, heeled feet and hands that grip, posed by blending between keys, its cloth trailing its speed. Each of the sixteen protagonists has their own build, gait and kit, and the same rig is drawn in sixteen media.

Sixteen hooded figures in two rows, each a different protagonist and costume, shown walking and running
Process · The cast — sixteen builds walking and running, side by side
The hooded figure drawn as solid black woodcut shapes in eight poses: walk, run, draw a bow, crouch, leap, land
Process · Woodcut mode — the same rig as solid black blocks with white knife cuts

Every picture in the medium its own century would have used.

Runs in the browser. Sound starts at your first click or key.

Enter the work