Kyle Xu

The Vellum Stacks

2026 · Interactive, WebGL, sound

An impossible archive of translucent paper towers over black water, lit from openings in a roof you never see.

Best on a desktop browser. Sound starts at your first click.

Enter the work
Film · The opening, 0:30 — recorded from the live work, with sound.
Year
2026
Medium
Custom software (three.js, WebGL 2), sound generated in the browser
Dimensions
Variable; the whole browser window
Interaction
Drag to lookScroll, or W and S, to walk; A and D to turnClick to walk onStay, and the paper rises
Other readers
Simulated in this build. In the original, people who open it at the same time see each other reading.
Credits
Concept, art direction: Kyle XuBuilt in dialogue with Claude

Statement

An impossible archive: sheets of translucent paper stand like towers over black water and repeat without end. Rectangular openings in an unseen roof let light down. Every sheet hangs from a thread that runs up to the roof.

The work has a single rule: the archive opens where it is read. Wherever a reader stands, the threads draw the paper up out of the way; the longer they stay, the wider the opening grows and the higher the paper rises, into the light near the roof, until the light reaches the water at their feet. When they leave, the paper comes down over minutes, a trace that slowly heals. One page, the one they read, stays up. The archive remembers where it has been read.

The plan follows Junya Ishigami: no walls, only density. Paper gathers under the light, so the plan is the map of the light. On the horizon stands a city drawn in the same rectangles of light, mirrored in the water. The sound is made by the same rule and nothing is sampled: a hall that breathes with the light, the rustle of paper being drawn up, the creak of a thread under a large sheet, one low note when a page is left behind.

Looking up at a bright rectangular opening in a dark roof; hundreds of fine threads run up into it, and translucent sheets stand beneath
Still · The approach — the opening in the roof from below, the threads running up into its light
Translucent sheets lifted and tilted on their threads, rising toward the light at the top of the frame
Still · Reading — the sheets around a reader drawn up on their threads, tilting toward the light
A large sheet suspended high at the upper left; below, small rectangles of light on the horizon reflected in black water
Still · A page left up — a large sheet held high at the top left, the city of light on the horizon
Sheets in the foreground before a horizon of small lit rectangles, mirrored in the dark water below
Still · The skyline — the city drawn in the same rectangles of light, mirrored in the water

The archive opens where it is read.

Best on a desktop browser. Sound starts at your first click.

Enter the work