Meet Eva Here — ArtScience Museum, Singapore

Overview

Meet Eva Here is a landmark interactive art installation created by celebrated Singaporean photographer and artist Shavonne Wong, exhibited at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore — one of the world’s most prestigious venues for the intersection of art, science, and technology. The installation features an AI-powered digital avatar, Eva, who perceives and responds to museum visitors in real time through gesture and movement tracking.

The Challenge

Bringing an AI-driven interactive avatar to life inside a museum gallery environment presented a unique set of technical and creative requirements:

• Real-time body and gesture tracking that works reliably in a public gallery with variable lighting and visitor behavior
• An avatar that responds naturally and expressively to human presence and movement
• A Unity build stable enough to run continuously during exhibition hours without intervention
• Seamless collaboration between the technical team and the artist’s creative vision

Our Solution

Virtual Verse Studio built the Unity-based interactive system that powers Eva’s real-time awareness and response:

• Real-time gesture and movement tracking — using computer vision and body tracking, Eva detects visitors entering her space and responds to their movements with corresponding gestures and expressions
• AI-driven interaction logic — the avatar’s behavior is guided by an AI layer that determines appropriate responses based on visitor proximity, body language, and movement patterns
• Expressive avatar performance — Eva’s responses were designed to feel natural and human, creating genuine moments of connection between the artwork and its audience
• Museum-grade stability — the build was engineered to run continuously throughout the exhibition run without crashes or manual resets

Key Features

• Real-time visitor detection via computer vision and body tracking
• AI-driven avatar response system
• Expressive gesture and movement-based interaction
• Stable continuous-run Unity build for gallery exhibition
• Deep creative collaboration with artist Shavonne Wong

Tech Stack

• Engine — Unity 3D
• Tracking — real-time computer vision and body-tracking pipeline for gesture recognition
• Character — AI-driven avatar behaviour system with gesture-triggered animation blending
• Deployment — standalone Windows build optimised for unattended 24/7 gallery operation
• Integration — gallery AV and display hardware at ArtScience Museum Singapore

Delivery Profile

• Client — Shavonne Wong — Singaporean photographer and digital artist, in partnership with ArtScience Museum Singapore
• Venue — ArtScience Museum, Singapore — one of the world’s leading venues for the intersection of art, science, and technology
• Format — permanent interactive gallery installation
• Team — cross-disciplinary Unity engineering and 3D animation team at Virtual Verse Studio, working directly with the artist on iterative creative reviews

Results & Impact

The installation was a critical and audience success at ArtScience Museum — visitors who expected to observe a static display found themselves in a genuine exchange with Eva, fundamentally changing how they engaged with the artwork. Internal stakeholders praised Virtual Verse Studio’s responsiveness and work culture throughout the collaboration. The project validated a pattern we have since reused for museum, retail, and brand-activation AI-avatar work.