Wondering with Jesse Franklin
As part of Wonders of Nature—New Art Museum Singapore’s first immersive experience for all ages—Emmy-winning digital artist Jesse Franklin brings his signature surreal aesthetic to a bold new form: interactive gameplay. Known for his vibrant, dreamlike 3D worlds, Franklin debuts Garden of Nature, a digital quest that playfully reinterprets the natural world through repetition, rhythm, and colour. In this interview, he shares how art, nature and storytelling come together in his most interactive work yet.
Can you share the concept behind your digital gameplay work “Garden of Nature” ?
My goal was to evoke the same sense of adventure and discovery that defines the best RPG experiences. To achieve this, I transformed the environment into a surreal, immersive landscape, infusing the terrain and plant life with rhythmic patterns and dreamlike qualities. The addition of a time-limited quest for the elusive Tiger’s Scrolls heightens engagement, inviting players to lose themselves in a hyper-real botanical world while experiencing the satisfaction of a meaningful challenge
Your works have mostly been animated & motion graphic works, what made you decide to create a digital gameplay work rather than a short animated film(?)—your greatest strength
This piece was an exploration of the dynamic interplay between digital environments, color, lighting, design, and sound—an opportunity to merge these elements into a fully immersive experience. I have long been drawn to the challenge of creating interactive game pieces, where abstraction meets motion, and where colour and light shape emotion and atmosphere. By integrating these elements into gameplay, I aimed to craft a space where users don’t just observe but feel—a world that invites deeper engagement and discovery.
Garden of Nature (2024), Digital Gameplay, Size Variable
As reflected in the title Garden of Nature, which evokes a dialogue between art, technology, and the environment, how do you see the relationship between the natural world and the digital realm evolving in your artistic practice?
I envision a future where we can step directly into the world of history’s most iconic artworks, experiencing them not just as static pieces but as fully immersive environments. We’re already seeing glimpses of this with exhibitions like Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. My approach would push this concept further—reimagining these masterpieces as hyper-real, interactive worlds, enriched with narrative and purpose. By weaving storytelling and objectives into these environments, the experience becomes more than just visual—it becomes a journey.
Franklin’s Garden of Nature is more than a game—it’s an invitation to step inside a living artwork, where color, light, and nature blur the line between fantasy and reality. Through this immersive journey, Wonders of Nature offers visitors a chance to play, explore, and reimagine how we experience art and the natural world. Don’t miss your chance to discover it for yourself.