<sub>Narstalgia is a long-term, cross-disciplinary film and international creative research project. Co-created between London and Iceland since 2019, this ongoing seven-year project spans both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It encompasses a diverse series of works developed across various stages, including experimental film, audiovisual installations, spatial projections, mixed reality, and immersive new media exhibitions. The project examines "eco-grief" radiating from the Arctic Circle to a global scale, focusing on psychological and cultural environmental phenomena, such as Icelandic residents holding funerals for melting glaciers and Greenland's status of having the world’s highest suicide rate.

The title Narstalgia is a neologism coined by director Robert Chang Chien, blending "narwhal" with "solastalgia." According to Barry Lopez’s seminal work of nature writing, Arctic Dreams, the name "narwhal" has carried connotations of human death in Old Norse; some Nordic residents still refer to it as the "corpse whale," associating it with shipwrecks. By employing symbolic imagery such as the narwhal, aurora, and black holes, the director links the human psyche, nature, and the cosmos, exploring narratives and emotions that seem distant yet are profoundly interconnected with our existence.

The director first traveled to Iceland in 2019 for field research and interviews with residents. Returning in 2022 for a 4-month-long artistic residency and research exchange, he gathered extensive footage and compelling narratives, translating profound existential inquiries and scientific discourse into a poetic, cinematic, and immersive experience that invites collective empathy.

This immersive cinematic production integrates cross-disciplinary media, experimentally blending live-action footage captured by the director in Iceland with 3D animation, VFX, and creative coding. The sound design intertwines field recordings and real interview audio with synthetic soundscapes simulating a void, creating a transcendent dynamic woven between reality, dreams, and the spiritual world.</sub>

《角鯨之殤 》 (Narstalgia) 是2019年起於倫敦與冰島兩地共創， 橫跨南北半球、耗時七年持續進行的長期影像跨域與國際創研展演計畫，包含各階段發展出的多個系列作品，有實驗電影、音像裝置、空間投影、混合實境與沈浸式媒體藝術展覽等，累計超過萬名國際觀眾參與，內容探討從北極圈擴散至全球範圍的環境悲痛(Eco-grief)等氣候變遷相關議題，核心事件如 「冰島居民為消融的冰河舉辦葬禮」 等環境心理與文化事件。

片名原文“Narstalgia” 是旅英導演 張簡長倫(Robert Chang Chien)為本計畫創造之詞彙，含義是獨角鯨(Narwhal)與鄉痛(Solastalgia)的組合；依據著名博物學家 貝瑞·洛佩茲(Barry Lopez)的《北極夢》(Arctic Dreams)一書，獨角鯨之名自古北歐語裡即有人類死亡之意涵；部分北歐居民仍稱其為「屍體鯨」，並認為與海難相關。導演使用獨角鯨、極光、冰川、永晝、黑洞等圖像符號，串連人類精神世界、地球環境與浩瀚宇宙之間的關係，試圖探索看似遙遠卻與我們密切相關的故事與感受。

鄉痛(Solastalgia)一詞出自澳洲環境哲學家 格倫·阿爾布雷希特(Glenn Albrecht)，描述環境變遷與人類心理健康的關聯：「當你人就在家鄉，卻感到鄉愁」。2019年導演首次前往冰島進行田調，並拍攝採訪當地居民；2022年再次前往冰島，於當地進行數個月駐留研究和創作交流，收集更多拍攝成果與珍貴故事，嘗試將嚴肅的生命議題及科研內容轉化爲具詩意、電影感的沈浸式體驗。本電影製作結合跨領域媒材，包含親赴冰島實拍影音、3D動畫、視效(VFX)與創意編成的實驗性整合，聲音設計結合現場環境音、訪談錄音與模擬虛無之境的混合音效，嘗試打造交織於現實、夢境與精神世界的超然動態。

此沈浸式電影版本於2022年11至12月於台灣當代文化實驗場(C-LAB)的未來視覺實驗室(Future Vision Lab) 的穹頂劇場 (Full Dome Cinema)，以專場形式公開放映。自2020年起，此計畫同名電影 Narstalgia與改編的沈浸式作品，已陸續於英國倫敦、日本東京、韓國光州、冰島雷克雅維克、台灣台北、澳洲墨爾本等地公開放映與展出。2026年夏季受 「晴空季」 之邀，再次回到台北放映，於嶄新的C-LAB穹頂劇場2.0與大家見面。