Kaidan Project: Alone is a deeply personal augmented reality experience created during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed as a standalone companion piece to the world of Kaidan, it explores themes of isolation, longing, and the unseen spirits that linger around us — refracted through an intimate, interactive ghost story for one.

Built in Unity and released for both iOS and Android, the app-based experience invited participants across the country into a haunting narrative, combining augmented reality, binaural sound design and cinematic media— blurring the line between the digital and the physical world.

For Los Angeles residents, the app featured a GPS-based walking tour of Little Tokyo, using location-triggered AR to share the layered history of the neighborhood. Through a ghost story lens, participants uncovered real stories from the community, including dozens of recorded interviewsreflecting on identity, displacement, and the trauma of the Japanese American internment camps. As users moved through the city, hidden AR elements appeared — layering digital spirits onto real-world spaces, transforming the tour into a deeply reflective and cinematic journey.

Sean Cawelti served as Creative Director, Video Designer, and Animator, shaping the project’s aesthetic and narrative language with atmospheric visual storytelling and layered multimedia design.