Ffynnon Gybi/ St Cybi's Well

Still in its development, ‘Ffynnon Gybi’ is an interactive digital quest, created by CGI Artist Nicholas Delap. The work serves as part game, part research project, seeking to re-enchant and revive the ancient practice of pilgrimage, and the reverence of Britains holy wells. Users explore and interact with enchanted, digital interpretations of real sacred sites and landscapes, linking their journey to the setting sun. Including the shrine and of St Winifred, St Cybi’s holy well, the Hillfort of Carn Pentyrch and the holy island of Bardsey. Various ancient practices and traditions are referenced within the journey, with plant magic, votive offerings, and ritual being essential mechanics to the progression of the quest. Unlike a traditional video game, Ffynnon Gybi is not about challenge or competition. It is about presence and participation. Users are encouraged to interact with elements within the world, to seek out relics, make votive offerings, and learn from fragments of local folklore and plant magic woven into the fabric of the environment. In doing so, they become digital pilgrims, opening portal and tracing paths through a world that blurs the boundary between the virtual and the sacred. The concept of a digital realm plays an important part in the project and also Delaps wider work. Digital space is often seen as something separate from the natural world, a synthetic layer imposed over reality. But Delap is interested in how it might instead become a site of re-enchantment, a place where technology can deeper our connection to nature, by highlighting what makes it so special. The screen becomes not a barrier but a threshold: a portal through which we might re-enter a dialogue with the more-than-human world. The work is being built and developed by digital artist Nicholas Delap, a digital artist based in the north of England, who’s practice utilises a combination of coding, photogrammetry, 3D modelling, and story telling to attempt to weave a re-wilding of the mind. Within his work he crafts immersive virtual environments, sculptures, and augmented reality installations that blur the line between the human and the natural world. His artworks invite viewers into a dialogue with environmentalism, spirituality, and mythology, challenging anthropocentric perspectives, and celebrating the personhood of the wilderness. Delap has participated in several prominent artist residencies, including SPUR and the Rupert AEP Programme in Lithuania. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the UK, Europe, and the Americas. He also works as a designer and has worked for musicians and brands such as Ashnikko, Bring me the Horizon, Crocs, Burberry and Parklife Festival.