Curators: John Bardakos & Jessie Dong & Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio Team.
!OBJECT, pronounced NOT OBJECT, is a series of ‘technoetic’ compositions (technoetics, a term coined by Roy Ascott, combines technology practices with noetics). These ‘non-object’ artworks exist as material carriers of immateriality and are the creations of our very first graduate students in technoetic arts.
In this exhibition we witness the convergence of the three types of VRs – or the “three Graces of our culture” – described by Roy Ascott as Virtual Reality, Validated Reality and Vegetal Reality. In this exhibition, the artists reject most avenues of certainty and instead re-examine and question key notions of our existence. Through each work the artists are asking: ‘What it is to be human?’, ‘How do we act and react in cyberspace?’, ‘What is the “self”?’ and ‘In what way do “selves” form a society and how do these social structures interact with the “natural” and the “cosmic”?’ All of these questions examine contemporary interactions between material and immaterial forms of existence.
This exhibition showcases sample works by the first graduates of the Bachelor of Art (BA) in Technoetic Arts course at the Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio, DeTao Masters Academy, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (SIVA).
Dreamtation
Ni Yunyun (Sariel) (CN)
Dreamtation creates an immersive virtual world that gives the participants the opportunity to reflect on meditation from a new perspective.
Aesthetic Metagustations
Gu Xingyu (CN)
The Aesthetic Metagustations installation illustrates how the sense of taste can be translated into other sensory experiences.
MOM
4125 (CN), Jin Yi (Alanis) (CN)
MOM is a four-screen video installation in the form of an altar - a cinematic altar that integrates totems, myths and elements to reflect a new interpretation on the Cyborg.
IT'S NOT ME
Yang Shuai (Rachel) (CN)
IT'S NOT ME uses saliva as an artistic medium to explore the concept of biological life.
Plastic Ocean
Shen Yichao (CN)
Plastic Ocean is a poetic VR game which simulates how human behavior affects the real-world environment.
Private Conversation
Zhou Jiajie (Jennifer) (CN)
Private Conversation is an immersive interactive installation that exposes the risks of online data privacy.
Self-distortion
Lin Yingyin (Lynn Black) (CN)
Self-distortion interrogates the mediating effects of technology on identity construction.
The Technoetic Arts Major is an advanced Art program based on the research-creation paradigm, exposing the students to both theoretical and practical issues through the broader fields of art and technology. Technoetics is a convergent field of theory and practice that seeks to explore the broad spectrum of consciousness and connectivity; a specific approach via digital, telematic, chemical or spiritual means, embracing both interactive and psychoactive technologies, as well as the creative use of moist media. With a strong focus on artistic expression and on combining teaching and research with practical applications, the Roy Ascott Technoetic Arts Studio offers a pathway to holistic creativity that will enhance both individual and collective ways of thought, expression and innovation.
