New media exhibition explores the digital age
With the surge of cyber culture and the application of digital devices, technology has, to a great extent, restructured our understanding toward time and space, work and entertainment, politics and economy. A new media exhibition “unReal: the Algorithmic Present” is ongoing at Chronus Art Center in Shanghai, trying to explore the materiality overshadowed by bits and bytes.
More than 20 art installations by a dozen international artists are on display. Swiss artist Pe Lang translates and plays with physics laws with kinetic sculpture. His “Modular | nº 1” installation comprises grids of silicone wires with numerous O-rings. When the wires rotate, the rings also move along the axis of each wire in a certain direction. When two rings collide, they alter the direction, and thus create an illusion as if they have crossed each other and moved forward.
Chinese new media artist aaajiao showcases a floating 3D printing landscape model. The shape of the model is resulted from a pixel-matrix algorithm, and hovers in the air indefinitely due to magnetic levitation.
A dozen human portraits adorn the wall to the entrance of the exhibition hall. The installation “Stranger Visions,” created by US artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, visualizes strangers based on the genetic materials the artist collected from public areas, such as dumped chewing gum. By constructing the strangers’ faces, the artist insinuates the potential threat of bio-surveillzance in today’s society.
Spaniard Daniel Canogar attracts great attention during the opening with his “Small Data” which features recycled electronic devices, such as discs, scanners, Gameboys and DVDs. Creative 3D mapping images are projected onto the re-assembled objects, recalling collective memories of the pass era.
Sponsored by Pro Helvetia Shanghai, the exhibition runs through January 21 at CAC in M50 art hub.
