Aesthetics and AI: Foundry exhibition showcases roots of Chinese digital art

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

“Always Growing” is the name of the exhibition about to be inaugurated (Sept. 2) at Foundry art space in Boulevard Crescent, Downtown Dubai. Presented by InCulture and curated by Jing Shen, it will look into the history of contemporary digital art in China. Artists and art bodies participating are Baoyang Chen, Dabeiyuzhou, Fn Media Lab, Raven Kwok, Zixuan Nian, Uchan Sun, Xiaolei Tian, Changcun Wang, Yicai Wang and Mr. D. Mousse. “Lao Tzu’s ‘Tao Te Ching’”, says Foundry, “states Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things.” In ancient Chinese philosophy and cosmology, yin and yang, virtuality and reality, are seen as the foundation of all creation. The ever-changing world is both virtual and real. All things flow in the void, continuously thriving and regenerating.

“The dynamic interplay of virtuality and reality” not only forms a core aspect of Chinese philosophy but also underpins an important aesthetic concept in Chinese art, providing creators with a vast space for imagination and innovation. Digital art, as a virtual and real coexisting art form, following this concept, has evolved from experimental explorations in the early 20th century to a diverse fusion in the 21st century, and has become an integral part of everyday lives. Alongside rapid technological advancements, contemporary Chinese digital art has developed swiftly since the beginning of the new century, in a span of just over 20 years. Contemporary Chinese digital artists, often with interdisciplinary backgrounds and strong collaborative spirits, explore a wide range of topics through their artistic practices, delving into the relationships between humanity and technology, history and the future, showcasing their imagination and a profound spiritual world.

The exhibition features works from 10 artists or collectives who are at the forefront of contemporary Chinese digital art creation. The showcased works encompass various types such as artificial intelligence, generative art, 3D imaging, gaming, mixed reality, somatosensory interaction, computer programming composition and live coding. They aim to immerse audience in an experience that has no boundaries between virtuality and reality, all the while conveying distinctive Eastern aesthetics. The use of technology in art creation goes beyond merely displaying technological prowess; the exhibited artists, like Pao Ding in Chuang Tzu’s “Essentials for Nourishing Life”, use technology to explore in depth and interpret the complexities of human society and culture, finding new avenues for expression.

Lao Tzu was a semi-legendary ancient Chinese philosopher and author of “Tao Te Ching”, the foundational text of Taoism. A central figure in Chinese culture, Lao Tzu is generally considered also the founder of Taoism. He was claimed and revered as the ancestor of the 7th–10th century Tang dynasty and is similarly honoured in modern China as the progenitor of the popular surname Li. The “Tao Te Ching” is a Chinese classic text and is central to both philosophical and religious Taoism; it has been highly influential in Chinese philosophy and religious practice in general. Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media.

  A composition by Zixuan Nian.

Since the 1960s, various names have been used to describe digital art, including computer art, electronic art, multimedia art, and new media art. Digital art can be purely computer-generated (such as fractals and algorithmic art) or taken from other sources, such as a scanned photograph or an image drawn using vector graphics software. Artworks are considered digital paintings when created similarly to non-digital paintings but using software on a computer platform and digitally outputting the resulting image as painted on canvas. “Despite differing viewpoints on digital technology’s impact on the arts,” says wikipedia, “a consensus exists within the digital art community about its significant contribution to expanding the creative domain, i.e., it has greatly broadened the creative opportunities available to professional and non-professional artists alike.”

The Foundry exhibition also includes a digital humanities unit, presenting the latest academic achievements from Research Center for Digital Humanities of Renmin University of China (RUC). “Digital humanities (DH),” says wikipedia, “is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, as well as the analysis of their application. DH can be defined as new ways of doing scholarship that involve collaborative, trans-disciplinary, and computationally engaged research, teaching, and publishing. It brings digital tools and methods to the study of the humanities with the recognition that the printed word is no longer the main medium for knowledge production and distribution.”

By producing and using new applications and techniques, wikipedia adds, DH makes new kinds of teaching possible, while at the same time studying and critiquing how these impact cultural heritage and digital culture. Since DH is also applied in research, one of its distinctive features is its cultivation of a two-way relationship between the humanities and the digital: the field both employs technology in the pursuit of humanities research and subjects technology to humanistic questioning and interrogation. RUC is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal People’s Government.