Virtual Embodiment in Chinese Digital Art

Key information

Date
Time
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Venue
Virtual Event

About this event

Dr Angela Becher (Lecturer in Chinese Film Studies, University of Liverpool)

This talk examines how contemporary Chinese urban space adopts symbolic meaning in the works of Chinese artists who work across a range of new media, including 3D-modelled simulations, augmented as well as mixed reality. Via semiotic and media analysis, the talk scrutinizes the ontology of these media in their deployment of spatial parameters such as proportion and perspective, as well as stasis and motion to create an ideologically informed spatial narrative of today’s (Chinese) cities. Examples include the imaginary of architecture and space in Cao Fei’s RMB City , an interactive emulation of a Chinese city on the virtual platform Second Life and Zhu Xiaowen’s mixed reality performance Wearable Urban Routine which uses video projections to simulate everyday routines in the city. It be will argued that the use of the digital medium serves to create an ephemeral imaginary of architecture and space which can help to better understand the role of the human in actual, physical space.

Dr. Angela Becher is Lecturer in Chinese Film Studies at the University of Liverpool. She obtained her Master’s in Sinology and a Doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, with a thesis on contemporary Chinese art, film and architecture. Angela Becher previously taught at SOAS in London, the University of Manchester and Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany). Her research is situated at the nexus of contemporary Chinese art, socio-political history and critical theory, with a particular interest in digital media.

RSVP Registration by 1 February 2021

Zoom link will be sent to registered audience one day before the seminar.

Organiser: China & Inner Asia Section, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS

Contact email: xl1@soas.ac.uk