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Emotions are what drive humans to do the things that we do. Whether it is a psychological response or a behavioral one, our emotions begin with an experience that is unique to each of us. For many years, we have built an association of visual forms such as colors, weather, expressions, and more to convey emotions in complex ways. Just like how blue is used to describe gloom, and a sunny day may indicate positivity and happiness, the way humans perceive emotions has evolved. One prominent artist is pushing the bounds for a deeper understanding of what triggers our feelings. British artist and director, Saad Moosajee uses multiple mediums of art focused on the visual aesthetics that further develop the complexities of expressing, experiencing, and resonating with emotions through his works.

情绪是驱动人类去实施行动的动力。无论是心理反应还是行为反应，我们的情绪都始于自己的独有体验。多年来，我们建立了一种与情绪有关的视觉形式上的关联，如颜色、天气、表情等，以复杂的方式传达情感。就像蓝色经常被用来描述忧郁，阳光明媚的日子可能预示着积极和幸福一样，人类感知情绪的方式也在进化。有这样一位杰出的艺术家正在突破界限，以更深入地了解触发我们的感受因素。英国艺术家兼导演 Saad Moosajee 使用多种艺术媒介，专注于视觉美学，更深入地探索如何作品来表达、体验和与情感产生共鸣的复杂性。

About the artist

关于艺术家

Artist Saad Moosajee, who is now based in Brooklyn, works through many mediums to work across many genres to create new ways of building narratives. Having graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, he uses Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and Poser to create visually stunning surreal worlds that are visceral and otherworldly. Using his experience in animation, design, and visual effects, he experiments with old and new visual techniques to arouse notions of timeless art. 

Saad Moosajee 现在居住在布鲁克林，他通过多种媒介，跨众多流派来创造新的叙事方式。从罗德岛设计学院毕业后，他使用 Photoshop、Cinema 4D 和 Poser 创造了视觉上令人惊叹的超现实世界，这些世界是他发自本能的创作，超凡脱俗的。运用他在动画、设计和视觉效果方面的经验，他的视觉实验将新的和旧的视觉技术结合起来，以唤起永恒艺术的概念。

Now an adjunct teacher at the School of Visual Arts, he has risen to prominent fame and worked with the world’s leading brands, talents, and institutions such as the Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke, Mitski, The New York Times, and Google. His work has also been featured in The Hammer Museum, Sharjah Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum of Moving Image and won several prestigious awards from SXSW, Forbes, D&AD, and The Art Directors Club.  

Saad现在是视觉艺术学院的兼职教师，他声名鹊起，并与世界领先的品牌、人才和机构合作，如 Radiohead 主唱、Thom Yorke、Mitski、纽约时报和谷歌。 他的作品还曾在 The Hammer 博物馆、沙迦当代艺术博物馆和动态影像博物馆展出，并获得了 SXSW、福布斯、D&AD 和艺术指导俱乐部的多个著名奖项。

Self-taught from the age of 15

从15岁开始自学

Still from the video for Joji’s 777, directed by Saad Moosajee

From an early age, Saad was interested in the art of visual storytelling, learning different types of software in artistic ways. From the age of 15 he set out to fulfill his vision, however, unlike the fortunate artists of today, there were not as many tutorials that were available to the public and online video platforms such as Youtube were not as developed as they are now. Saad would experiment with the artistic usage of different software while taking references from the fantastic works of H.R. Giger and Salvador Dali. Inspired by their works, he would go on to work as a freelancer and become a creative director at Slashthree.

Saad 从小就对视觉叙事的艺术感兴趣，以艺术为方向学习不同类型的软件。从 15 岁开始，他就开始慢慢朝着实现自己的愿景而努力，然而，与今天幸运的艺术家们不同，彼时公众可以获得的教程并不多，Youtube 等在线视频平台也没有现在这样发达。Saad 不断尝试不同软件的艺术用途，同时以H.R. Giger 和 Salvador Dali 的精彩作品为参考。受到他们作品的启发，他以自由职业者的身份工作，并成为 Slashthree 的创意总监。

Through his experience, he would further be inspired by graffiti artists such as Banksy and his surrounding environment. This would lead him to jump into the path of becoming an artist by exploring deeper themes surrounding emotion and aesthetics. Using videos as his “playground” to push the boundaries of animation, he would mark technological advancement as one of the key factors of his work.

通过此前经历，他进一步受到 Banksy 等涂鸦艺术家和周围环境的启发。这引导他一跃而达艺术的层面，通过探索围绕情感和美学的更深层次的主题，走上了艺术家的道路。使用视频作为他的“游乐场”来突破动画的界限，他将技术进步标记为他作品的关键元素之一。

Creating phantom worlds for Thom Yorke

为 Thom Yorke 创建幻影世界

Thom Yorke- “Last I heard”, directed by Saad Moosajee

The abstract narrative is the most suitable phrase that comes to mind when thinking of Saad Moosajee’s works. When he was tasked with creating a music video for Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, he set out to devise an experience that is not only personal but also unforgettable. 

抽象叙事，是看到 Saad Moosajee 的作品时所联想到的最合适的词组。当他受命为 Radiohead 的 Thom Yorke 制作音乐视频时，他着手设计一种不仅是个人的，而且是令人难忘的体验。

The music video, “Last I heard” features a gloomy world full of ghostly human-like figures wandering through the darkness where the dark and light contrasts highlight our sense of emotions when feeling anxiety and isolation. The artist accomplishes this strangely alluring dark fantasy using 3D animation combined with hand-painted rotoscoping, creating a fluid and rough visual aesthetic.

 《Last I heard》的MV描绘了一个阴暗的世界，充满了幽灵般的人形，在黑暗中徘徊，黑暗和光明的对比突出了我们在感到焦虑和孤立时的情绪感。 艺术家使用 3D 动画与手绘转描的方法相结合，完成了这种诡异诱人的黑暗幻想，营造出流畅而粗犷的视觉美感。

“While there is a stylistic crossover between all of my projects, It’s important to me that each video can function as a standalone piece aesthetically. I believe this makes the experience of watching it more memorable and allows the audience to create a longer-lasting connection. “Last I Heard” is a deeply personal work that explores different concepts of urban anxiety and isolation. I believe the most important test of a video is whether or not it can evoke an emotional response – I always strive for this.”

“虽然我所有的项目在风格上都有交集，但对我来说，重要的是每个视频都可以在美学上成为一个独立的片段。我相信这会让观看它的体验更加难忘，并让观众建立更持久的联系。《Last I Heard》是一部非常个人作品，探讨了城市焦虑和孤立的不同概念。我相信对视频最重要的测试是它是否能唤起情感反应——我一直在为此而努力。”

– Saad Moosajee

Building animated worlds with 3000 frames

用 3000 帧构建起动画世界

Mitski- “Pearl”, directed by Saad Moosajee

Working with studio Art Camp and animator Danaé Gosset, Saad Moosajee worked on his new project for the music video for “Pearl” by American singer, Mitski. The artist believes that this was the most ambitious world-building that he had done for any project. Balancing the story and impressive attention to detail, Saad creates a colorful abstract world that has a total of 3000 individually mastered frames. Each frame is a meticulous amalgamation of traditional and digital mediums including 3D animation, crowd simulation, charcoal painting, oil paint primer, crayons as well as stop motion photography.

Saad Moosajee 与Art Camp工作室，还有动画师 Danaé Gosset 一起合作，为美国歌手 Mitski 的《Pearl》MV制作了他的新项目。这位艺术家认为，这是他迄今为止所有项目中做的最雄心勃勃的一次世界建筑。Saad 平衡了故事和对细节的深刻关注，创造了一个色彩缤纷的抽象世界，共有 3000 幅独立的帧。每一帧都是传统和数字媒体的精心融合，包括 3D 动画、人群模拟、木炭画、油画底漆、蜡笔画以及定格摄影。

While Saad’s works feature heavy use of surreal moments that capture our hearts, his works are by contrast very grounded in reality. It is the sense of realism of motion, movement, and perspective that all make the story more captivating. For “Pearl” the artist would reference real-life videos of people and he would also film himself ripping fabrics and falling sideways to recreate them. Interestingly, one of the key references that Saad received that he marveled at was Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane and falling from the sky in the movie, Mission Impossible: Fallout. 

虽然Saad的作品中大量灵感是基于捕捉我们心灵的超现实时刻，但相比之下，他的作品却非常扎根于现实。正是运动，移动，透视关系这些所营造出的现实主义的感觉使得叙事更加引人入胜。对于《Pearl》这部作品，艺术家会参考现实生活中人们的视频，他还会拍摄自己撕开织物，并侧身摔倒以重现它们。有趣的是，Saad收到的令他惊讶的参考视频之一是汤姆克鲁斯在电影《碟中谍：辐射》中从飞机上跳下来从天而降。

“One of the first references that were given to me was from Mission Impossible: Fallout. There’s one scene where Tom Cruise jumps out of an airplane — a really long shot of him falling through the sky. It’s a technical achievement, none of it green-screened or computer-generated. Tom Cruise actually jumps out of a plane. That was given as a reference of what it feels like emotionally for a person to fall in a strenuous scenario.”

“给我的第一个参考视频来自《碟中谍：辐射》。有一个场景是汤姆克鲁斯从飞机上跳下来——这是他从天上坠下的一个很长的镜头。这是一项技术成就，不是绿屏或计算机生成的。汤姆克鲁斯实际上是从飞机上跳下来的。这是一个人在剧烈情景中跌倒时情绪上所感受的参考。”

Mixed with the powerful vocals and strumming of Mitski’s guitar, the final result is a 1,480 frame hand-made video that follows a woman navigating through abstract environments that reenact a thrilling and natural visual interpretation of an emotional journey.

结合 Mitski 强劲的演唱和弹奏的吉他，最终的结果是一段由1480帧，手工绘制的视频，该视频跟随一位女性在抽象环境中导航，重新演绎了一段激动人心且自然的情感旅程的视觉诠释。

Why NFT was the next step and what’s to come

为什么 NFT 会成为下一步，即将发生的是什么

Prominent artists have sometimes been known to shun NFTs due to the speculative and commercial nature of their current market, however, Saad Moosajee thinks otherwise. For the artist, technology has paved his career path with which he is able to experiment and learn from it to realize new artistic visions like he set out to do so from the age of 15. He believes that as a digital artist, NFTs will be the next step of artistic evolution that should be embraced. NFTs not only expose artists to a wider audience of collectors but also completely changes the way art and artists are managed as a whole.

由于当前市场的投机和商业性质，知名艺术家有时会避开 NFT，但 Saad Moosajee 不这么认为。对于艺术家来说，技术为他的职业道路铺平了道路，他可以通过它进行实验和学习，以实现新的艺术愿景，就像他从 15 岁开始就开始那样做的一样。他相信，作为一名数字艺术家，NFT将会被接纳，这是艺术进化的下一步。NFT不仅将艺术家呈现给更广泛的收藏家受众，而且还彻底改变了艺术和艺术家的整体管理方式。

“The Gaze” NFT by Saad Moosajee

Saad created his first NFT series for SuperRare titled, “Verses” which explores themes surrounding life after death, South Asia futurism, the reinterpretation of classical paintings, and surrealism. Through this series of digital artworks, the artist aims to bring light to a unique futuristic world with the spin of European classical painting techniques and themes to spread out a rich and visually gripping narrative that coexists in his surreal universe.

Saad 为 SuperRare 创建了他的第一个 NFT 系列，名为“Verses”，探索了围绕死后生活、南亚未来主义、古典绘画的重新诠释和超现实主义的主题。通过这一系列的数字艺术作品，艺术家们旨在为一个独特的未来世界带来光明。以欧洲古典绘画技巧和主题为特色，展开了一个丰富且在视觉上引人入胜的叙事，并在他的超现实世界中共存。

“The Awakening” NFT by Saad Moosajee

Since his first NFT drop,  Saad Moosajee is set to drop his second installment of the   “Verses” series. The artist hopes to continue experimenting with NFTs to make new experiences and is interested in realizing the potential of arising or developing technologies such as 3D animation and the Metaverse to “create diverse futures that act as modern historical reenactments and rewritings.”

自从他的第一个 NFT 诞生以来，Saad Moosajee 放弃了他的“Verses”系列的第二部分。这位艺术家希望继续尝试 NFT 以创造新的体验，他对正处新兴状态或正在开发中的 3D 动画和元宇宙等技术的潜力充满兴趣，因为这些正在“创造作为现代历史重演和改写的多样化未来”。

“I feel like this is one of the most important things, and something hugely promising about the NFT movement. Artists supporting and actively communicating with each other is inspiring on many levels.”

“我觉得这是最重要的事情之一，也是 NFT 运动中非常有希望的事情。艺术家们相互支持和积极交流，在许多层面上都鼓舞人心。”

–  Saad Moosajee

*all images and artworks belong to the artist & his representing galleries respectively

*所有图像和艺术品分别属于艺术家及其他们代表的画廊

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看艺术家的更多信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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本篇文章来源于微信公众号: SHMADNESS

Learning to See (2017). Memo Akten

“We must learn to see things as they are, not as we are.”

“我们必须学会看待事物的本来面目，而不是我们的本来面目。”

– Memo Akten

Perception is the visual and sensory interpretation of the world around us. The way we see the world is unique to our experiences and environment. For years, humans have been working with machines to emulate humans and their emotions for the purposes of automation, productivity, and the research of the human psyche. Through artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms, machines are now able to mimic humans. Being modeled after humans, machines can show the complex state of human perception and the impact of our cognitive functions on the way we express ourselves. Artist Memo Akten takes this concept of perception to help us realize the disparities that arise in our view of the world. The artist’s union of art and technology not only explore the collaboration of humans and machine but also show us a bigger picture of the implications of AI development.

感知是我们对周围世界的视觉和感官解释。我们看待世界的方式由各人的经验和所处环境而异。多年来，人类一直在使用机器来模仿人类及其情绪，以实现自动化、提高产量以及人类心理研究。通过人工智能和深度学习算法，机器现在能够模仿人类。以人类为模型，机器可以显示人类感知的复杂状态以及我们的认知功能对如何表达自己的方式的影响。艺术家 Memo Akten 采用这种感知概念来帮助我们认识对世界的看法所出现的差异。这位艺术家将艺术与技术结合起来，不仅探索了人与机器的协作，还向我们展示了人工智能发展的更大意义。

About the artist

关于艺术家

Memo Akten is an award-winning artist based in London.  researcher and philomath whose award-winning projects use AI to reflect ourselves and how we make sense of the world. The artist takes inspiration from a wide variety of sciences and is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence with a focus on Machine Learning. He has exhibited works globally in places such as the Grand Palais in Paris, the Royal Opera House in London, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in Russia, Holon Museum in Tel Aviv, the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam, and the Lisbon Architecture Triennale in Portugal. He has received prizes such as the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in 2013, the Japan Media Arts award in 2015, and more. Akten is now doing his artist residency at the Royal Northern College of Music Centre for PRiSM (Practice & Research in Science & Music) in Manchester.

Memo Akten 是一位屡获殊荣的伦敦艺术家。同时也是一位研究员和哲学家，其获奖项目使用人工智能来反映我们自己以及我们如何理解世界。他从各种科学中汲取灵感，目前正在攻读人工智能的博士学位，重点是机器学习。他的作品在全球范围内展出，如巴黎大皇宫、伦敦皇家歌剧院、俄罗斯莫斯科现代艺术博物馆、特拉维夫霍隆博物馆、阿姆斯特丹 EYE 电影学院和葡萄牙里斯本建筑三年展。他还获得了2013 年 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica 奖、2015 年日本媒体艺术奖等奖项。Akten 现在正在曼彻斯特的皇家北方音乐学院 PRiSM（科学与音乐实践与研究）中心学习创作。

“My biggest inspiration is trying to understand the world around me. The fundamental questions that drive me are the same questions that have been asked for thousands of years. What is the nature of the universe? What is the nature of life? What is the nature of the mind? Drawing from fields such as physics, biology, abiogenesis, evolution, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, history, and theology, I study the hidden processes that shape our world, and develop systems that abstract behavior hoping to create unfamiliar familiarities and encourage new perceptions.”

“我最大的灵感是试图了解我周围的世界。驱动我的问题与几千年来一直被问到的问题相同。宇宙的本质是什么？生命的本质是什么？心灵的本质是什么？我从物理学、生物学、生物起源、进化论、神经科学、心理学、哲学、社会学、人类学、历史和神学等领域汲取灵感，研究塑造我们世界的隐藏过程，并开发抽象行为的系统，希望创造不熟悉的熟悉感以及鼓励新的看法。”

Understanding our current reality through machines

通过机器了解我们当前的现实

Engineered Arts. Youtube.

Today, robots are able to express emotions to a certain extent with robots such as Ameca and Sophia taking on a human-like persona. It is a surreal yet uneasy realization that humans must consider when thinking of the future. The once dystopian worlds of movies like Bladerunner, I-Robot, and Minority Report could be closer realities than we think. At the same time, we wonder about the differences in understanding human emotions and expressing them from the perspective of both humans and machines.

今天，机器人能够在一定程度上表达情感，而 Ameca 和 Sophia 等机器人则已经开始逼真于人类。这是人类在思考未来时必须考虑的超现实但令人不安的事实。《银翼杀手》 （Bladerunner）、《我，机器人》（I-Robot ）和 《少数派报告》（Minority Report
） 等曾经的反乌托邦电影世界可能比我们想象的更接近现实。同时，我们想知道从人类和机器的角度来理解人类情感并表达它们的差异。

Learning to See (2021). Memo Akten

Memo Akten’s “Deep Meditations” is multi-disciplinary work that explores how machines interpret human concepts such as love, life, theology, nature, and more. Akten does so by training the algorithm to associate images that relate to concepts of human life and program it to imagine newly generated images as part of its interpretation. This experiment creates a fresh visual journal that records the imagination of machines. The resulting imagery is a mix of objects, concepts, and environments in unprecedented arrangements that build a narrative of the inner thinkings of the machine based on human experiences. The significant part of this work does not lie within the machine itself but rather the algorithm that controls the outcomes.

Memo Akten 的“Deep Meditations”是跨领域的作品，探索机器如何解释人类概念，如爱情、生活、神学、自然等。Akten 通过训练算法与人类生活概念相关的图像关联起来，并对其进行编程，以新生成的图像作为呈现的一部分。这个实验创造了一个新的视觉日记，记录了机器的想象力。由此产生的图像是混合了主体、概念和环境，它们以前所未有的排列方式构建了基于人类经验的机器内部思维的叙述。这个作品的重要部分不在于机器本身，而在于控制结果的算法。

Deep Mediations (2019). Memo Akten

Memo Akten’s reasoning for creating this work is not only to observe the perspectives and relationship of humans and machines but also to raise awareness about the chaotic nature of how we shape our beliefs and to question it. Having seen the rise of ISIS, conflicts within Turkey, Brexit, Trump, and the way people begin to believe in certain things, he hopes that “Deep Mediations” can help humans to see the flaw of human perception. Our biases, and the failure to regard an instance from the viewpoints of others as well as the way we come to our conclusions surrounding the world is what the artist believes led us to our current social and political environments. Just like the machine, we are fed to see information in certain ways and our surrounding influences shape the outcome of those interpretations beyond facts. Akten creates commentary for more than creative matters through this work and hopes that the use of technology may create a better world.

Memo Akten 创作这部作品的原因不仅是为了观察人与机器的视角和关系，同时是为了让人们对我们如何塑造信仰的混乱本质进行认识并质疑它。看到 ISIS 的崛起、土耳其内部的冲突、英国脱欧、特朗普以及人们开始相信某些事情的方式，他希望“Deep Meditations”这个作品可以帮助人类看到人类感知的缺陷。我们存在偏见，不能从他人的角度看待一个现象，并且总是由周围所处的环境得出结论，这些是艺术家认为我们是如何造成当前的社会和政治环境的原因。就像机器一样，我们被以某种方式投喂信息，而周围的影响塑造了我们如何理解这些信息，而不是对事实的了解。Akten通过这个作品展现出了一种不局限于艺术的讨论，他希望技术的使用可以创造一个更美好的世界。

“My duty is to inform people that this genesis is happening – it’s alive and in motion right now – and we should be talking about it and asking the right questions…It’s imperative that we all do that to have hope in shaping the future.”

“我的职责是告诉人们这个过程正在发生——它现在还活跃着并且在做出改变——我们应该谈论它并提出正确的问题……我们这样做迫在眉睫，只有这样才能对塑造未来抱有希望。”

Learning to See

学会看见

Learning to See (2017). Memo Akten

The human mind is a complex and powerful machine in itself. While it relies on sensory data to create our world not all of it may be real. Our brains are engineered in a way that allows us to fill in missing information in the blink of an eye. Many people may have experienced the viral white-gold or blue-black dress illusion where the mind “fills in” missing visual input based on its internal memory. Take this optical illusion below for example. 

人脑本身就是一台复杂而强大的机器。虽然它依靠感官数据来创造我们的世界，但并非所有这些都是真实的。我们大脑的工作方式使我们能够在眨眼之间填补缺失的信息。许多人可能经历过网络病毒式的白金还是蓝黑色裙子的错觉，在这种错觉中，大脑会根据其内部记忆“填补”缺失的视觉输入。以下面的这种视错觉为例，

When we see this image, we see a triangle, however in reality it is not. Our brain is trained to see the world through patterns, geometric structures, objects, and logic. This concept is similar to what Memo Akten shows through his works. The concept of bias defines the beliefs of the people around us. “Learning to See” is the extension of “Deep Mediations” that explores these themes. 

当我们看到这个图像时，我们看到的是一个三角形，但实际上它不是。我们的大脑被训练通过图案、几何结构、对象和逻辑来看待世界。这个概念类似于Memo Atkens 通过他的作品所展示的。偏见的概念定义了我们周围人的观念。“Learning to See”这个系列在“Deep Mediations”之外对探索这些主题进一步展开延伸。

Learning to See (2017). Memo Akten

“Learning to See” is Akten’s ongoing series of works that has an artificial neural network that interprets the world it seems from the context of its memory and experiences. Using machine learning algorithms, the artist makes viewers self-reflect on their state and how they understand the world around them. Here, the inner mind is not an exact copy of the world but our reconstruction of it. Instead of focusing on the external representation, it focuses more on the internal visualization in the same way we dream and imagine. This deep exploration of bias and social polarization is what makes Akten’s art valuable. It goes beyond the magnificent visual imagery and technical prowess by showing the inventive nature of the mind shown through the help of machines.

《学会看见》（Learning to See）是 Akten 正在进行的一系列作品，它有一个人工神经网络，它从记忆和经验的背景中解释它所看到的世界。通过使用机器学习算法，艺术家让观众自我反思他们的状态以及他们如何理解周围的世界。在这里，内心不是世界的精确副本，而是我们对世界的重建。它不像我们梦想和想象的那样专注于外部表现，而是更多地关注内心的可视化。这种对偏见和社会两极分化的深入探索使阿克滕的艺术变得有价值。它超越了宏伟的视觉图像和技术实力，通过机器的帮助展示了思维的创造性本质。

Deep Mediations (2019). Memo Akten

Issues such as climate change and Brexit are some examples Akten comments on indirectly through his work. The construction of bias and the way many people cement their beliefs in irrational ways is something that we must stop and think about for making better decisions for the future. These types of phenomena show that oftentimes people seek out information that aligns more with affirming their biases and that humans tend to subconsciously live in an illusion of perceiving the world objectively. The message is that our view of the world is seen as reality rather than biased and that another interpretation that is not ours is less trustworthy or incorrect. These assumptions, of course, are not intentional but simply the reality that we build within our heads subconsciously. 

气候变化和英国脱欧等问题是Akten通过他的作品间接表达的一些例子。偏见的构建以及许多人以非理性方式巩固他们信念的方式是我们必须停下来思考的事情，以便为未来做出更好的决策。这些类型的现象表明，人们通常会寻找更符合肯定他们的偏见的信息，并且人类倾向于下意识地生活在客观感知世界的幻觉中。信息是我们对世界的看法，它被视为现实而不是偏见，但是另一种不属于我们的解释就显得不那么正确和值得信赖了，当然，这些假设不是故意的，而只是我们下意识地在脑海中建立的现实。

Deep Mediations (2019). Memo Akten

At the end of the day, Memo Akten hopes that his works can help us to self-reflect and identify the restraints of human perception while also developing technology that can be used in more positive ways for the benefit of humans. For him, AI is his main tool for seeing the world in a different light and showcasing the intricacies of our relationship with ourself psychology and our perception of reality.

归根结底，Memo Akten 希望他的作品能够帮助我们自我反省，识别人类感知的限制，同时开发可以更积极地用于造福人类的技术。对他来说，人工智能是他以不同的眼光看待世界并展示我们与自己的心理和我们对现实感知的复杂关系的主要工具。

“…What’s happening in 2018 is not disconnected from what happened 100 or 10,000 years ago. When Galileo took a lens and made a telescope to look at the stars, he literally allowed us to look at the world in a whole new light. We cannot be the same after that. Well, that would have worked better if the Church hadn’t stepped in. If we do not use technology to see things differently, we are wasting it.”

“……2018 年发生的事情与一百或一万年前发生的事情并没有脱节。当伽利略用镜头制造望远镜来观测星体时，他确实让我们以全新的眼光看待世界。在那之后我们不再一样了。好吧，如果教会没有介入，那会更好。如果我们不使用技术以不同的方式看待事物，我们就是在浪费它。”

*all images and artworks belong to the artist & his representing galleries respectively

*所有图像和艺术品分别属于艺术家及其代表画廊

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看艺术家的更多信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Nature lives among humankind as a vital yet sometimes deadly force. While it is something that should be protected, it is also something that humans should be protected from. For many years mankind has been researching how to harness the power of nature for its benefit with great minds such as Nikola Tesla, Newton, and more. While some do so with destructive intent, others do so for the betterment of the world we live in. On the other hand, German artist Julius von Bismarck is looking to manipulate nature to his creative will. He journeys the world in search of thunderstorms with the intent of making a lightning bolt hit exactly where he wants so that he may capture the divine moment where the relationship of humans and nature intersect.

自然，与人类的生活紧密相关，但有时也是一种致命的力量。我们理应保护自然，因为我们也受到自然的庇护。多年来，一直有伟大的前人致力于研究如何利用自然的力量造福人类，如尼古拉特斯拉、牛顿等人。虽然其中不乏有些人是出于破坏性的意图，但其他人却是为了改善人类的生活和世界。德国艺术家朱利叶斯·冯·俾斯麦（Julius von Bismarck）尝试寻求用一种创造性的方式来操纵自然。他周游世界寻找雷暴，目的是让闪电准确地击中他想要的地方，以求捕捉到人与自然关系相交的神圣时刻。

About the artist

关于艺术家

Julius von Bismarck

Julius von Bismarck is a German multi-media artist engaged in an eclectic range of creative mediums. Internationally known for his bold and extreme artistic process, he creates works that confront human perception and experience. He is constantly weighing the concepts of human vs. nature, wild vs. controlled, as well as the perception of physical and social constraints throughout his works. In his approach, he uses his interest in physics, robotics, computer science, and digital media to explore philosophical themes surrounding these concepts. He is also known for being a student of the internationally renowned artist, Olafur Eliasson.

朱利叶斯·冯·俾斯麦是一位来自德国的多媒体艺术家，使用不同的媒介进行创作。他以其大胆而极端的创作而闻名于世，他的作品直面人类的感知和经验。在作品中不断权衡人与自然、野性与受控的概念，以及对身体和社会约束的感知。创作中，他利用对物理学、机器学、计算机科学和数字媒体的兴趣来探索围绕这些概念的哲学主题。他还因作为国际知名艺术家奥拉维尔·埃利亚松的学生而闻名。

A spark of realization

觉醒的火花

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Bismarck’s quest to tame lightning comes from an experience he had in the past where his car had been struck by lightning while he was asleep inside of it. Since then, he has been seeking out thunderstorms and atmospheric research centers in the hopes of capturing lightning. Scientists have achieved this in some aspects in the past. At the same time, the artist ponders the power struggle between nature and humans. Who is in control, is it nature or us? Are we the ones being endangered or is it nature? For the artist, it is a heavy question that shows the state of the perception of the word “nature”. Its meaning has aligned with “environment” and “climate change” and is often seen in a positive light. 

俾斯麦对驯服闪电的追求源于他过去的一次经历，他的汽车在他睡着的时候曾被闪电击中。从那以后，他一直在寻找雷暴，在大气研究的中心，希望能捕捉到闪电。科学家们曾经在某些方面已经实现了这一目标。但 同时，艺术家对自然与人类之间的权力斗争进行了思考。是谁在进行控制？是自然还是我们？究竟是谁正在濒临灭绝？对于艺术家来说，这是一个沉重的问题，显示了对“自然”一词的感知状态。它的含义与“环境”和“气候变化”一致，通常被视为积极的一面。

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

“Around 12 years ago, I was sleeping in my car on a mountain off the coast of Italy. Before I fell asleep it was a perfectly nice, sunshiny day. And then all of a sudden, I was woken by this loud noise and my car was surrounded by fire. I thought I’d been shot at because you don’t expect an explosion while camped on a hill in Italy. It took me about half an hour to realize I’d been struck by lightning. The car kept me safe from the electricity, but the shockwave of the thunder felt as if a hand grenade had exploded right next to me. The force was so intense. It sounds like a cliché, but being hit by lightning gave me an idea.”

“大约 12 年前，我在意大利海岸附近一座山上的车里睡着了。在我入睡之前，那是一个非常美好、阳光明媚的日子。然后突然间，我被一声巨响吵醒了，我的车被火包围了。我以为我被枪杀了，因为在意大利的山上露营时根本不会联想到发生爆炸。我花了大约半个小时才意识到自己被闪电击中了。车子让我免受电击，但雷声的冲击波感觉就像一颗手榴弹在我旁边炸开。力量是如此的强烈。这听起来像是陈词滥调，但被闪电击中让我有了一个想法。”

– Julius von Bismark

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Bismarck’s goal for this risky endeavor is to “domesticate” lightning and create an image that embodies a symbolic act– the straightening of a lightning bolt which manifests the perception of him controlling an unfathomable force of nature.

俾斯麦的这项冒险的目标是“驯化”闪电并创造一个体现象征性行为的形象——拉直闪电，这表明他要控制着一种深不可测的自然力量。

Talking to Thunder (2017)

与雷霆对话

After being struck by lightning, Bismarck found the knowledge he needed to test out his theory. One of the first instances of portraying the power of lightning was in his work “Talking to Thunder (2017)”. In 2016 he had heard the news of a large herd of reindeer that had been struck down by lightning in southern Norway. He hurried his way there to examine the corpses. 

被闪电击中后，俾斯麦找到了检验他的理论所需的知识。描绘闪电力量的第一个例子是在他的作品“与雷霆交谈（2017 年）”中。2016 年，他听说挪威南部有一大群驯鹿被闪电击倒。他急忙赶去检查尸体。

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Harvesting the antler tips that were destroyed by the aftermath, he created a series of sculptures that consisted of 130 antler tips, each placed on top of stainless-steel rods. In doing so he portrays nature as a type of brutal god that desires to be appeased and worshiped. At the same time, the artist ponders the personification of nature and his desire to communicate with it. The series of works in this project also includes video, photography, and performances.

他收集了被破坏的鹿角尖端，创作了一系列雕塑，由 130 个鹿角尖组成，每个都放置在不锈钢棒的顶部。过程中，他将自然描绘成一种渴望被安抚和崇拜的野蛮神。与此同时，艺术家在思考自然的化身以及他想与自然交流的愿望。这个项目的系列作品还包括视频、摄影和表演。

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

“Talking to Thunder (2017)” is not only a creative process but also a series of works that combine creative exploration through art and the methodological approach of science. In order to catch lightning for this work, he visited a jungle in Venezuela where thunderstorms were frequent and intense, recording them to understand how lightning could be manifested by his will. 

《与雷霆对话（2017）》不仅是一个创作过程，更是一系列艺术探索与科学方法论相结合的作品。为了在这项工作中捕捉闪电，他去到了委内瑞拉的一个丛林，那里的雷暴频繁而强烈，俾斯麦将它们记录下来，试图了解闪电将如何按照他的意愿来出现。

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Here, he succeeded in capturing bolts of lightning through threads intertwined with copper, kevlar, and silver launched into the storm with aluminum rockets. Taking these bolts of lightning he directs their path onto trees, plants, and other environments to capture through his camera. The straight jolt of light penetrates the image showing the divine might of nature. Interestingly, looking at these surreal photos, one might begin to question if is real or not. This is the philosophy that Bismarck beckons, the flawed nature of our perception, and the fact that it is of our own making.

在这里，他成功地捕捉到了通过用铜、芳纶纤维和银交织在一起的线材，用铝火箭发射到风暴中而制造出的闪电。带着这些闪电，他将它们的路径指向树木、植物和其他环境，通过他的相机进行捕捉。直射的光穿透图像，显示出大自然的神圣力量。有趣的是，看着这些超现实的照片，人们可能会开始质疑是否真实。这就是俾斯麦召唤的哲学，我们感知到自然的弱点，以及它就是由我们自己制造的事实。

“There are so many different ways to see the world which are no less correct, and in some instances, more correct.”

“有很多不同的方式来看待这个世界，这些方式都非常正确，但在某些情况下，会更为正确。”

Blitzrakete (2021)

闪电火箭

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

The rockets used to capture lightning remains as a relic of the history of his path and success in taming lightning. They are one of the foundations in Bismarck’s ambitions that challenged his technical and scientific expertise. In order to catch lightning, the artist visited a research facility on a Navy base in Florida where the feat had been done. Ultimately, he did not find his answer there, leading him to build his own rockets.

用来捕捉闪电的火箭是他成功驯服闪电的历史纪念。它们是俾斯麦雄心壮志的基础之一，挑战了他的技术和科学专长。为了捕捉闪电，这位艺术家参观了佛罗里达州海军基地的一个研究设施，那里曾完成过这项壮举。但他没有在那里找到答案，这让他开始建造自己的火箭。

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

“I went to hobby rocketeering festivals and then I tried to get a license to do it, which is really complicated. I also found out how I could get these rocket engines without having a license and figured out how to smuggle them around the globe, which was important in order to get it into Venezuela.”

“我参加了一个火箭爱好者的节日，我还曾经试图获得执照，这真的很复杂。我发现了如何在没有许可证的情况下获得这些火箭发动机，并弄清楚如何将它们走私到全球各地，这对于怎样将它其运入委内瑞拉很重要。”

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

Blitzrakete (2021). Julius von Bismarck

In 2021, Bismarck created “Blitzrakete” (2021), translated as Lightning Rocket. It is an extension of “Talking to Thunder” (2016). The work is an array of reusable rockets and rods that can be used to capture lightning. While the exhibited pieces are not equipped with engines, these rockets can be fitted with them to be launched. In his home country, Germany, these rockets are prohibited from launching without certain permits.

2021年，俾斯麦创作了《Blitzrakete》（2021），直译为闪电火箭，是《与雷霆对话》（2016）的延伸。这个作品是一系列可重复使用的火箭和棒，可用于捕获闪电。虽然展出的作品没有配备发动机，但这些火箭可以被进行安装和发射。在他的故乡德国，这些火箭在没有特定许可的情况下是被禁止发射的。

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

Talking to Thunder (2017). Julius von Bismarck

While Julius von Bismarck’s wild journey to capture lightning is full of close encounters with death and a painstaking scientific process, the resulting imagery of manipulated nature is his trophy of capturing lightning in a bottle. With the hierarchy of power challenged, the achievement instills the sentiment that the vulnerabilities of humans are more affected by the mental state rather than the physical state.

虽然朱利叶斯·冯·俾斯麦捕捉闪电的狂野之旅充满了与死亡的亲密接触和艰苦的科学过程，但由此产生的操纵自然的壮丽影像是他因挑战不可能而获得的回报。在权力等级受到挑战的情况下，这一成就传达了一种观点，即人类的脆弱性更多地受到精神状态而非身体状态的影响。

Whole Earth Archive (2022). Julius von Bismarck

Recently, Bismarck opened his new exhibition in Berlin, Germany titled, “Whole Earth Archive” which will take his exploration into the concept of time travel and the archiving of events on Earth throughout time in different forms. This concept will take what Bismarck has been experimenting on the Earth and expand those concepts into space.

俾斯麦最近在德国柏林举办了名为“Whole Earth Archive”（地球档案）的新展览，这个展览探索了时间旅行的概念，以不同的形式对地球上的事件进行存档。这个概念采用了俾斯麦在地球上进行的实验，并在之后会将这些概念扩展到太空。

*all images and artworks belong to the artist & his representing galleries respectively

*所有图像和艺术品分别属于艺术家及其代表画廊

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看艺术家的更多信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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本篇文章来源于微信公众号: SHMADNESS

The use of digital technologies for art has been evolving over the years with artists experimenting with new mediums such as VFX, 3D mapping, CGI, and more. From the visual multimedia innovations of Nam Jun Paik and the flashy computer-generated animations of Lu Yang, digital art has changed the way people can experience the broader scope of the world’s most creative minds. In recent years, emerging technologies and more affordable yet powerful electronic hardware has allowed artists to dive into such mediums. RubenFro is one of those artists capitalizing on this new technology by merging his knowledge of design, interactive art, and technology. Using point data from photography, video, and 3D scans of places, he deconstructs cities into majestic visual journeys full of energy and futuristic flair. 

近年来，随着数字艺术家们开始尝试使用 VFX（影视特效）、3D 映射（3D投影）、CGI（合成影像）等新技术，数字艺术一直在发展。从Nam Jun Paik的视觉多媒体创新到陆扬（陸揚）华丽的电脑动画，数字艺术让人们有了更多机会和方式来体验到世界上那些最具创造力的头脑所创造的作品。近年来，新生的技术和价格逐渐亲民的电脑硬件，让更多的艺术家进入这个领域。RubenFro 就是一位通过融合设计、互动艺术和技术方面的知识来利用这项新技术的艺术家。他使用来自摄影、视频和对不同地点的3D扫描数据，将城市解构为一场充满活力和未来主义风格的壮观视觉旅程。

About the artist

关于艺术家

Italian artist, RubenFro (Ruben Frosali) is an artist based in Tokyo since 2006. He is a visual effect artist and director that specializes in volumetric captures, point clouds, and particle-based dynamic environments. RubenFro has strived to create more immersive content and created multiple series of interactive real-time art installations such as Dissolving Realities, Future Cities, and Memories of Tsukiji. He has garnered a significant audience by exhibiting in Japan, China, New Zealand, and more. Besides his artistic endeavors, he has worked on projects for McLaren, ASAP Ferg, Pussy Riot, SNSE, and has also made award-winning visual artworks that have been showcased throughout Europe and Asia.

意大利艺术家鲁本弗罗 (Ruben Frosali) 自 2006 年起在东京工作。他是一位视觉艺术家和导演，擅长于容积捕获（volumetric capture）、点云（point clouds）和基于粒子的动态环境（particle-based dynamic environments）。RubenFro 一直致力于创造更具沉浸感的内容，并创作了多个系列的交互式实时艺术装置，例如 Dissolving Realities（消解的现实）、Future Cities （未来城市）和 Memories of Tsukiji（筑地记忆）。他的作品在日本、中国、新西兰等地展出，吸引了大量观众。除了在艺术上的造诣，他还为 McLaren、ASAP Ferg、Pussy Riot、SNSE 的项目工作，他创造的视觉艺术作品在欧洲和亚洲展出的屡获殊荣。

Fragments of memories

记忆的碎片

Memories make up a large part of our personal identities. It is said that as we go through our childhood, we begin to forget parts of our memory of it at the same time. Moments of the past are lost over time or can become altered leading to a phenomenon such as the Mandela effect in which a large group of people believes in a distorted version of a memory, or event. Likewise, RubenFro’s digital art embodies these elements surrounding memories. The recreated visuals within his works split into blocks of glowing color that rearrange its surrounding environment. Using volumetric capture and the Unity engine, he goes around with 360-degree cameras, drones, and lasers to scan these environments to be explored through virtual reality as well as augmented reality. The visual assets are then distorted through the use of point clouds and photogrammetry to intentionally alter the final product. Images are reversed, rotated, or mirrored, bringing an unsettling sense of familiarity just as our memories recreate themselves within our minds.

记忆构成了我们个人身份的很大一部分。据说，当我们度过童年时，我们同时开始忘记部分记忆。过去的一些时刻会随着时间的流逝而逐渐消失，或者发生改变，从而导致诸如曼德拉效应之类的现象，在这种现象中，一大群人会相信记忆或事件的扭曲版本。同样，RubenFro 的数字艺术体现了这些围绕记忆的元素。在他的作品中，重新创造的视觉效果分裂成发光的颜色块，重新排列周围的环境。通过容积捕获（volumetric capture）和 Unity 引擎，他使用 360 度相机、无人机和激光扫描这些环境，以便通过虚拟现实和增强现实进行探索。视觉图像通过使用点云和摄影测量来刻意改变扭曲。图像被反转、旋转或镜像，带来令人不安的熟悉感，就像我们的记忆在我们的脑海中重现一样。

“We asked ourselves, how can we remember an ever-evolving city? What if we could stop time and wander through a single moment of its past?”

“我们问自己，我们要如何才能记住一个不断发展的城市？如果我们可以让时间停下来，在过去的某一刻徘徊呢？”

– RubenFro

In Future Cities, RubenFro explores the rapidly developing city, Tokyo where old buildings are being demolished and replaced for new infrastructure and buildings. Walking through the city, RubenFro captures a surreal memory of a city, the people, and their daily lives, to preserve and immortalize them through data. Future Cities is a collaborative series of works featuring photographer Cody Ellingham, and sound designer SJF made in 2018. 

在作品Future Cities（未来的城市）里，RubenFro 探索了快速发展的城市东京，那里的旧建筑被拆除并更换为新的基础设施和建筑物。走过一座城市，RubenFro 捕捉关于城市、人和他们日常生活的超现实记忆，并通过数据保存和永生。Future Cities（未来城市） 是摄影师 Cody Ellingham 和声音设计师 SJF 于 2018 年合作的系列作品。

Following  Future Cities, RubenFro created Memories of Tsujiki which captures the liveliness of Japan’s famous fish market, Tsujiki market which closed down on October 6th, 2018. The market had over 1500 tones of goods sold daily and has a deep sentimental value for the people and history of Tokyo city. The audio-visual experience puts viewers in a real-time experience where they journey through the remnants of the once-bustling monument and the instances of people interacting. Viewers can travel through the digitized form of people and experience the dynamic performance of light, shadow, and sound that put them in an alluring trance. 

继Future Cities（未来城市）之后，RubenFro 创作了Memories of Tsujiki （筑地记忆），捕捉了于2018 年10月6日关闭的日本著名筑地市场的热闹场景。这个市场曾每天销售超过 1500 吨商品，对当地的人们和东京的历史来说都有着深刻的记忆。视听体验将观众带入实时体验，他们穿越曾经繁华的遗迹和曾经人们在那里互动的实例。观众可以穿越数字化的人物形象，体验光、影和声音的动态表现，让他们进入迷人的恍惚状态。

Dissolving Realities

消解的现实

Photogrammetry allows artists to extract three-dimensional data from images, overlapping them and building 3D models that improve the science and quality of photography. It is often used by artists to create photo-realistic images, but for RubenFro, his interest in this technology has focused on the visual aesthetic of point data being displacing real-time videos and images. Dissolving Realities further improves on the style that he is chasing throughout his previous works and it shows his mastery in this medium of art. The series of works encompassed by this work uses approximately 50 million point clouds which are passed through a geometry shader to draw new scenes– It is his tool for recreating forgotten memories.

摄影测量（Photogrammetry）让艺术家可以从图像中提取三维数据，将它们重叠并构建 3D 模型，从而提高摄影的科学性和质量。艺术家经常使用它来创建如照片般逼真的图像，但对于 RubenFro，他对这项技术的兴趣主要集中在点数据取代实时视频和图像的视觉美感上。Dissolving Realities （消解的现实）进一步改进了他在以前的作品中所追求的风格，并显示了他对这种艺术媒介的掌握。这一系列作品使用了大约5000万个点云，这些点云通过几何着色器来绘制新的场景——这是他重建那些被遗忘的记忆的工具。

“I see the effect as closely resembling lost memories. Clear images, almost in reach, but suddenly collapsing, dissolving, and fading when you try to get a closer look.”

“我认为这种效果非常类似于丢失的记忆。清晰的图像，几乎触手可及，但当你试图仔细观察时，它突然坍塌、溶解和褪色。

The artist is constantly experimenting with new tools and effects with the intent of exploring the foundations of the reality he exists in– reassembling the original reality after deconstructing them to analyze and understand them on a deeper level. This exploration of fading memories and distorted instances clarifies RubenFro’s intention of revealing the state of how reality is experienced by different people. It is the perceived childhood, the cherished moment of a lifetime, or a passing moment in a small speck of our daily lives. RubenFro is now traveling around Japan and expanding the Dissolving Realities series. At the same time, he has been working on new VFX projects and is experimenting with creating audio-visual NFTs.

艺术家在不断尝试新的工具和效果，想要探索存在的现实的基础是什么——在解构原始现实后重新组装，以便更深层次地分析和理解它们。这种对褪色记忆和扭曲实例的探索阐明了 RubenFro 揭示不同人是如何体验现实状态的意图。它是那些被感知到的童年，是一生中珍贵的时刻，或者是我们日常生活中一小部分的转瞬即逝的时刻。RubenFro 正在日本旅行，扩展 Dissolving Realities （消解的现实）系列。与此同时，他一直致力于新的 VFX 项目，并正在尝试创建视听 NFT。

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看艺术家的更多信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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In philosophy, how people understand identity is a significant topic. How do we identify the true behavior of a person as genuine or specific to the person’s identity? Does that define who we identify as or is it a process of development over time? For the artist, Ye Funa, it is a much more complex creative outlet that makes us ponder about a person’s self-defining characteristics. Ye Funa dissects our multifaceted realities of social, political, and digital realms using role-playing as a new medium for contemporary fine art.

在哲学范畴中，人们如何理解自己的身份是一个重要的议题。我们如何确定一个人真实的行为是自发的还是出于自己的身份而表现出来的？这是否定义了我们的身份，亦或这是一个随时间发展的过程？对于艺术家叶甫纳来说，这是一个更复杂的创意性出口，让我们思考一个人自我定义的特征。叶甫纳将角色扮演作为当代美术的新媒介，剖析我们的社会、政治和数字领域的多方面现实。

About the artist

关于艺术家

Ye Funa is a Chinese artist that explores the relationship between the realities of everyday life, the perceived connection between authority and many areas of social life such as different power structures, ethnic groups, and the fictional space of propaganda for the concept of ‘perfection’ in an ideological system, and utopian landscape. Her works have heavy use of references, parodies, and ironic portrayals of cultures. Having graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art, UK with a Master’s in Fine art in 2010, she has exhibited in China, the USA, the UK, Istanbul, Switzerland, and Australia. Satire and propaganda are significant aspects of her works that highlight the uniqueness of her works. In 2014, she was awarded 2nd place for the Hua Yu Youth Award, and the Recommend young artist of Today Art Museum in 2015.

叶甫纳是一位中国艺术家，他探索了日常生活中，现实之间的关系，同时也摸索权威与社会生活中许多领域之间的感知联系，如不同的权力结构、民族，以及在一个宣传完美的虚拟意识形态系统中，还有乌托邦式的风景。她的作品大量使用借鉴、戏仿和讽刺性的文化描写。她于2010年毕业于英国中央圣马丁艺术学院，获得美术硕士学位，她的作品曾在中国、美国、英国、伊斯坦布尔、瑞士和澳大利亚展出。讽刺和宣传是她作品的重要方面，突出了她的作品的独特性。2014年，她在华语青年奖中位居第二，2015年被评为“今日美术馆”的推荐青年艺术家。

Tracing Identity through role play

通过角色扮演追踪身份

The concept of self is something Ye Funa reflects onto her works. In her short video series “Family Album” she explores the historical elements of her connection to family using moving photography. Acting as her parents and grandparents, she recreates photography into a performance that includes lip-syncs and staged photos that she places herself into. The series is like a personal historical documentary that sees the life of her predecessors and the historical background to her foundations and birth. It is the intimate exploration of what defines own her identity and assimilation of her self experienced by realizing the complex narratives of her family’s background.

叶甫纳的作品反映了自我的概念。在她的短片系列《家庭相册》中，她用移动摄影探索了她与家庭联系的一些历史因素。她的父母和祖父母出现在影像中，她把摄影重新创造成一场表演，其中包括对口型的演出和舞台摄影。该系列就像一部个人历史纪录片，讲述了她的前辈们的生活，以及她出生时的历史背景。这是一种对自己身份定义的亲密探索，在她对自己家庭背景的复杂叙述的同时也是一段经历的吸收。

“Since Family Album, role play has turned into a creative method that I now employ in my works. At the same time, I gradually shifted my perspective in creating, from an observer who often investigates to an experiencer who participates in different incidents.’

“自从《家庭相册》发行以来，角色扮演已经成为我现在作品中运用的一种创作方法。与此同时，我逐渐将创作视角从一个经常调查的观察者转变为一个参与不同事件的体验者。”

The self is formed by nature and nurture, where the influences surrounding us move us away from one path into the other. Ye Funa dives deeper into identity through the influence of her idols and muses. In her “Goddess” series, she ponders the reasons for how and why certain individuals have influenced her from the perspective of the art world.

自我是由先天和后天的培养而形成的，周围的影响将我们从一条道路转移到另一条道路。叶甫纳通过她的偶像和灵感的影响从而更深入地挖掘身份。在她的《女神》系列中，她从艺术世界的角度思考了某些人是如何以及为什么影响了她。

“…each female in the art world is known for one idiosyncratic side or characteristic, yet all individuals have many complex sides. This led me to wonder about and imagine the unknown side of them, and what it would be like if these characters from different times and spaces could come together. This kind of fascination drew me to create the Goddess series.”

“……艺术世界中的每一位女性都以一种独特的一面或特征而闻名，但每个人都有很多复杂的其它面。这让我对她们未知的一面感到好奇和想象，如果这些来自不同时空的人物能够走到一起会是什么样子。这种魅力吸引了我去创作《女神》系列。”

There are countless ways one can construct an identity and the artist covers diverse subject matters including the illusions of perceived beauty, the deceptive state of digital identity, and obscured identities based on social, political, and psychological elements. From the context of her work, it can be seen that the sources for her creation create a deeper connection between the past and present as well as between the digital and offline realms. She uses the internet as a database to create new re-enactments with different technologies such as social media and live-streaming to build new experiences while also evolving her own identity.

一个人可以通过无数种方式来构建身份，艺术家涵盖了各种各样的主题，包括感知美的幻觉、数字虚拟身份的欺骗，以及基于社会、政治和心理因素的复杂身份。从她的作品背景中可以看出，她的创作来源在过去和现在，以及线上和线下领域之间创造了更深的联系。她利用互联网作为数据库，利用社交媒体和流媒体等不同技术重新创造演绎，以建立新的体验，同时也发展自己的身份。

Filtered identities of internet culture

网络文化的滤镜身份

For Ye Funa, social media, live-streaming, and the internet are all important things that affect her artistic style. Having grown up with these digital phenomenons, her art playfully reflects society from her perspective. In “Beauty Plus Save the Real World” (2018), she manipulates the hysterical nature of the internet to describe how people use such technologies to “perform” identity. The work focuses on the use of facial image editing software, Meitu Xiuxiu, and other commoditized social media platforms that have caused the oversharing and manipulation of identity as part of desire. Consequently, manufacturing the need for likes, the use of beauty filters, and altering our perceptions of beauty, leading to the disillusionment of reality.

对叶甫纳来说，社交媒体、流媒体直播和互联网都是影响她艺术风格的重要因素。随着这些数字化的发展，她的艺术从她的角度生动地反映了社会。在《Beauty Plus Save the Real World》（2018）中，她利用互联网歇斯底里的本质来描述人们如何使用这些技术来“预制”身份。这项工作的重点是面部图像编辑软件“美图秀秀”和其他商品化社交媒体平台的使用，这些平台导致了过度分享和身份操纵，这些都是欲望的一部分。由此制造了对点赞的需求，和大量美颜滤镜的使用，这些改变我们对美的感知，导致对现实幻灭。

Through this work, Ye Funa also shows the obscure nature of our personal desires. The desire to use a virtual construct of who we think we are, and the irony of inner conflict that makes us question these desires. Here, perceived identity defines who we are, while in reality, the ability to be one’s self becomes undermined and unsheltered. 

通过这部作品，叶甫纳还展示了我们个人欲望的模糊本质。渴望用一种虚拟的方式来建构我们认为自己是谁，而内心冲突的讽刺让我们质疑这些欲望。在这里，感知到的身份定义了我们是谁，而在现实中，展现真实自我的能力又会受到削弱和退缩。

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看艺术家的更多信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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“Our dream for education is to create engaging experiences that empower communities, embrace local heritage and culture, and promote environmental sustainability, inclusivity and equal access to technology,”

“我们对教育的梦想是创造引人入胜的体验，赋予社区权力，拥抱本土的传承和文化，促进环境的可持续性和包容性，让每个人可以同等地拥抱技术”

– Sutu

About the artist

关于艺术家

Los Angeles-based artist, Stuart Campbell, who goes by the moniker, Sutu uses art and technology in new ways to tell stories. He is famous for grand commissions for companies such as Marvel, Disney, Google, and has also worked on intellectual properties such as Marvel Studio’s Doctor Strange and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One VR art experiences. At the same time, he has created audiovisual concerts for top artists such as The Weeknd, John Legend, Dillon Francis, and Alison Wonderland. Some of his most significant works include VR documentaries such as “Mind at War”, “Inside Manus”, as well as “The Battle of Hamel”. He is an Honorary Doctorate of Digital Media from Central Queensland University, 2017 Sundance Fellow, and the co-founder of EyeJack, an Augmented Reality company.

洛杉矶艺术家 Stuart Campbell 的绰号是 Sutu，他以全新的方式使用艺术和技术来讲述故事。他因为漫威、迪士尼、谷歌等这些大公司创作而闻名，并且他还为漫威工作室出品的奇异博士和史蒂文斯皮尔伯格的 Ready Player One VR 艺术体验等出过一份力。同时，他还为 The Weeknd、John Legend、Dillon Francis 和 Alison Wonderland 等顶级艺术家创作了视听音乐会。他的一些最重要的作品包括 VR 纪录片，例如“Mind at War”、“Inside Manus”以及“The Battle of Hamel”。他获得了中央昆士兰大学数字媒体专业的荣誉博士学位、也是2017 年圣丹斯学院院士和增强现实公司 EyeJack 的联合创始人。

Sutu’s works are divine visual feasts with deep intent and neon flair. Using new technologies such as VR, AR, and XR, he redefines what can be experienced through the mortal eye. The artist’s works cover a wide range of social topics including mental stability, pandemic fears, as well as sustainable creation of NFTs in the form of a cinematic art experience. As one goes through his portfolio of works it is clear that each story fulfills a specific narrative that conjures our innermost thoughts and emotions. Despite this, it is not to say that the artist is creating for the sake of garnering a reaction, but rather, building awareness towards the smallest details of our lives that may impact the way we see the modern world we exist in. This can be clearly seen throughout “Mind at War”.

Sutu 的作品是用霓虹灯风格创造的一种具有深刻意图的神圣视觉盛宴。使用 VR、AR 和 XR 等新技术，他重新定义了通过肉眼可以体验到的东西。他的作品涵盖了广泛的社会话题，包括心理稳定、对流行病的恐惧，以及以电影艺术体验的形式可持续地创造 NFT。当浏览他的作品集时，很明显每个故事都实现了一个特定的叙述，唤起了我们内心最深处的想法和情感。尽管如此，这并不意味着艺术家的创作是为了获得反响，他想要建立对我们生活中最小细节的认识，这些细节可能会影响我们看待我们所处的现代世界的方式。这些在“战火中的心灵”这部作品中清晰可见。

Mind at War

战火中的心灵

“Mind at War” is an audiovisual VR experience housed in a single room. Through this interactive experience, viewers travel through the digital realm to reach a series of paintings depicting the memories of the Iraq War veteran Scott England before, during, and after the war followed by the narration of Scott. The digital painting reveals Scott’s entangled fate as an unwilling military man, who only wished to nurture a pleasant life with his high school girlfriend. The story continues with his plight of losing his job and having to enlist in the midst of the 9/11 terror attack, leading to his deployment into Iraq. Sutu highlights the trauma of war veterans upon their return through this story, showing their struggles, as they try to piece themselves together to readapt into society. It is through the darkest of memories of Scott that viewers may realize the most precious things in life.

“Mind at War”是一款位于单人房间内的视听 VR 体验。通过这种互动体验，观众穿越数字领域，到达一系列描绘伊拉克战争老兵Scott England 在战争之前、期间和之后的回忆的画作，随后是Scott的叙述。这幅数字绘画揭示了斯科特作为一个不情愿的军人的纠缠命运，他只想和他的高中女友过上幸福的生活。故事讲述了他失去工作后不得不在 9/11 恐怖袭击中入伍的困境，他被部署到伊拉克。Sutu通过这个故事描绘了退伍军人回国后的创伤，展示了他们在努力拼凑起来以重新适应社会时的挣扎。正是通过Scott最黑暗的记忆，观众才可能意识到生命中最珍贵的东西。

The Next Chapter of Art

艺术的下一个篇章

Sutu, like some artists, is dedicated to using new technologies in much more sustainable ways. He believes that artists and creatives should be creating art with the foundation of sustainability. He emphasizes that while blockchain technology may reduce energy and financial barriers, it still employs other forms of technology that lead to an enormous amount of CO2 emissions. At the same time, the artist finds that the path to sustainability, especially now, should be something that can be happening and should be happening. 

Sutu 和一些艺术家一样，致力于以更可持续的方式使用新技术。他认为艺术家和创意工作者应该在可持续发展的基础上创造艺术。他强调，虽然区块链技术可以减少能源和金融壁垒，但它所运用的技术仍然以其它的形式，排放出大量的二氧化碳。但与此同时，艺术家了发现可持续发展的道路，尤其到了现在，应该是可以发生并且应该发生的事情。

“Even though they’re talking about this migration to more sustainable technology, they’ve been talking about it for years, and I don’t feel like we should wait,”

“尽管他们正在谈论向更技术应该向更可持续的方向迁移，但他们已经谈论了多年，我觉得我们不应该等待，”

By using alternative blockchains such as Tezos that are more aligned with sustainability, the artist hopes to become a model of success in the possibility of creating more sustainable NFTs while also providing inclusivity and better accessibility to the technology. The artist goes beyond the exploration of the abstract concepts we live in, helping those engaged with his work to understand the positive impact on the future of art and the world. Prosthetic Reality V2 is his first step to this goal. Taking inspiration from digital artists, he gathered multiple creators globally to contribute to a collection that uses a diverse range of art styles. This includes AI, hand-drawn, animated, and more. The project is open to submissions so that anyone may contribute to the project. 

通过使用更符合可持续性的区块链网络，例如Tezos，艺术家希望能成为成功的典范，以创造更具有可持续性的 NFT，同时提供包容性和更好的技术宽容。这位艺术家超越了对我们生活的抽象概念的探索，帮助那些从事艺术工作的人了解对艺术和对世界未来的积极影响。Prosthetic Reality V2 是他实现这一目标的第一步。从数字艺术家那里汲取灵感，他聚集了全球多位创作者，让大家使用多种艺术风格，来一起为一件作品做出自己的贡献，这包括人工智能、手绘、动画等等。这个项目是公开开放的，因此任何人都可以为该项目做出贡献。

The collection also houses Sutu’s previous project Neonz, a limited edition of randomly generated avatars in the style of futuristic neon character art. The series of works in Neonz is the stepping stone to Sutu’s Metaverse project, Sutuverse. Through the cyberpunk-inspired characters in his own Metaverse, Sutu will expand the possibilities of what technology can provide for art and diversify the types of stories and experiences he can give to his viewers. Having sold out in October, “Prosthetic Reality V2” became the first clean NFT 10K project on the Tezos blockchain.

该系列还包含了 Sutu 之前的项目 Neonz，这个系列是限量版随机生成的虚拟化身，具有未来派霓虹角色艺术的风格。Neonz 的系列作品是Sutu在Metaverse里踏出的第一步。通过他自己在Metaverse 中受赛博朋克启发的角色，Sutu 扩大了技术为艺术提供的可能性，并使他可以为观众提供的故事和体验类型多样化。在 10 月售罄后，“Prosthetic Reality V2”成为 Tezos 区块链上第一个销售一空的 NFT 10K 项目。

Sutu has since gone on to create collaborative NFTs and work on virtual concerts for celebrity musicians. He is currently expanding his exploration of cyber culture-inspired works with Positive Glitch set to be released exclusively on Hic et Nunc and will continue experimenting on new ways of evolving his art.

此后，Sutu 会继续创造协作 NFT，并为名人音乐家举办虚拟音乐会。他目前正在扩展他的以探索控制论文化为灵感的作品，Positive Glitch 将在 Hic et Nunc 独家发行，他也将继续尝试发展他的艺术新方法。

For more information on the artist, please click here

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Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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“The exploration and discovery aspect is my own ‘version’. One which is very nuanced and ’ self-created’ so give me the feeling of seeing something for the first time, under the cloak of night, or the light of my drone. And like all my work in general, my goal is to show familiar things in an unfamiliar way, because it is this which really forces people to look a bit harder and ask questions.”

“探索和发现的方面，是我自己的‘版本’。是非常微妙和“自创”的，像是我第一次看到一些东西的感觉，比如在暮色的笼罩下，或者在我的无人机的灯光下。和我所有的作品一样，我的目标是以陌生的方式展示熟悉的事物，因为正是这种方式真正迫使人们更加努力地寻找问题并提出问题。”

– Rueben Wu

About the artist

关于艺术家

Rueben Wu is a Chinese artist born in Liverpool, UK, and co-founder of the British band Ladytron. Known for his minimalistic landscape photography that blends monumental imagery with illuminated geographic strokes, Rueben Wu journeys across the world’s most remote yet magnificent destinations to record the essence of nature seen through the frames of his camera lens. Wu majestically manipulates light, time, and the expansive geometry of the earth to create works that employ a deeper narrative. While Wu relies on geographic elements to amplify his works, his use of lighting is not a natural one. He illuminates parts of the landscape using drones with lights attached to them to be snapped into an image where time and space come to still silence. Wu’s works are a reflection of his exploration of unimaginable places that are real yet desolate, much like his passage to reach these places.

Reuben Wu是一位出生于英国利物浦的华裔艺术家，也是英国乐队Ladytron的联合创始人。Reuben Wu 以其极简主义的风景摄影而闻名，将不朽的意象与被照亮的地理风光融为一体，他穿越世界上最偏远但最壮丽的目的地，通过他的相机镜头记录下大自然的精髓。Wu对光线、时间、和地球上广阔的几何形状的处理使他创作出具有更深层次叙事的作品。虽然Wu依靠地理元素来着重表达他的作品，但他对光的使用并不是一种自然的方式。他使用带有灯光的无人机照亮部分景观，然后将其捕捉到时间和空间静止不动的图像中。吴的作品反映了他对难以想象的真实而荒凉的地方的探索，就像他到达这些地方的途径一样。

With a highly successful career, the artist has worked with some of the world’s top companies such as Audi, Apple, National Geographic, Google, Samsung, and more. With every iteration, Rueben redefines his craft and understanding of how digital tools can enhance his mastery of an art form. Beyond photography and music, the artist has jumped into the NFT space providing surreal experiences that can be shared and owned through his art.

凭借非常成功的职业生涯，这位艺术家曾与奥迪、苹果、国家地理、谷歌、三星等一些世界顶级公司合作。在每一次更新的作品中，Reuben 都重新定义了他的技巧，同时也定义了对数字工具是如何增强他对艺术形式的掌握的理解。除了摄影和音乐，这位艺术家还涉足 NFT 领域，提供了可以通过拥有和分享他的艺术作品的超现实体验。

Artistic Origins

艺术起源

“To me, my images are more than pictures. They are fragments of memory and imagination.”

“对我来说，我的图像不仅仅是图片。它们是记忆和想象的碎片。”

From a young age, Rueben Wu had a deep interest in art however, over time he found the process to be impractical. He would go on to become an industrial designer for a short period while creating music as a producer and DJ for his band Ladytron during his spare time. Once his musical career took off, he would quit his job to tour around the United States. In this period he would experience the monumental vistas of this journey, picking up photography to record his trip. With a prominent curiosity for camera equipment and techniques, he would develop an eye for surreal photography. The visual impact of analog cameras and the vintage feel of film was a big draw leading to his artistic development. Artists that inspired him include Frederic Edwin Church, Turner, Robert Smithson.

Reuben Wu 从小就对艺术有着浓厚的兴趣，但随着时间的推移，他渐渐发现这个过程是不切实际的。他成为了一名工业设计师，并在业余时间为他的乐队 Ladytron 创作音乐，同时担任制作人和 DJ。他的音乐事业起飞之后，他辞掉工作，去美国巡回演出。在此期间，他体验了这段人生旅程的不朽景象，于是用摄影开始记录他的旅程。凭借对相机设备和技术的强烈好奇心，他开始关注超现实主义摄影。模拟相机和老式胶片的视觉冲击力成为他后来艺术发展的主要吸引力。启发他的艺术家包括 Frederic Edwin Church、Turner、Robert Smithson。

Travel has been a key part of Wu’s artistic process, often presented with digital or technical manipulations that echo the fragments of memory and time. His creative drive is fueled by the desire to discover unknown territories that are secret visual treasures. His depiction of geographic imagery is other-worldly and at times futuristic– they are simple and familiar yet also foreign and dream-like.

旅行一直是Wu的艺术过程的关键部分，经常以数字或技术方式呈现，以呼应记忆和时间的碎片。他的创作动力来自于他想要发现作为秘密视觉宝藏的未知领域。他对地理图像的表达是超凡脱俗的，有时是未来主义的——它们简单而熟悉，陌生而梦幻。

Creation behind the lens

镜头背后的创作

“I’m trying to capture the essence of exploration, something which is very personal”

“我试图捕捉探索的本质，这是非常个人化的东西”

Much of Rueben Wu’s work involves the implementation of new technologies and devotion to experimentation. Starting with the concept of time, he would then experiment with lighting and drones in newer works. The use of drones in particular was influenced by NASA’s rover images of lunar landscapes and a fortuitous accident where headlights brightened the landscape at night. The striking ambiance of light and the abstract nature of NASA images for him was a “jarring combination of science and technology…with the aesthetic of the sublime.” 

Reuben Wu 的大部分工作都涉及对新技术的实践和对实验的热爱。某个时间开始，他在较新的作品中尝试灯光和无人机。无人机的使用尤其受到美国宇航局月球车图像的影响，以及某次夜间车头灯被照亮的景色。对他来说，引人注目的光线氛围和 NASA 图像的抽象本质是“科学与技术的不和谐结合……与崇高的美学”。

Wu’s process is a tedious one in which he constructs compositions in the daytime and waits for the soft glow of night when the color of the sky is softer. Using long exposures to snap images through his camera and mastery of environmental lighting, he propels his drones above the landscape to create neon shapes. The artist summarizes this process as doing chiaroscuro painting with photography. Derived from the Italian words, “Chiaro” (light) and “Scuro” (dark), chiaroscuro is an art technique that involves the use of bold contrast of light and dark. In deeper meaning, it is the use of light to emulate volume. Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio are some of the prominent artists known for using this technique. After capturing the alluring wonder of nature, he compiles photos in his studio. The resulting work is something that is interwoven with the cosmic and the grandiose essence of nature.

Wu的创作过程有些许乏味，他在白天构图，等待夜晚柔和的光，天空的颜色变得温柔。通过他的相机和对环境照明的掌握，他使用长时间曝光拍摄影像，他将他的无人机飞到景观上方，创造出霓虹灯的形状。艺术家将这一过程总结为chiaroscuro（用摄影进行明暗对比）。源自意大利语单词“chiaro”（光）和“scuro”（黑暗），chiaroscuro 是一种艺术技术，涉及使用明暗对比。在更深的意义上，它是用光来模拟体积。莱昂纳多·达·芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）和卡拉瓦乔（Caravaggio）都是以使用这种技术而闻名的著名艺术家。在捕捉到大自然迷人的奇观后，他在自己的工作室里整理照片。最终产生的作品将宇宙和宏伟的本质交织在一起。

Sharing the journey through NFTs

通过 NFT 分享旅程

While Rueben Wu was aware of NFTs, he was not convinced of their relevance to his body of work. It was not until he came across the works of GMUNK and Victor Mosquera that he realized his works were a perfect fit for the NFT space. After meeting with Nifty Gateway, he would create his first collection of NFTs. Taking his past experiences, he planned a journey from Chicago to Las Vegas, recording his personal journey while simultaneously working on commissions. For the artist, these works are highly personal to himself and his artistic journey. Now he is traveling around the world continuing his exploration and constantly experimenting with other mediums, whether it is music, photography, or drawing, he hopes to create something that he had not envisioned before. 

虽然 Reuben Wu 了解 NFT，但他开始并不相信 NFT 会与他的作品相关。直到他遇到 GMUNK 和 Victor Mosquera 的作品，他才意识到 NFT 领域会非常适合。在与 Nifty Gateway 会面后，他创建了他的第一个 NFT 合集。带着过去的经历，他计划了一次从芝加哥到拉斯维加斯的旅行，记录了他的个人旅程，同时也是带着酬劳的。对艺术家来说，这些作品对他本人和他的艺术之旅来说都是高度个人化的。现在他环游世界，继续探索，不断尝试其他媒介，无论是音乐、摄影还是绘画，他希望创造出他以前没有想到的东西。

“When people see my work, you’re seeing me. You’re seeing all the experiences that I’ve had in the past. All of those make sense in the art that I make. I don’t see this as the endpoint. I definitely see it as a very, very important moment in my creative arc. I’m still going to keep exploring and keep experimenting with different mediums, who knows what else I’m going to be doing next. It might not even be photography. It is definitely going to be something that is a combination of different things to create something new.”

“当人们看到我的作品时，你们就是在看到我。你看到了我过去的所有经历。所有这些在我创作的艺术中都是有意义的。我不认为这是终点。我绝对地认为这是我创作经历中非常非常重要的时刻。我仍然会继续探索和尝试不同的媒介，谁知道我接下来还会做什么。它甚至可能不是摄影。它肯定会是不同事物的组合，以创造新事物。”

For more info on the artist, please click here

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Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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“My digital and tangible work are deeply entwined, not just with each other but with my sense of self, with who I am and sincerely hope to be. For me, both are relics of belief in my power to make the world and life that I want. That is everything from love and shiny jewelry to gender equality and digital diversity. I love that as they are increasingly collected, they are not only a symbol of how much their collectors believe in me, but also how much they believe in themselves.”

“我的数字作品和实体作品深深地交织在一起，不仅仅是彼此相互之间，还与我的自我意识、我是谁以及我希望成为谁的期望相互连结。对我来说，两者都是我相信我有能力创造想要的世界和生活的产物。这一切包括从爱情和闪亮的珠宝到性别平等和数字多样性。我喜欢它们在越来越多地被收藏，它们不仅象征着收藏家对我有多信任，也意味着他们有多信任自己。”

– Gretchen Andrew

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About the artist

关于艺术家

Gretchen Andrew is an artist who was born in Los Angeles, in 1988. Best known for her digital performances that focus on hacking systems of power with art, code, and glitter, she has made her mark through Frieze, The Whitney Biennial, The Turner Prize, and Artforum. Self-titled as the “SEO artist” Gretchen Andrew has trained with the artist Billy Childish and has further developed her famous vision boards and art performances that enter the realms of the physical and digital. She has also been featured in publications such as Fast Company, Parnass, Flash Art, The Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, Monopol, Wirtschaftswoche, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, and Art Gorgeous. What is remarkable about her art is that it is born from perception and desire manifested into reality through her vision boards which are pushed onto the top search results on the internet. Her imagination born from desire alters the reality that she has dreamed of into truth.

Gretchen Andrew是一位艺术家，她于1988 年出生于洛杉矶。她的数字作品专注于用艺术，代码，和闪亮的元素去侵入一些巨头系统。这使她闻名于艺术圈。她曾在弗里兹、惠特尼双年展、特纳奖、 和Artforum上留下足迹。自称为“SEO 艺术家”的 Gretchen Andrew 曾与艺术家 Billy Childish一起接受训练，并进一步推进了她著名的视觉板和艺术表演，进入了实体以及数字领域。她还出现在 Fast Company、Parnass、Flash Art、华盛顿邮报、财富杂志、Monopol、Wirtschaftswoche、洛杉矶时报、金融时报和 Art Gorgeous 等刊物中。她的艺术的非凡之处在于，它源于感知和欲望，通过她的愿景将其推向互联网上的热门搜索结果。她从欲望中产生的想象力将她梦想的现实变成了现实。

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Leaving Google to become a digital artist

离开谷歌，成为一位数字艺术家

Before the advent of her artistic journey, Gretchen Andrew worked as a software engineer at Google. Despite this being her dream job, she would find herself to be unhappy during her one and a half years at Google. Realizing that this path was not meant for her, she made the bold decision to create art. At the same time, she faced the challenge of not being considered an artist. Taking her experiences at Google, Gretchen found that her belief in the information available on the internet could make her into an artist. Here is where her aim to make her dream a reality came to fruition. 

在开始她的艺术之旅之前，Gretchen Andrew 曾在 Google 担任软件工程师。尽管这是她梦寐以求的工作，但在 Google 的一年半时间里，她发现自己并不快乐。开始意识到这条路不适合她之后，她做出了创作艺术的大胆决定。与此同时，她面临着自己不会被视为一位艺术家的挑战。回顾她在 Google 的经历，Gretchen 发现她对互联网上那些海量可用信息的信念可以使她成为一名艺术家。在这里，她的梦想的得以实现。

“Obviously, my practice is a bit different in its output now, that whole idea of ‘how do I use technology to transform me and the world into an aspirational space,’ to go from not just educating artificial intelligence based on historical data. Still, we can educate AI based on the world we want, not just the one we’ve historically had.”

“显然，我现在的实践与我的输出有点不同，‘我如何使用技术将我和世界变成一个有抱负的空间’的整个想法，不仅仅是基于历史数据来教育人工智能。我们可以根据我们想要的世界来教育人工智能，而不仅仅是基于我们曾经的历史。”

Gretchen’s connection to technology and her technical knowledge amplify her approach to using the internet as a form of art. She believes that the internet is a global subconscious that cannot differentiate what is factual and what is projected as a false perception. This plays heavily in her methodology which also has a deep connection to her life. She calls it, “Dream as Plans”, the idea of planning out a dream moment before it is even possible. 

Gretchen 与技术的联系和她对技术的掌握放大了她使用互联网作为一种艺术形式的方法。她认为，互联网是一种全球性的潜意识，无法区分什么是事实，什么是虚假的感知。这在她的方法论中发挥了重要作用，这也与她的生活息息相关。她称之为“计划中的梦想”，即在梦想成为可能之前就计划好梦想时刻的想法。

“I spoke about this in our article on Art Basel Miami Beach recently, how I’d literally been outfit planning for it for two years. I literally had a clothing folder on my computer called “Art Basel Miami Beach 2021” that I created two years ago.  “Dreams as Plans” is about making the exhibition and planning what you are going to wear to the opening before you are offered it, whatever that goal is to you personally. This methodology, how I approach my own goals, is directly echoed in the technical and conceptual implementation of my practice.”

“我最近在关于迈阿密海滩巴塞尔艺术展的这篇文章中谈到了这一点，我实际上是为自己搭配衣服而制定一个两年的规划的。我的电脑上有一个名为“迈阿密海滩巴塞尔艺术展”的文件夹，是我两年前创建的。“梦想即计划”是关于策划展览并计划在开幕之前将穿什么，无论个人的目标是什么。这种我如何实现自己的目标的方法，直接反映在我实践的技术和概念中。”

Many of Gretchen’s works link back to the use of the internet, its algorithms, functionality, the landscape of online power, and how it affects the art world. Through her works, people are able to explore how the internet works and how people can leverage technology to realize their own dreams alongside her. The “Dream Diary“ NFT is one of the ways she hopes to invite more people into this artistic process. This artwork is an interactive cross-media piece that turns people’s dreams into an NFT. The dream of a person is recorded after purchase and then added into an interactive NFT dream journal which the person gains partial ownership. All that is left is to join her artistic process, “Dream as Plans” to make the dream a reality.

Gretchen 的许多作品都与互联网的使用、它的算法、功能、网络权力的格局以及它如何影响艺术界有关。通过她的作品，人们能够探索互联网是如何运作的，以及人们如何利用技术与她一起实现自己的梦想。“梦想日记”NFT 是她希望邀请更多人进入这一艺术过程的方式之一。这件艺术品是一个互动的跨媒体作品，将人们的梦想变成了 NFT。购买后记录一个人的梦想，然后将其添加到该人获得部分所有权的交互式 NFT 梦想日志中。剩下的就是加入她的艺术过程，“梦想即计划”，让梦想成为现实。

Hacking into the art world and creating NFTs

侵入艺术世界，创造NFT艺术

Gretchen Andrew is a digital artist but not in the traditional sense. The artist often creates physical objects such as her vision boards that are photographed and placed onto the algorithms of Facebook and Google. Through this process, she was able to become an artist and also hijacked the 46th US election search results. Typing “the next American president” on Google images shows the vibrant vision boards of the artist. In doing so Gretchen shows the vulnerability of technology that is so widely used all around the world, exposing the weak points of artificial intelligence and the internet. She achieved this by creating multiple inter-linked internet profiles throughout major sites such as Eventbrite, Quora, Twitter, and more, publishing many posts to trick their algorithms. 

Gretchen Andrew 是一位数字艺术家，但不是传统意义上的艺术家。这位艺术家经常创造实体作品，例如她的视觉板，这些作品被拍摄下来并放在 Facebook 和 Google 的算法中。在这个过程中，她成为了一名艺术家，甚至还左右了第46届美国大选的搜索结果。在 Google 图片里输入“下一任美国总统”，会显示这位艺术家充满活力的愿景板。这显示了在世界范围内广泛使用的技术的脆弱性，暴露了人工智能和互联网的弱点。她通过在 Eventbrite、Quora、Twitter 等主要网站上创建了多个相互关联的互联网配置文件来实现这一目标，并发布了许多帖子来欺骗他们的算法。

In the same way, she hacked search results to enter the art world. She started by drawing covers of an art form onto a 60 by 60-inch canvas. Placing a photo of herself into the work, she would tag the works with references to a “contemporary art auction record”, her aspirational perception of who she can be as an artist before it has happened. In fact, a Google image search with the exact words, “contemporary art auction record” shows images of the artist and her vision boards at the top with a link to a website explaining her work. Through this increased relevance on the internet, she was able to manifest her dream into a reality.

同样，她黑进了搜索结果，进入了艺术界。她先是在 60 x 60 英寸的画布上绘制一种艺术形式的封面。她将自己的照片放入作品中，并在作品上标注“当代艺术拍卖记录”，这是她对自己作为艺术家的理想认知。事实上，在谷歌图片的搜索中，“当代艺术拍卖记录”会在顶部显示艺术家和她的愿景板的图片，并附有一个网站链接来解释她的作品。通过在互联网上逐渐增加的关联性，她将她的梦想变为了现实。

Before Gretchen entered the NFT landscape, the digital component of her art was not something that could be owned. Fortuitously, NFTs have been the solution to her concern, providing a means of collecting and investing in her life process without the need for a physical object. 

在 Gretchen 进入NFT领域之前，她艺术中的数字元素并不是可以被拥有的。幸运的是，NFT 一直是她所关注的解决方案，它提供了一种在不需要实体对象的情况下收集和投资于她的生活历程的方法。

“The digital component in my work has been seen not as something that people could acquire. Not as something that museums could collect. So they bought just the physical thing. And so I’ve had a very digital practice for a long time, but with NFTs, what has started to happen is now that aspect of my course that is performative and the search results changing online. The archive of that is something that people can collect and support … but I see it as a way that people can invest in me and my practice even if they don’t want to own material things. Even though they know I have a physical practice. There’s still a way to own and be involved in it.”

“我作品中的数字元素不被视为人们可以获得的东西。不像博物馆可以收藏的物品。所以他们只买了实物。因此，很长一段时间以来，我一直在进行数字创作的练习，但是有了 NFT，现在开始发生的是我的课程的表现性和在线搜索结果的变化。档案是人们可以收集和支持的东西……但我认为这是人们可以投资于我和我的实践的一种方式，即使他们不想拥有实体的东西。即使他们知道我有实体的作品。仍然有办法拥有并参与其中。”

What’s next for Gretchen Andrew?

Gretchen Andrew接下来的计划

Gretchen Andrew is set to have exhibitions at The Francisco Carolinum until March 7th in Austria, then she will then open her next exhibition, “Growth Hacking” in Dubai and travel to London and Germany for her residency and next exhibition. Concurrently, she has created a new project on her website titled, CV NFT in which she takes her greatest achievements and turns them into animated NFTs in the shape of Girl Scout badges. With a busy year ahead, the artist hopes to dream up new exhibitions in the United States.

Gretchen Andrew 将在 3 月 7 日之前在奥地利的弗朗西斯科卡罗林博物馆举办展览，之后她将在迪拜举办她的下一个展览“Growth Hacking”，并前往伦敦和德国进行停留和准备下一个展览。同时，她在自己的网站上创建了一个名为 CV NFT 的新项目，在这个项目中，她将自己最大的成就转化为女童子军徽章形状的动画 NFT。对于即将开始忙碌的一年， Gretchen希望在美国举办新的展览。

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看更多艺术家的信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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本篇文章来源于微信公众号: SHMADNESS

About the artist

关于艺术家

Nicole Ruggiero is a 3D visual artist from New York City that creates works centered around the internet and online trends. The themes of her works explore technology and the emotional and social culture surrounding it. Recently she has further expanded her exploration of online popularity, digital emotions, sexuality, feminism, and the female gaze. Using 3D figures and nostalgic imagery she blurs the boundary between the virtual and the real. Having a background in 3D graphic design, she makes animations and visuals in mediums such as augmented reality, virtual reality, animations, and more. 

Nicole Ruggiero 是一位来自纽约的 3D 视觉艺术家，她的创作围绕着互联网，追赶着网络趋势。作品的主题在探索技术以及围绕它的情感和社会文化。最近，她进一步扩大了对网络流行度、数字情感、性、女权主义和女性凝视的探索。她使用 3D 人物和怀旧图像模糊了虚拟与现实之间的界限。她本身拥有 3D 平面设计的背景，在增强现实、虚拟现实、动画等媒体中制作动画和视觉效果。

The artist has been featured globally in places such as Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, India, Russia, and the USA. Her creations have also been showcased in New York Times, Adult Swim, VICE, Glamour, Widewalls, Monopol, NestHQ, and Keen On. Driven by learning new technologies, Nicole involves herself in the culture surrounding them and is constantly developing new abilities to evolve her art. Some of her notable shows include “Journey Through A Body” at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in Dusseldorf, Germany (2021), the real-fake.org.02 at BronxArtSpace in New York City  (2016).

这位艺术家曾在日本、中国、英国、澳大利亚、德国、印度、俄罗斯和美国等地在全球范围内亮相。她的作品也曾在纽约时报、Adult Swim、VICE、Glamour、Widewalls、Monopol、NestHQ 和 Keen On 上展出。在新技术的推动下， Nicole将自己融入到周围的文化中，并不断发展新的潜能来发展她的艺术。这些都在她的一些著名展览中得以展现，包括在德国杜塞尔多夫杜塞尔多夫艺术馆展出的“身体之旅”（2021 年），以及 2016 年纽约市布朗克斯艺术空间的 real-fake.org.02。

Nicole Ruggiero was intrigued by digital art communities through forums in middle school. Having seen the possibilities of digital art through other digital artists in her community and interacting with them, she was able to grow her skills. During that time, she was gifted a Wacom drawing tablet and has been making art ever since then. She is adept in various digital tools such as Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more. She believes that working in 3D gives her a chance to find new ways of expressing her art as 3D art can exist not only as 2D prints or photographs but rather as a form of digital sculpture. She most frequently uses Cinema 4D to create 3D animations and images that can be integrated into virtual reality and augmented reality. 

Nicole Ruggiero 在中学的时候通过论坛接触到了数字艺术社区，并对此充满兴趣。通过社区中的其他数字艺术家，她看到了数字艺术的多种可能性，与这些艺术家互动后，她也学习和提高了自己的技能。在那段时间，她收到了一台 Wacom 手绘板，从此开始创作。她擅长各种数字软件，例如 Cinema 4D、Photoshop、Illustrator 等。她相信 3D 工作让她有机会找到表达自己艺术的新方式，因为 3D 艺术不仅可以作为 2D 打印或图片存在，还可以以一种数字雕塑的形式存在。她最常使用 Cinema 4D 来创建可以集成到虚拟现实和增强现实中的 3D 动画和图像。

With her 3D artwork, she plays with the uncanny valley, a phenomenon whereby a computer-generated figure that significantly resembles a human brings about a sense of unease. The emotional response is triggered by the familiarity of the humanoid object that neither behaves nor has the required characteristics to be seen as an actual human. Nicole does not hope to create that perfectly replicates the real world. Instead, she emphasizes the small artificial aspects that escape the eye and are visible through scrutiny. This is key to understanding the significance of Nicole Ruggiero’s art. While creating hyper-realistic art can be amazing, the intentionality of adding computer-generated elements to invoke an emotional response distinguishes her works from that of many other artists.

在她的3D作品里可以看到她对恐怖谷理论的运用，这是一种现象，即当机器人与人类的相似程度达到一个特定程度的时候，人类对他们的反应便会突然变得极其负面和反感而产生不安。情绪反应是由熟悉的类人对象而触发的，该对象既不表现也不具有被视为真实人类所需的特征。Nicole不希望创造出完美复制现实世界的东西。取而代之的是，她会着重表现那些非常细微的方面，那些人为的，很难被眼睛关注到的地方。这是理解 Nicole Ruggiero 艺术意义的关键之处。虽然创造超现实主义艺术已经很令人惊叹，但添加计算机生成的元素以引发情感反应，将她的作品与许多其他艺术家的作品区分开来。

Because the internet…

一切起源于互联网…

The internet plays a key role in the majority of her works. The cultural context of the internet, its communities, as well as its seemingly universal language, are all aspects she ponders about. It is her source for creating ideas and also a space for reflecting on the passage of time. Works using the sense of nostalgia and the simple connection to social media are some of the artist’s most popular works. For her, the internet itself is a semblance of a version of real-life projected in a new dimension where people express themselves and communicate.

互联网在她的大部分作品中发挥着关键作用。互联网的文化背景、社区，以及看似通用的语言，都是她思考的方方面面。这是她创造想法的源泉，也是她留给自己反思时间流逝的一个空间。使用怀旧感和与社交媒体的简单联系的作品是她最受欢迎的一些作品。对她来说，互联网本身就是一种现实生活的版本，投射在人们表达自己和交流的新维度中。

“The Internet is used as a cathartic space where individuals flock in order to relieve themselves of their emotions and to communicate with other people.  Similarly, that is how I use the Internet and mainly why I create.”

“互联网被用作一个宣泄空间，人们蜂拥而至，以减轻自己的情绪并与他人交流。同样，这就是我使用互联网的方式，也是我创作的主要原因。”

The internet is an eccentric area where some see it as a disconnect from reality while others use it to connect with others. At the same time, the artist notices the distinctions between people’s offline and online personalities. People’s identities are molded with intention and the idea of how one’s portrayal is perceived. In this process, she believes our current state of being both online and offline has had a large impact on what defines when we are online, offline, or even both, when the simple act of checking your phone blurs this distinction. These types of distinctions of the internet are explored in her project “How The Internet Changed My Life”.

互联网是一个古怪的领域，有些人认为它与现实脱节，而另一些人则使用它与他人联系。同时，艺术家注意到人们在线下和线上个性的区别。人们的身份往往是带着一种意图的，他人如何看待自己的形象塑造了一个人的身份。在这个过程中，她认为我们当前在互联网线上和线下的状态，因为看手机这个行为产生了很大的影响，模糊了我们在线上和线下的区别。在她的项目“互联网如何改变了我的生活”中探讨了互联网的这些类型的区别。

“How The Internet Changed My Life” is a mixed reality (XR) portrait and installation project that takes a look at social networking as the leading driver within the millennial culture. The work features the stories of subjects who carry a close bond to the internet and the impact the internet has brought to them. The transformation he/she had and the experiences with how he/she influenced others. Collecting submissions of such stories, she creates a digital embodiment through the subject’s portrait which represents his or her perception and behavior on the internet. The viewing experience is enriched by the addition of XR which emotes the subject’s emotions and activates 3D interactions associated with the subject’s stories.

“互联网如何改变了我的生活”是一个混合现实 (XR) 肖像和装置项目，将社交网络视为千禧一代文化的主要驱动力。这些作品讲述了与互联网有着密切联系的主题的故事以及互联网给他们带来的影响。他/她所经历的转变以及他/她如何影响他人的经历。收集这些故事，她通过创建作品主体的数字化肖像展现出来，代表着他或她在互联网上的看法和行为。通过添加 XR 来丰富观看体验，XR 可以表达对象的情绪并激活与对象故事相关的 3D 交互。

“I started this project because the internet has been an important way I have formed my identity and I wanted to highlight others who use the internet as a primary means to identify as well. It all started with interviewing different people about their online experiences and flying to different places to take their portraits.”

“我开始这个项目是因为互联网一直是我形成身份的重要方式，所以我想关注其他使用互联网作为主要身份识别手段的人。这一切都始于采访不同的对象关于他们的网络在线体验，并乘飞机飞往不同的地方去拍摄他们的肖像。”

Recently, Nicole Ruggiero’s work, SUBLIME was displayed on billboards in the New York Times Square, Seoul, Tokyo, Berlin, and Madrid as part of a brand collaboration between Porsche and KÖNIG. She is now working on new artworks that will be focusing more on VR sculpting for her upcoming projects.

最近，Nicole Ruggiero 的作品 “SUBLIME” 作为保时捷与 KÖNIG 品牌合作的一部分在纽约时代广场、首尔、东京、柏林和马德里展出。她现在正在创作新的艺术作品，之后会更多地关注她即将创作的作品的 VR 雕刻。

For more information on the artist, please click here

点击此处查看更多艺术家的信息

Translation 翻译 Rona Xia

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本篇文章来源于微信公众号: SHMADNESS