Techno-Linguistic:a future perfectspeaking inthe past imperfect24 September24 October, 2014at Art Restaurant, Shanghai

participating artists:aaajiao (Xu Wenkai)Wu JuehuiWang Yuyang

curated by Zian Chen

2Introduction:Art Restaurant Shanghai presents Techno-

Linguistic: A Future Perfect Speaking In The Past Imperfect, a special program that aims at an investigation towards the practices of the younger generations of Chinese contemporary new media artists. It encompasses the recent works of Wu Juehui, Wang Yuyang, aaajiao (aka Xu Wenkai), and attempts at disclosing of a unique perspective regarding their ethnical appropriation of digital technology within their art practices. It also makes manifest their shared languageone that has been inherited from the logic of the new media itself. It is, as suggested by the title, a new syntactical structure that appears to have guided the thought processes of the artists.This linguistic structure points towards

the artists adoption of a particular structure of

consciousness that is first and foremost object-

oriented. It certainly appears to echo what has been discussed as the specific condition of art making

today, that is, the age of the post-internet as what

defines the premise upon which aesthetic decisions

are seen to be negotiated by the artists. The resultant art works as the consequences of these negotiations, then exemplifies the role that digital

technology plays in our contemporary lives todayone which is not simply instrumental, leading its user from achieving one end to another, outside the subjects themselves. Instead, these works

stand as testimonies to the productive agency of its

4very temporal materiality. The peculiar temporality, or tense of techno-linguistic, affects the users

and the utterances directly, partakes in aesthetic decision-making processes, and thus reversing

the conventional notion of artist autonomy. By prying open potentialities for the artists structure of

consciousness itself, digital materiality as a historical medium also generates infinite possibilities for

those keen to move away from an anthropocentric structure of consciousness of the human. This particular sense of time is partly produced through the deliberate re-assembling of a linear temporality

that has a structural similarity with the language of program design. It presents to its addressed public a peculiar structure of time exclusive to its digital materiality, and henceforth a corollary

its digital materiality, and henceforth a corollary reflexive consciousness of its author, embracing all

paradoxical tendencies in its physical manifestation.

Object-orientationThis concept originated most initially from the

language of program design. In its original context, it refers to the condition of which every designated object behaves as both a receptacle of, as well as a

nodal point for the processing of various information. If we were to say that this programming logic also reversely effects new structural changes to the human consciousness, one of its obvious benefits

would be its ability to steer the human away from its habitual anthropocentric modes of thinking.

6Wu Juehuis Countdown (Ostrich) may be perceived as an incipient example of this shift of focus. By physically locking the viewers head

within the device, the habitual structure of human consciousness is invited to become suspended, such that something else may be allowed to occur in its place. If this work can be said to epitomize that watershed of the interest from the human to the object, then it suffice to claim that this mode of

thought is seen to be nascent, and perhaps have begun with Xu Wenkais earlier engagement with

cybernetic theories in his previous Poor Mining and Water Measuring. Through investigations into the various systems and their programming languages, such as data-mining, email etc., Xu ensures that

each exploration also exposes the very material qualities of each programming language in the

Wu JuehuiCountdown (Ostrich), timer-installation, 2011

8process. These works appear at the outset, to have been motivated by an interest to think the structure of emotionality belonging exclusively to the in-human. However, we are quickly led

to realize that this designating to thinking of the sensuous is a task particularly apt, owing to the multidisciplinary nature of Xus various practices

related to technology, that the emotionality of software and hardware is a privileged and reserved object for the disciplinary of art,

despite the guise of a apparently programmatic methodology.

In the case of Wang Yuyangs work, this

programming-oriented structure of consciousness

can be seen to be reflected within his tactical use

of the digital mediums autonomous spontaneity. It

thereby alludes to a potential relationship between

aaajiao (Xu Wenkai)Limited Landscape, Unlimited, video installation, 2014

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the programmatic operation of a digital language, as well as the particularly human experience of the artistic creativity process. This type of creative process preserves a certain autonomy of the object, and thereby suggests a resistance of the

dictatorial authorship in its coming into being. This characteristic is particularly conspicuous within the sculptural work Cheating. The matter designated to deliver its formal qualities are carefully chosen organic substances, such as brass, steel, wood, granite, leather among others. The concomitant aesthetic value of the work then, can be said to derive from not simply the formal qualities of the object itself, but perhaps precisely the slippage

between viewers expectations for, and later reading

of, the work, owing to an attachment to the organic materials, that despite designated as that which

Wang YuyangCheating, generative sculpture, 2014

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delivers the works formal aesthetic qualities, does

not inform the very digital process that brought it into being most initially. Ultimately, the viewer is presented with such a dis-analogous deception,

where the sculptures inherently pivotal digital logic

becomes glided over as secondary.

A future perfect speaking in the past imperfectIf these artists can be said to be confronting with

a radical new linguistic (techno-linguistic) structure

as demanded by materiality of their chosen digital medium as such, then it suffice to say that their work

concomitantly reveals a rather unusual relationship with time. Through this strange encounter, the object-referent taken from the past is seen to have

been projected into a future perfect scenario.

If we were to make the attempt to translate this peculiar temporality into an otherwise conventional human time, we would arrive at the aberrant temporality as denoted by the subtitle as in the case when one recalls the now historical event of the science fiction genre. The aforementioned sentence

structure therefore is the metaphor of this show, denoting that the manupulation of the sense of time can be a critical response for these artists to tackle with their new-mediality.

Wang Yuyangs sculpture Cheating, as well as the digital landscape-making in Wu Juehuis Mistake Creature and aaajiaos Limited Landscape, Unlimited would be precisely the examples that would show off their apparent concern for this expanded

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notion of temporality that is derived through this strange confrontation. The result of which the visible logic of the specifically object-oriented digital

language, otherwise known to be the grammar of a techno-linguistic.

In Wang Yuyangs previous works, he collaged the

logic of binary numeral system that supported the Western metaphysic of Presence, with a physical installation of a black box of the photographic camera, to make manifest the aforementioned logic in the material world (Let There Be Light). This could be seen as an attempt to transpose a digital language within a wider genealogy of materiality that would subvert our conventional notion of a linear temporality. Taking the lead from their aesthetic decisions, we are invited to ponder over the outcome of their creative

process as not simply a reinvention of both the notion of zaojing (landscape making), as well as shangwu (object appreciation), but also the disclosing of a

potential kinship between landscape making and the much later western notion of the spectacle.The resultant artworkthat is the strange outcome of this reflection can be understood as a product

bearing traces of generative art, while bearing as a statement towards a reflexive critique of the modern

image as spectacle. For example, Wu Juehuis

Mistake Creature can be seen to have taken on the formal aesthetics of the complete blackout in order to effect this sense of critical-reflexivity. In doing so,

what was effectively a historically validated formal content of landscape making becomes displaced as such. What took its place instead, are only the

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contours of its older referents, delineating only inherently indeterminate shapes that are then subsequently animated through digital mechanical operations. Here we have a schematic representation

of landscape-spectacle (both jing in Chinese) in this digital form, marking the condition of the resultant kinetic installation. This becomes then, that recognizable newthat specifically contemporary

aesthetic object of the landscape-spectacle. It

embodies both the past, and the futural. An aesthetic judgment of which must bring about reflections of the

digital materiality, as well as spectacle of the past. As for Xu Wenkais construction of digital landscape-

spectacle in Limited Landscape, Unlimited, Obj.3 and Obj.4, what is observable is a conscious re-appropriation of the traditional formal content of landscape as object of interest for the digital screen.

Wu JuehuiMistake Creature, kinetic installation, 2014

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By subjecting the traditional motif to yet a different

lineage of critiquethat of the image as spectacle, we are invited to witness an extension of the human consciousness into the virtual space. The unconscious eradicating of the virtual/actual boundary, also meant a trespassing of the human boundary from the machine. The artists attempt at making explicit the

nature of digital art making as a process of alternation between worlds (virtual and actual, online and offline),

also opens up the possibility for us to approach such formal practice as that which exposes a peculiar in-

human agency so characteristic and pertinent of our time. By exploring these perceived gaps generated via this movement, thus expands the existing discursive space. The artist is then able to maximize previously overlooked potentialities in order to generate new possibilities for creativity.

Zian Chen (translated by Zou Zhao)

aaajiao (Xu Wenkai)Obj.3, video installation, 2014

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List of exhibited artworks:

aaajiao (Xu Wenkai)Obj.3, video installation, 2014Obj.4, video installation, 2014Limited Landscape, Unlimited, video installation, 2014

Wu JuehuiCountdown (Ostrich), timer-installation, 2011Mistake Creature, kinetic installation, 2014Offline Eye, interactive installation documented by video, 2014

Wang Yuyang2 In 1201406, mixed media painting, 2014Cheating, generative sculpture, 2014Ecstasy, generative painting, 2014BreathFire Extinguisher and Cabinet,kinetic installation, 2014Villain, generative painting, 2014

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Selected biographies:

aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) lives and works in Shanghai. As a multi-disciplinary practitioner, he has been invited to various events, including both editions of International Triennial of New Media Art Beijing (2011, 2014), Pandamonium, Momentum, Berlin (2014), and The West Bund Architecture and Contemporary Art Biennale, Shanghai (2013) amongst many others.

Wu Juehui based in Hangzhou where he teaches for China Academy of Art. Wu has participated in many national and international media art exhibitions and festivals, such as Eyebeam 2014 Annual Showcase, NY, ZERO1 Biennial, CA (2012), International Triennial of New Media Art, Beijing (2011, 2014), and The Creators Project, Beijing (2012).

Wang Yuyang based in Beijing and teaches in The Central Academy of Fine Art. He has participated numerous group shows including the inaugural exhibition of Long Museum West Bund (2014), International Triennial of New Media Art, Beijing (2011, 2014), the 9th Shanghai Biennial and the 4th Guangzhou Triennial (both in 2012).

Zian Chen is writer based in London. He has recently curated Collected Matters (2013) at ICC, Sapporo and Fictional Exhibition as a contribution for Leap (2014).