APSMUSEUM Forum 丨 STAINED GLASS
Mind，Machine，Mirage：
Living Amongst Robotics and Algorithms

APSMUSEUM will hold an online art forum about the exhibition-Stained Glass in the evening of October 23. Artist Andrea Anner and artist Thibault Brevetthe, who are the members of AATB, and artist HU Jieming, all the co-exhibiting artists from the show-Stained Glass, along with the artist CHEN Baoyang, the writer Bogna Konior and the critic WANG Yanran are invited to participate in the discussion about the co-operation and co-creation of humans and non-humans based on the entangled relationship between humans, machines, and AI.

With the brilliant iridescence of bubbles’ surfaces, the kaleidoscopic pattern captured by camera lenses, and the immense digital flow pouring down from crystal screens, the exhibition Stained Glass reminds us that we are living in an increasingly intelligent and programmed ‘scripted reality’.Marshall McLuhan claims that the media extends our bodies and minds, serving to mirror us in comforting and narcotic ways. Today's computer technology has gone way beyond the hypothesis of technology being an extension or prosthesis of the human being. The technosphere redefines itself through its own complicity with the planet. It manifests itself as a technological environment of the systems that are intelligent, self-learning systems and planetary computing, which affects different aspects of the global economy and ecological reality. Thus, we wonder, what role will humans play in shaping this new, hybrid reality? What kind of dialogue with machines will we establish to understand the conditions of coexistence and symbiosis?

Based on the development of industrial robotics, automation and artificial intelligence technologies, the definition of the human being as the core of artistic creation has been shaken. However, this is also an opportunity to reimagine and develop new ways of interacting with technology and natural systems, and to explore the possibilities of artistic creation in a post-human paradigm. The forum Mind, Machine and Mirage will invite the exhibiting artists of Stained Glass, HU Jieming and AATB, together with scholars and curators of media art, philosophy, AI and cultural studies, to engage in a discussion on the entangled relationship between humans, machines, and AI, and the co-operation and co-creation of humans and non-humans; to explore how to understand the entanglement of artificial daily life and evolutionary algorithms, how to imagine cybernetic intimacy under machine learning, and to rethink the ethical issues between technological development and ecological consumption.

Science and technology have deeply influenced the future trend of contemporary art. There are endless possibilities hidden in the development of science and technology, and challenges to the core of art and social norms waiting to be seen. Let's look forward to witnessing the perspectives and opinions of the forum guests on October 23!

BI Xin is a curator and writer based in Shanghai. Her curatorial practices focus on the intersection of arts, decentralised technologies and contemporary social-culture/subculture.

AATB is the collaborative practice of Andrea Anner and Thibault Brevet, both graduates from ECAL. Having previously worked on interactive objects and installations, they encountered an industrial robotic arm three years ago. This crystallised an ongoing research around human/ machine interactions and led them to investigate the potential of robotics and industrial automation to exist outside the realm of factory floors.

Their practice involves a tight connection and understanding of manufacturing processes, ranging from software programming, electronics to mechanical engineering and precision machining. Reflecting on the dissemination and assimilation of robotics into mundane activities, their work critically explores novel situations arising from these shifts.

AATB has received many awards, including Swiss Federal Design Awards in 2002, Hublot Design Prize in 2018 and Design Museum’s Design of the Year in 2014. AATB’s artwork has been exhibited in V&A Museum, Milan Furniture Fair, Shenzhen Design Week, and Ars Electronic Festival.

Hu Jieming was born in 1957 in Shanghai and graduated from the Department of Art and Design of Shanghai Light Industry Industrial College in 1984. He is currently a professor and head of the Digital Media Art Department at the School of Fine Arts, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. He is one of the pioneer artists of digital media and video installation in China today. Hu Jieming has a preference for other disciplines, often mingling those disparate fields. Hu's experiments come from an expression of concern for internal physiology, transforming physiological diagrams, gestures, architectural spaces, identities and pentagrams into a synthesis of visual experiences.

Hu's work has been widely exhibited. Exhibitions include: "City on the Edge", UCCA EDGE, Shanghai (2021); "The Things 2020", Magician Space, Beijing (2020); "14 Days", DRC No.12, Beijing (2020); "The Return of Guests: Selection of the PSA Collection", PSA, Shanghai (2019-2020); “Hu Jieming: Hypermage,” Poly Sunny Walk, Shanghai (2018); “Art in Motion. 100 Masterpieces with and through Media,” ZKM, Germany (2018); "Lights of Time – Solo Exhibition of Hu Jieming,” Aurora Museum, Shanghai (2016-2017); "Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitude,", Busan Biennale, KISWIRE FACTORY, Korea (2016);“Thingworld , International Triennial of New Media Art 2014,” National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2014); "Jeffrey Shaw and Hu Jieming Twofold Exhibition," Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (2014);“100 Years in 1 Minute,” Hu Jieming Solo Exhibition, ShanghART Main Space, Shanghai (2014); "Reactivation - The 9th Shanghai Biennale", PSA, Shanghai (2012); “010101: Art In Technological Times,” San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, San Francisco (2001); “Live In Time,” Nationalglerie Im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum Fur Gegenwart, Berlin (2001); etc.

Chen Baoyang, artist. He received a master's degree from Columbia University, porsche Artist Award, and Hyundai Blue Prize Curatorial Award. His artistic creation is closely combined with science and technology: he not only reflects on the relationship between science and technology, artists and the public through the research of science and technology ontology, but also manipulates part of the power of creation on algorithm and technology itself in practice to explore a real coexistence with technology. His research has been published in IJCAI, IEEE, ACM and other conferences and journals. He is also the chair of MMEDIA AI+ART and a member of the review Committee of EMNLP. He has held many solo exhibitions and curatorial activities in Zhejiang Art Museum, Shanghai Cc Art Center, Quantum Gallery, Wuhan K11, Yang Gallery, New Museum of Art in New York, Shanghai Ming Museum of Contemporary Art, Modern Automobile Culture Center and other places.

Bogna Konior is a writer. She is Assistant Arts Professor at the Interactive Media Arts department at NYU Shanghai, where she teaches After Us: Posthuman Media and other classes on emerging technologies, philosophy, humanities and the arts. With Anna Greenspan and Benjamin Bratton, she co-directs the Artificial Intelligence and Culture Research Centre. Previously, she taught in the Media Studies department at the University of Amsterdam, and conducted a research project at the International Research Institute for Cultural Techniques and Media Philosophy at Bauhaus University in Weimar. Her work can be found at www.bognamk.com.

Wang Yanran, an art critic and translator, is a doctoral candidate in the department of Art Philosophy at Fudan University. His research interests include 20th century French philosophy, media philosophy and digital aesthetics.