Foreword to the Exhibition "Waves of Code"
— The Reflexivity of Media: Light, Perception, and Machine
By Ying Liu
The exhibition will present the latest artistic practice of young artist Liu Jiayu. The artwork is titled "Waves of Code," which was generated after a discussion between the artist and ChatGPT.
Through nearly a decade of research and practice on light and projection media, the artist has found that, in the development of human civilization, the world has evolved into one where technology constitutes, achieves, or mediates experience. Electronic display screens and projector lenses have been regarded as natural somatosensory interfaces and the primary carriers of information for viewing and reading. This is related to the danger of the individual senses being forced and controlled by the industrial system, and the possibility of the elimination of human desire and unconscious existence, as suggested by Stigler from the perspective of Genesis. It continues Benjamin's critique of the disappearance of the "spiritual halo" in the age of mechanical reproduction. Liu Jiayu's artistic creation attempts to break down this situation and creatively reshape it. In this creation, she focuses on the exploration and excavation of the reflexivity of media. She deepens the diversified understanding and expansion of the media she uses from a new perspective.
In the creation concept, the artist will continue the past combination of visual intention and real-time rendering data in natural physics, and again study "light and shadow" to further explore the critical relationship between the two with the machine. In the bearing medium, only light-emitting diodes and plexiglass are used, and all other materials are stripped away to serve as narrative clues in the form of three-dimensional infographic language. Compared to the source image presented by programming in the device itself, this practice focuses more on displaying the perceptual flow power in the natural field created by industrial lighting and exploring the essence of aesthetics from the science of the perceptual sense.