The invisible technology: The Poetics of Jiayu Liu’s Waves of Code
By Irini Papadimitriou
Living in a world that is dominated by technologies and a world that we usually experience with, through, or is mediated by technology, Jiayu’s work can not only disrupt these and shape them creatively but, more importantly, in her artwork, technology itself becomes invisible, almost disappears, as she brings to the center the power of nature and human emotions.
— Irini Papadimitriou
Jiayu Liu has been creating immersive and sensory installations for over a decade, experimenting with various art forms and media, including site-specific light and sculptural work, 3D projection mapping, mobile media, mixed realities, AI, and more. Her evocative, immersive, and often monumental installations take on, in a way, a distinctly Chinese artistic expression, marked by images of nature and the natural world. Jiayu’s media art landscapes depict nature and the universe. Still, rather than just creating representations of these worlds, the artist produces emotional expressions of these environments, enabling us to experience a meaningful and profound connection with them.
In a deeply poetic and sometimes also philosophical approach, Jiayu has been interrogating the materiality of media and technologies present in her work and pushing them in different directions. In her work, the media is often utilized to move them to the background, sometimes rendering them invisible, while bringing to the fore elements that accentuate the narrative and help build an emotional response to the spaces she composes.
Waves of Code - a title expressed by ChatGPT after a conversation with the artist regarding her intention - is a composition that not only reflects these approaches in Jiayu’s artistic practice, but one that attempts to push even further her previous experimentations with media, and in particular image production devices that in earlier works create a layer between her immersive spaces and the visitor perception of these spaces. Here, the artist strips the projection device from the composition, working only with its core elements, such as the lens and the LED light itself, and in this way, creates a new perspective and flow with light-emitting diodes and acrylic material.
In a hypnotic simulation, characteristic of Jiayu’s work, the CC Foundation space itself is being transported to sea level, reflected here by a mirror wall, and creating an entirely new horizon with the flickering reflection of sunlight radiating for 8 and 1/3 minutes - the time sunlight takes to reach us - on the virtual sea surface. Waves of Code is a space where one can feel the energy of the universe through light and shadow.
The installation serves as a portal between real and virtual spaces, inviting us to engage in a dialogue with a universal landscape that we are all familiar with but often bypass. A space where the artist reminds us again about the immensity and wonder of our world, prompting us to reflect on and rethink our position within it.