Samstag, 08. Mai 2021 von 13:00 bis 14:00 I Online via Zoom
Zoom-Einladung:
Thema: x subnetAIR Online – Meet the artist – Chun Shao
Uhrzeit: 8.Mai.2021 01:00 PM Wien
Zoom-Meeting beitreten
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81719541630?pwd=aDl1L1d6OWRuNUFSM3R3bTNvS0xXQT09
Meeting-ID: 817 1954 1630
Kenncode: 378477
Ursprünglich war Chun Shaos subnetAIR 2020 programmiert. Durch die pandemiebedingten Reiseschwierigkeiten wurde ihre Residency schließlich im Sommer 2020 auf 2021 verschoben. Dadurch, dass die Reisemöglichkeiten von China aus weiterhin schwierig bleiben und das Center for Human-Computer-Interaction weiterhin für Externe gesperrt bleibt, haben wir uns entschieden, Chun Shao eine Residency @ home anzubieten, die sie während ihrer Residency im Mai auf ihrer Webseite dokumentieren wird. Am Samstag, den 8. Mai 2021 habt ihr die Möglichkeit mehr zu ihren Arbeiten und ihrem subnetAIR Projekt zu erfahren.
Chun Shao
Chun Shao studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Art in Hangzhou in China and graduated from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in the Performance Department. In 2019, she received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Washington at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. From 2014 to 2018, Chun Shao taught at the University of Washington in Seattle, along with numerous exhibitions, awards, and residencies. In 2019 she worked as FeralAIR at the Schmiede in Hallein and will return to Salzburg in 2020 as subnetAIR.
Artist Statement
My work explores the relationship between the human body and interactive technology. By hybridizing traditional handcrafting techniques with physical computing, I create enigmatic artifacts programmed to perform kinetic movements, sounds, and react to the human touch. Material wise, I have been developing silicone fabrics to present a skin-like tenderness, blurring the boundary between body and object.
My recent project, entitled Emotive-textiles, exhibits a series of interactive fabric manipulation samples. This work combines different hand sewing techniques with electronic components to create shaking ruffles, percussive beads, wiggling textures, “crying” pleats, and “breathing” stuffing. This work reinvents textiles as a soft and wearable interface, expressing affective messages triggered by touch.
Through transforming digital materials into tangible forms, I seek to create poetic connections between feeling and touch, data and story, handicrafts and computational systems.
Project
For the subnetAIR program, I propose to present a series of handcrafted microcontrollers. Conceptually, this project discusses the phenomenon of makeup tutorials popularized on social media, imitating an idol’s face through applying cosmetics. I’m placing this current visual culture in juxtaposition with the tradition of appreciating Chinese marble screens. Both of them obtain a process of attentive and yet manipulative seeing to create an illusion of look-alike. Therefore, the work draws a poetic parallel between the longing for beauty and the devaluation of self-image, manifesting a criticism towards the overconsumpution of facial products.
Technique-wise, I compose used/torn cotton pads mixed with liquid silicone to resemble a found-image of a marble screen. When the silicone cures, I use different stitching patterns to embed an Attiny84/85 microprocessor and its input/output pins onto this tender surface. The object then becomes a flexible and programmable computer for controlling external electronics or creating interactive circuitries in future applications.
(c) Chun Shao