Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Money

真实、美、自由和金钱

art after social media era
社群媒体兴起后的艺术

/
Text by Li Zhenhua
李振华 撰写
/

In honor of the Rockefeller Foundation and Mr.Michael Naimark

向洛克菲勒基金会和Michael Naimark致敬

In 2003, Michael Naimark completed his research on media art commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation. The purpose of his research was to delineate how the field of new media has been accessed and explored by international corporations and, conversely, the practices that transpire within the realm of art. Additionally, it also intended to trace out the advancements new media has made since its inception, both formally and conceptually. In this sense, his project can be viewed as a research-oriented investigation into the history of new media – a project whose pertinence derived from a long-awaited need for communication from different sides.

2003年Michael Naimark完成了洛克菲勒基金会委托的媒体艺术和实验室调查，主旨在于发现新媒体出现的语境中，国际大公司和来自艺术领域内部对这⼀媒介领域在实践中尝试的现实，以及媒介和观念出现以来的成果如何。此项目可以被看作是对整个新媒体发展历史有效的基于调查和研究的探询，对其出现环境和来自各方需要的一次求证。

Our present exhibition seeks a more intimate interpretation of how different fields, cultures and media can co-exist, and how technology, science and aesthetics can better integrate—independent of the reality fabricated by the mainstream world—with concurrent social processes. Attempting to identify and locate different aesthetic senses within the sphere of culture and technology, it intends to generate public resonance through the exploration of everyday life, fashion, trends and collective consciousness.

展览主旨在于更加亲和的阐释来自不同领域、文化、媒介的和谐共处，在主流社会的真实之外，来自技术、科学和美学，与今日社会进程中现实的融合。展览在探询来自不同文化和科技美感的同时，希望通过来自日常生活、时尚潮流和群体意志找到公众的共鸣。

From the founding of the New Media Department by the China Academy of Art in 2001, to the 2002 Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Festival (MAAP), the development of new media in China has been closely linked with video art. Starting with Zhang Peili’s first video works in 1988, new media has gradually expanded its horizons and incorporated elements from different fields under its purview, forming a synthetic identity that bridges video, design, architecture and performance. Reaching a distinct stage in 2005, new media art in China began to create a different cultural landscape by tapping into newly-emergent forms of communication such as the micro-blog and other internet-based mediums. These developments gave rise to a language that, by generating points of connectivity across a wider social spectrum, blurred the boundary between the real and the virtual.

自2000年以来新媒体艺术从中国美院开始新媒体教育筹备伊始，自2002年MAAP亚太媒体艺术节的国际化新媒体在中国的展出为一个节点。新媒体的发展在中国与录像艺术相关联，从张培力1988年的录像艺术创作开始，逐渐融合不同领域和媒介手段，新媒体正在形成录像、设计、建筑、表演等多个领域的综合态势。新媒体自2005年以来形成又一个节点，主要是与正在兴起的网络媒体和博客现实接壤，新媒体艺术在中国开始呈现出另一种文化现实，正在从媒介、科学、技术等领域，拓展出与更广阔的现实接壤、融合真实和幻境的语言。

Yet what constitutes new media art is still an unanswered question. For instance, the appearance of computer, internet, and art forms based on them (both software and hardware) all figur into the broader conception of new media. Other technological means linked with the genesis and renewal of new media include: the invention of radio, which expanded the realm of communication and information distribution; the Theremin and other audio equipment that can be manipulated by electricity; films, including its precursors, such as the daguerreotype, all crucial to the reproduction of images. In addition, the emergence of computer technology and practices that accompanied it, such as robot art, bio-art, social media and hacker-initiated social interventions, all fall under the umbrella of art forms that, based in the field of new media art, connect with art’s long term commitment to the transformation of culture. Here, new media attests to a specific form of integration that connects the evolution of media and medium with conceptual and social realities.

但是何为新媒体艺术，却是一个悬而未决的概念，随着时间的推进，新媒体艺术也是一个在不断自我更新的概念，如计算机的出现，如互联网的出现，如基于这些领域的软硬件艺术，都在一定时间内或是新媒体这一大的观念下成立。与电相关的如电台(Radio)，可以被纳入信息传媒艺术领域，如电感应音响设备(Theremin)的发明，可以被看作是新媒体出现的又一个重要来源，而电影，还包括电影的前身摄影术，从媒介传播和图像复制的角度，也被看作是新媒体艺术的另外一个起源。还有在图像和视觉艺术之后，电脑被发明之后，如机器人艺术、生物艺术和新兴的社群媒体、黑客社会介入都可以被看作是基于新媒体艺术领域，与艺术长期的文化演进特征接壤的艺术形态。新媒体在这里完全可以被看作是一种融合：探讨媒介演进与观念、社会现实接壤的姿态。

What is new media art? This is a long-term proposition that has to be constantly redefined and pursued. It does not change as new forms of media are developed, nor does it exclude older forms. Under today’s growing complexity, the horizon of media art is ever-expanding thanks to the development of media archaeology. Like contemporary art, it also needs to be incessantly questioned and explored. Consequently, artists and the development of new media art are both caught in a state of constant transformation – unstable and undecidable. Thus contemporary art and new media art both share the quality of ambiguity and multivalence, which necessitates that it achieves its cultural legitimacy through specific strategies of communication that bypass the confines of traditional modes of presentation. But this does not hinder new media art from assuming different forms such as video art, film, animation, interactive art, virtual reality, augmented reality, robotic art, bio-art, radio art, information art, internet based art, computer art, digital art, game art etc. Though these identities and forms overlap, they share a logical connection based on time and event.

何为新媒体艺术，是一个可以被不断界定和追问的长期命题，并不因为媒介的新而转变，同样也不因为媒介的旧而排异。新媒体艺术在一个不断复杂化的今天，借助媒体考古学的发展，正在形成一个更广泛的现象，与当代艺术一致，它也需要不断的被追问和探索，艺术家和新媒体艺术这一动态的概念形成不稳定（或无法被界定）的状态中，新媒体艺术和当代艺术一样有着多义性的特质，导致了一个需要在呈现之外，沟通、交流达成其文化逻辑的合法性。但这完全不影响新媒体艺术以其多样的姿态被呈现，而且被不断的界定为：音视频艺术、录像艺术、电影、动画、互动艺术、虚拟现实、融合现实、机器人艺术、生物艺术、无线电艺术、信息艺术、网络艺术、电脑艺术、数码艺术、游戏艺术等等领域重合，却有着时间和事件逻辑下的存在。

The present project references the above notion of new media art in its unique relevance to public space; it is an encounter and a reason to be together. The project takes place in K11 (Shanghai), a place of high esteem in commercial culture, located in one of the busiest areas in Shanghai. This project not only points to the newly emerged public and commercial space, but also the deteriorating museum space. As society grows more community-oriented and art more closely linked with everyday life, art gradually becomes unchained from its privileged position and the conceptual systems that used to define it, so what is the future direction of art? Before this question can be answered or clearly defined, art for the time being will simply dwell in the here and now. Perhaps the time when “everyone is an artist” envisioned by Joseph Beuys will never arrive, but this does not obstruct the emergence of alternative, sometimes anonymous, modes of participation. The exchange and dialogue created therein is precisely a response to the space, it can be everywhere, or right in front you; it can be a museum, a virtual space, an elevator, or in the data fluxing through electric circuits.

此项目是对上述新媒体概念，公共空间特征的一次引用，是一次“遭遇”（encounter），是“在一起 ”（together）的缘由，此项目在上海最繁华的地区，商业文明最重要的场所K11举办。同时这个项目指向的不仅仅是兴起的公共空间和商业空间，还有逐渐衰落的博物馆空间。因为逐渐转向的社群化社会，和更加贴近日常生活的艺术倾向，艺术正在从那些被仰望的空间和系统概念中挣脱，艺术要到哪里去？在这个问题还没有被解答或是定义之前，艺术也许就在这里（Here and Now），博伊斯所宣讲的“人人都是艺术家”的时代可能永远不会到来，但是这并不妨碍每个人有一个替身或是匿名的参与，而参与所构建的艺术交流和对话，恰好是对空间的回应，可以无处不在，也可以近在眼前，可以是美术馆、虚拟空间，也可以是电梯、公车或在电子线路中奔腾的数据。

Our undertaking is fundamentally different from institutional critique and resistance against the commercialization of space prevalent in the western discourse. This difference is mainly determined by one’s interpretation of alternative space. Using the emergence of contemporary Chinese art as a starting point, from the Star Group exhibition in the small garden outside of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in the ‘70s, the different pioneering practices of the ‘80s New Wave Movement that experimented with non-art spaces, including basements, people’s apartments and public parks – places that are not artificially constructed and isolated from the environment of daily life, to private museums and government-supported art spaces prevalent since 2000, all of these practices must address and problematize the very existence and legitimacy of the museum space. If the legitimacy of these spaces is derived from their nominal signification, then K11 is also a museum, and any public space can be a gathering place of contemporary art. But such subsumption cannot go both ways, since K11 does not fit the classical description a museum, just as many museums now try to introduce the notion of public space and the social into their space in order to move beyond its traditional limitations. A museum can be a nightclub, a place of celebration and banquets; it can be occupied and contested. As the museum endows legitimacy to these activities, the idea of the museum returns once again to daily life as a part of the public imagination. But can we call this “every life?” or perhaps a kind of everyday life guided by definite modes of conceptualization?

这与批判博物馆系统或是抵制商业空间的西方主流系统有着本质的差异，主要原因还在于如何看待替代空间这一现实，从另外的一种中国当代艺术兴起的现实出发，如70年代末期的“星星画会”在中国美术馆外小花园的展览，80年代“新潮美术运动”的种种非艺术空间的实验，有地下室、家或是公园，这些最接近人类活动，而非人工制造的隔离的艺术空间，以及2000年以来兴起的私人博物馆和政府艺术空间的现实。都需要在打破这个是否存在着的美术馆系统空间问题上，提出质疑，如果这些空间是因为名称的原因所以有其合法性，那么K11也可以是美术馆，任何一个公共空间都可以是一个当代艺术的聚会之所。但这并非双向的，因为美术馆肯定还不是K11，如同很多美术馆在尝试将公共空间和社群的概念引入到美术馆空间，以打破其隔膜。美术馆可以是午夜娱乐场所，美术馆可以是宴会的场所，美术馆可以被占领或是抗议，美术馆在赋予这些活动和内容合法性的同时，让美术馆这一公共空间的概念再次回到日常生活中。但这是否是一种“日常生活”，或是被赋予了某种概念的“日常生活”？

This project therefore intends to bring contemporary art to a wider audience, out of traditional models such as the white box, the black box, the yellow box or any other determinations proffered by the discursive systems of art.

此项目希望能将当代艺术带入一个更大的公众群体，带出白盒子、黑盒子或是黄盒子的艺术系统概念。

Art has always evolved and renewed itself with the changing of the times and technological advancement. The discovery of aesthetic insight by the artist and the formation of collectivity are now moving in the same direction, if we temporarily suspend the question of how the art system influences the artist, then the most tangible way of envisaging this coming convergence is the creation of new encounters between the artist and the audience through the blurring of the constraints the art system places on space. Encounter here is not an extension of daily life or public space, but the moment in which space and time shine forth. When contemporary art is liberated from sphere or space, will not the humanity, emotion and imagination of the individual find resonance with the other in this simplicity? If its technique, medium and forms of expression can all be mobilized as interface, art only needs to find an excuse to unfetter itself from the city, the everyday, cutting-edge technology, low level income and other annoyances, thus assuming an antagonistic stance toward everything. But this antagonism cannot change anything but its own internal reality. Art is a formless form; it is a kind of anticipation and meditative silence.

艺术从来是伴随时代演进、技术发展，不断自我革新的。艺术家从中发现的美，和群体构建的系统，正在向一个方向偏移，如果去除艺术系统之于艺术家的作用，最直接的方式还是消隐掉艺术系统和空间的束缚，让艺术在艺术家个体与观者个体之间生成时间和空间的遭遇。遭遇在这里并非日常生活或是公共空间的概念延伸，而是在个体与个体创造的某种机缘中体现时间和空间的瞬间。所以当代艺术在脱离了场域、空间之后，个体的人性、情感、遐思是否能在最单纯的方式中找到他者的共鸣？如果其技术、媒介、样式都可以是界面手段的时候，艺术在这里需要的也许只是摆脱城市、日常、高科技、低收入等烦恼的一种借口和理由，是一种可以反对一切，却无力改变除了身心之外的任何现实。艺术是无形的有型，是一种期待，是一次禅修的静。

One of the key propositions of this exhibition is the finitude of truth and freedom. I believe that both are open to the multiplication of divergent perspectives and tend to switch their meaning according to context, though this does not entail or presuppose a cynical or defeatist outlook. Rather, it is a way of looking at the world in which one’s critical distance is kept intact. Similarly, I do not want to make any assumptions about whether art in this case is closer to freedom or truth. As social conditions grow more complex, which kind of existence can be considered simple and pure? Raising the question in this way does not insinuate that it is fictional, since this existential status is necessitated by the very notion of existence as one of its possible modes. I prefer to describe the current state of the art world intuitively, which makes art move closer to its anticipated or perhaps imputed simplicity and purity. Truth and freedom are constantly opened up by the exploration of medium and the turning of the world. They are paradoxical sometimes; sometimes one can have both.

真实和自由的有限性，是这个项目希望提出的，我更相信自由和真实的多角度性，从不同的上下文关系中我们可以发现不同的真实和自由的存在，当然这并非犬儒主义或是失败主义的预设，而是更加抽离的看待今日世界，并保持怀疑。艺术是否在这里更接近本真的自由或是真实，我也不希望做任何预设，在一个复杂社会的情境中，有什么是纯粹和单纯的存在呢？但不应该因为这样的设问就否认单纯或是纯粹的存在，毕竟这也是存在的必然之一种。我更喜欢用直接性（intuitive）来形容今日艺术的状态，这更让艺术接近某种我们期待的单纯和纯粹。真实和自由在不断的通过媒介的拓展和今日世界的发展进程被打开，真实和自由有时候相悖，但也许会同时被获得。

I like a statement by the filmmaker Hou Xiaoxian: “I still have faith in human kindness.”

我喜欢侯孝贤说的：“我相信人间有真情。”

I hope there will always be ways for self-reflection and self-awareness during our pursuit of independence and freedom. It does not have to take the spotlight, but simply be preserved as an underlying expectation or encouragement. This sobriety will not change with the altering of commercial or political circumstances, and independence is not a politicized stance in my opinion – just as I do not believe in a singular truth; our lives are always relational, but our natures vary.

对于独立、自由，希望总能有一种自觉和反省的能力，在任何阶段可以保留就好，算是一种期望或是鼓励，这不会因为商业、政治或是其他所改变，我不相信独立是一种政治化的姿态，同样如上所说真实是一种唯一的存在，如同我不相信真理一样，从来我们的生活都是有关联（relational）的存在，而人性多样。

If we approach this issue from the perspective of the artist, then is this just another festival, or something else – the festival to come? If one resorts to notions of gathering and encounter prevalent in the discourse of relational aesthetics, or simply as a celebration, then, without a question, the art here does disappoint, or that it constitutes, in a totally unexpected manner, the site where each participating artist manifests his or her individual practice. Under this light, art is not exhibited with any agenda or created to fulfill certain ideological demands; on the contrary, it is and should always be a quiet and reticent power.

如果从艺术家的角度出发，这是否是另外的一个节日，还是未来节日英文的释义Festival to Come，按照关系美学中的聚会或是相遇或是一次庆典的指向，艺术显然要在这里让人失望，或完全在期望之外产生另外的某种来自每个艺术家个体实践的现场。艺术在这里并非按照某种导向或是意识形态的需要被展出或是创造，它应该是一种静默的力量。

If the exhibition mediated by the curator, artists and artwork only constitutes a specific system of complexity within many larger, more encompassing social systems, then why show art at all, and make it into a site or a clue that unfolds as art encounters the beholder, the masses or the public? The depth and sense of time demanded of an artist should be extended to the viewers. I have a hard time imagining people visiting this exhibition often, nor is it likely for them to dwell on a non-identified, out of the ordinary encounter. In the same way as repeatedly looking at an object or a film, the difference being the focus of the viewers throughout the exhibition will have to be scattered. They must explore, for themselves, art works that are not beholden to the simple act of being seen, but that which have to be discovered and perceived through different experiences, environments and times. Here I reject the invisible or classical museological presentation, but hope instead that this exhibition can be a process of mutual exploration and letting-happen among the curator, the artist and the public.

策展和艺术、艺术家之间所呈现的展览，不过是这个商场或是繁华世界的一个复杂部分中复杂性的一种，那么为什么要展出艺术，并成为艺术在面对观者（Beholder）和群众（The Masses），或是公众（Public）的一个线索或是现场，艺术家所需要的深度和时间性，将同样转化为对观者的要求，我很难设想观者将会经常性的光顾这个展览，或是反复的琢磨某些不能直接识别的，在经验之外的遭遇。如同反复的观看一个“物”（object）或是一部电影，不同之处在于观者的关注点在这个项目中将是散乱的，是通过发现来完成的，那些艺术作品和艺术家的工作不仅仅是被观看这一行为的必须，而是在不同的体验、环境、时间等待着被发现和感知。这里我拒绝那些不可见的（invisible）或是被经典化呈现（classical museology presentation）的艺术方式，而期望这些艺术作品和这个展览是从策展、艺术家到观者、公众的一次相互的发现（explore）和发生（to be happen）。

Perhaps I have expected too much of the project, perhaps this project is just the beginning. I can feel an inextricable force transpiring inside the project through the participation of the artists, the recognition of the project initiator Michael Naimark, the support of K11 and many cultural institutions, commercial entities and peers.

对于这个项目也许我的期望过大，也许这个项目只是开始，从艺术家的参与和项目题目的作者Michael Naimark的认可，K11的支持，以及众多文化机构、商业机构、志同道合者的支持，让我能感受到某种力量。

For K11, a cultural project is not as simple and straightforward as an advertising campaign, its cultural influence has to be sustainable and ongoing, perhaps the realization of its social responsibility, as self-encouragement and an impetus for future development, can be a gift to the new year of 2013.

*对于K11，一个好的文化项目并非广告那样简单直接，但其文化影响的连绵不绝，及其社会责任的显现，也许可以成为送给2013年的礼物，一种期许美好的愿望和能量。

 

.Chinese to English translated by Ouyang Xiao, proofreading by Edward Sanderson.