Elephant Says

普通话 [Mandarin]

Art, Asia, and Technology

In Chinese aesthetics, 象(Xiang) is an important concept which basically means an aesthetic object that is both present and absent, which creates an effect that transcends the barrier between viewer and artwork. This kind of aesthetic thought is not exclusive to traditional Chinese art practice; on the contrary, its dynamic, relational and non-dualistic features resonate with characteristics of contemporary media art practices.
In order to make these art practices more visible and accessible, in this podcast, Chinese artists who are experimenting with all kinds of interesting media will be invited to the conversion in this channel, to share about their artworks, their feelings and motivations, their working methods, how they react to the contemporary world with these works, how they relating themselves to the tradition, not in the sense of kongfu panda or spring roll, but as natural and at the same time unavoidable as the mode of thinking lurking in the language being spoken everyday, and so on.
Artists from other countries who are interested in Chinese aesthetics would also be invited later, but for now, Chinese would probably be the major language used in this podcast channel. In this case, a short introduction of the artist and main content of the conversation will be written in English for those episodes. Please don’t hesitate to contact the host Siying Duan via duansiying@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about them or have any suggestion.

With particular gratitude to the music designer Shiyang Cai and the channel artwork designer Xin Fu.

Episodes

Feng, Qianhui: Collision of Chinese Traditional Aesthetics and Contemporary New Media Art/[CN] 冯千卉: 中国古典美学与当代新媒体艺术的碰撞

Recorded on 2019-04-28

Feng, Qianhui is an architect, interactive designer and multi-media artist. She is focusing on Interactive architecture and multi-Media art, as well as immersive theatre and interactive performance. She has earned two master degrees, first one is in the major of Architectural Design and theory from Harbin Institute of Technology, and second one is in Design […]

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Ying, Xinxun: Don’t worry/ 应歆珣: 别怕

Recorded on 2018-10-12

Ying, Xinxun works and teaches at the Fiber Art Department of the Chinese Academy of Fine Art. Her artistic creations include fiber installation, body installation, light installation, theatrical exhibition, image and video, painting and so on. Her works have a particular focus on the living condition of contemporary people, such as issues like how technology […]

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Tan, Liqin: The Future Leads Today/ 谭力勤: 未来指导现在

Recorded on 2018-08-01

Tan, Liqin is a full professor and co-director of the art program at Rutgers University-Camden. He has served as a board member of the Digital Art Committee, SIGGRAPH and as a juror for the digital art gallery at SIGGRAPH. He was also one of the activists during the ’85 Art New Wave of China. Since […]

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Zhang, Peili: Rethinking 30X30 / 张培力:重新思考《30X30》

Recorded on 2018-05-07

Zhang, Peili is considered the father of Chinese video art for his three-hour video 30X30 (1988). He is also as an influential educator who started the New Media Department at China Academy of Art in 2002 where young artists such as Hu, Weiyi, Lin, ke, Lu, yang among many others graduated from. This episode starts […]

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Introduction: Story of “Xiang” / 引子:“象”的故事”

Recorded on 2018-04-10

Hello everyone, I am the channel host Siying Duan, currently conducting my doctoral research in new media instillation and comparative aesthetics at Shanghai University. In this episode, I introduce the main contents of this podcast channel with a particular focus on the idea of “象(Xiang)” which has both the connotation of “elephant” and “image”. In […]

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Hosts