Sixteen groups of domestic and international artists are exhibiting interactive installations, videos and photos at the “Fun Palace” exhibition at C2 Space, part of the 2019 OCT-LOFT Creative Festival.
Curator Bruce Bo Ding borrowed British architect Cedric Price’s 1960s visionary project “Fun Palace” for this exhibition title.
The idea behind Price’s “Fun Palace” was to build a “laboratory of fun” with facilities for dancing, music, drama and fireworks. Central to his practice was the belief that through the correct use of new technology, the public could have unprecedented control over their environment, resulting in a building which could be responsive to visitors’ needs through the many activities intended to take place there. Although it was never realized, Price used architecture to address the future.
A visitor tries interactive installation “Training Pose.” Photo courtesy of OCT-LOFT
“Technology is a tool, but it’s not merely so. It is in an ‘action-and-reaction’ relationship with individuals, history and society,” said Ding.
“Price’s ‘Fun Palace’ underlines humans’ role as a ‘questioner,’ and my exhibition aims to trigger a discussion on today’s technology. It seems that the public is passive in the era of omnipresent technology and we only focus on what technology gives us, while ignoring its structure, logic and influence. Therefore, in the ‘Fun Palace’ exhibition, we intend to question on technology,” he said.
Visitors may have had similar experiences as what’s featured in video “The New Organs” created by Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne. On display at the exhibition are photos from the video and printed interview texts, which show cases of online ads that seem to be generated based on your phone conversations or physical locations.
“The New Organs.” Photos by Cao Zhen.
Visitors can also play video game “Datafiction” created by Marco Buetikofer and Lotte Meret Effinger at the exhibition. Role-playing as an immaterial digital entity, players of this game flow trough protocols, software and data-centers encountering personal memories, fragments of research material, music and spam that constitute a scattered narrative. The game reflects the influence of technology on everyday practices and modes of social behavior.
Visitors play video game “Datafiction” at the “Fun Palace” exhibition at OCT-LOFT’s C2 Space.
In addition to the exhibition, free lectures and workshops will be held at the OCT-LOFT Creative Festival. This weekend, Italian artist Sabrina Muzi, who collects used everyday objects to make bizarre garments, will give a lecture Friday night, and Shanghai sound artist Xu Cheng will talk about singing voice synthesizer software Vocaloid on Saturday afternoon.
Next Saturday afternoon, Indonesian artist Riar Rizaldi will speak on his exploration of the complex entanglement of tin with contemporary technology and the labor dynamics in his country. Next Sunday morning and afternoon, a facial tracking and emotion recognition workshop will be held by Vytas Jankauskas.
Follow OCT-LOFT’s WeChat “oct-loft” for more events and sign-up information.
The festival also invites individuals or teams to do events, performances, workshops or exhibitions on technology at the Precarious Playground area inside C2 Space.
Through an open call, the organizer hopes to link people from different fields to define the relationship between you and technology. Proposals in the PDF form can be sent to 26141639@qq.com or WeChat “kiwiap” by Feb. 29, 2020. Selected works will be exhibited during the exhibition period.
Dates: Until Feb. 29, 2020
Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Mondays
Venue: C2 Space, North Area, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城创意文化园北区C2展厅)
Metro: Line 2 to Qiaocheng North Station (侨城北), Exit B
