The 1st Digital Art China exhibition, jointly hosted by the China Artists Association, the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles(ZFLA), and the China Academy of Art (CAA), opened on April 18, 2024, at the Art Museum of CAA in Hangzhou. The exhibition seeks to catalog the advancements made in contemporary Chinese digital art, highlight its societal impact, expand the vision within the field of digital arts, and ignite new sparks for societal innovation through artistic creativity.
The exhibition is categorized into four sections of "Space Epic," "Universal Panorama," "Biomimetic Exploration," and "Endless Realms." Selected from more than 12,000 entries, 210 pieces are featured, including CG paintings, digital imaging, interactive art, mixed reality (AR, VR, MR), generative arts/AI arts/AIGC, and other artworks that deeply integrate with digital technology. The event provides a close examination and display of China's digital art practices, creations, and educational endeavors over the past decade, showcasing the new quality productive forces that have emerged from the deep integration of art and technology, addressing the issues facing both the art community and the society on a broader scale. The exhibition is to be held biennially.
Create the Archive of Possible Worlds
In the current digital era, digital technology is profoundly reshaping human society and civilization, consistently bringing about innovations in the forms and ways of artistic creation. Since its emergence, digital art has garnered extensive attention from the art, education, and industry sectors due to its novel media, forms, concepts, and methodologies. It quickly became an integral component of the global arts system, representing a significant milestone in the history of art. More importantly, digital art has moved beyond the traditional realms of fine art and contemporary art, carving out new strategic spaces for human to experience, express and create arts.
Chinese digital art, characterized by a spirit of exploration and an avant-grade mentality, has developed over the past two decades alongside the new millennium, constantly aligning itself with the rhythms of the 21st century. Recently, with the rapid evolution of digital and smart technologies, coupled with the liberal practices in China's art education, it has risen to prominence in both social and public cultural spheres, establishing itself as a remarkable phenomenon within the Chinese art community.
As digital technology continues to emerge and evolve, its influence becomes increasingly dynamic. Virtual, mixed, augmented, and expanded reality... As digital technology intersects with the real world, it unleashes and creates endless possibilities. Against this backdrop, digital art strides resoundingly towards the forefront of current artistic practices. The CAA, a pioneer in the realms of digital art and new media, spearheads this movement, fostering collaboration across sectors of arts, technology, industry, and media. This synergy drives new quality productive forces that blend artistic creativity with technological innovation, thereby propelling societal progress.
Gao Shiming, Vice Chairman of the China Artists Association, Chairman of the Zhejiang Artists Association, President of CAA, and Director of the Organizing Committee for the 1st Digital Art China exhibition, made a profound call during the founding of CAA's School of Intermedia Art (SIMA) in 2010: "Unearth creativity from media, and discover humanity in technology." Digital art represents a melding of technology and the humanities and the development of new ideas driven by media technology. It is reshaping our modes of production and cultural landscapes, creating new dimensions for perception and creation. The exhibition reverberates through time and space, establishing an archive of possible worlds, used to gather a myriad of global, historical, and contemporary fantasies, inspiring explorations of digital realms and possible worlds.
Expand Temporal and Spatial Imagination through A Vast Array of Artworks
Digital art transcends established disciplinary boundaries. The 1st Digital Art China exhibition showcases an array of fields including artificial intelligence, bio-art, ecological art, game art, mixed-reality creations, digital technology painting, animation, and video art on a grand scale. It offers a multidimensional, panoramic sharing of knowledge, thoughts, and creation. The exhibition features an interconnected display across multiple disciplines, encompassing and linking science and technology, digital media, animation, gaming, and the blending of science and art. It breaks the barriers between categories and perspectives, inspiring a resonance of ideas, cognition, and visual production.
From physical experiences to mechanical life, from data-driven lifestyles to digital cultural tourism, from space epics to metaversal realms, and from futuristic sci-fi to digital archaeology—the exhibition re-encodes and digitally pivots cultural landscapes, presenting a profound integration of art and digital technology. Its expansive temporal and spatial scope sketches out new dimensions of aesthetic experience, sensitivity, and the imagination sparked by technology.
At the exhibition, the "Deep Space" research conducted by the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduces a new aerospace culture, reigniting the Chinese's desire and enthusiasm for the vast oceans of stars. Additionally, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' major international science initiative, "DDE Deep-time Digital Earth," pioneers our exploration into planetary history and the evolution of life, also advancing a deep reflection on the Anthropocene.
The Digital Culture and Art Museum of CMG Meta Museum, in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and the team led by Hu Xiaochen, Director of the Computational Art Research Institute at the CAA’s School of Innovation & Design, pioneered a groundbreaking mixed reality work titled How Civilization Originated — Digital Art Exhibition of the Achievements of Tracing the Origins of Chinese Civilization For the first time in history, the innovative project employs digital technology to create a mobile, fully immersive, interactive spatio-temporal framework, facilitating the online exhibition of ten key archaeological sites including the "Dragon Reverence and Jade Esteem" Hongshan site and the "Sacred Ground of Civilization" Liangzhu site. This platform allows visitors to freely explore the monumental achievements of these ancient civilizations and experientially reconnect with the life of their ancestors, bringing to light the majestic splendor of China's five-thousand-year heritage.
Moreover, Beijing BlackBow Culture Communication Co., Ltd. has crafted a dynamic, interactive artwork titled 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, directed by the acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. With Chen Yan, current Head of the AI Center at CAA, serving as the art director, and Wang Zhiou leading BlackBow as the visual effects supervisor, the project, a feast for the eyes that have shocked the world, was developed over a course of more than three years. Utilizing the unique characteristics of digital media, it presents the pinnacle of ice and snow aesthetics intertwined with traditional Chinese romance.
In Do Data Know the Screen?: The Aura of Data, a digital image created by Yu Tongzhou, faculty at the School of Innovation & Design at CAA, the Shenzhen skyline serves as a backdrop to examine the emergence of a "heart" of the urban intelligence network amid advancements in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and smart cities. The artwork investigates our dependence on algorithms and scripts that establish the 'existence' of this urban intelligence, inviting profound contemplation and inquiry.
In the 21st century, as the Internet heralds a new age of discovery while mixed reality ushers in a new genesis, prompting humanity to rediscover "the world and its people." Over the years, the deep integration of art and technology in this new era has spawned a novel kind of new quality productive forces that is revitalizing our educational system. Digital technology and intelligence, coupled with aesthetics and creativity, are becoming essential competencies for China's new generation. The integration also accelerates our societal construction, fostering a diverse, open ecosystem of innovation and cultivating public culture that embraces creativity.
The exhibition will remain open until June 3rd.
