Three undergraduate graduates from CAA’s School of Art Administration and Education, Cao Xiyue, Teng Xiayi, and Huang Yi, collaborated on the creation of the work “Format Life”, which won the Gold Award.

This project is dedicated to the future community construction of cities, combining various media for creation and planning aesthetic education activities through field research. The art group integrates the results of their fieldwork into communities and schools, fostering connections among communities, schools, and residents.

Through extensive fieldwork, the project focuses on a retired soldier in the Changsheng community of Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, and uses this as a basis to create the graphic novels “Battlefield Notes” and “Shufen's Diary”, which recreate the formatted life of the 1960s. The long print of the city wall is spread out on the table, with 30 prints of “Battlefield Notes” narrating stories adapted from the retired soldier’s oral history. The works on the wall, using media such as ink portraits, landscape sketches, copperplate prints, plant-dyed paper, ceramic fruits, and handmade books, attempt to showcase the differences and connections between people of the past and present, exploring the distinct yet similar mental states of two generations influenced by different educational backgrounds during the golden era.

Based on this series of creations on formatted life, the team planned related aesthetic education activities and conducted practices in communities and primary and secondary schools. Through these activities, they aim to convey the beauty of art and culture, evoke people’s resonance with historical memories, and inspire their reflection and love for current life. The field research notes, creation insights, and aesthetic education practices have been compiled into three books: “Our Stories”, “Field Grid Study”, and “Language of Plants”. Moving forward, they will continue to delve into field research, constantly enriching their creative and educational content, contributing more to the construction of future urban communities, allowing art to intervene and spread to communities and schools, and deepening residents' sense of belonging.

Format Life

Artist:  Cao Xiyue, Teng Xiayi, Huang Yi (School of Art Administration and Education)

Instructor: Li Yong, Dai Wenlian, Li Tong