Catalogue Essay: aaajiao – Between the Machine and the Human

[English text below]

机器与人之间 —— aaajiao个展《屏幕一代:前传》

2013.11.02 – 12.01

文:李蔼德

aaajiao "The Screen Generation"

aaajiao在《屏幕一代:前传》中呈现的作品有一种自我展示的特点——就是科技在自我利用,在它自身的存在中呈现自己。“自我展示”这一个词隐喻着一个呈现自己(或其中某些方面)给观看者的机器,虽然对于在aaajiao过往的个展中的作品来说,“自我展示”所代表的正是如此,但是在这一次的呈现中,它并不再是这种从机器向外的、不管观看者在场与不在场的、单方向的操作。这一次的操作在于与人类感官和理解的互相作用。基本来说,这些作品并不存在于它们自身之中,而在一个人接收作品所传达的感觉信息和在他从中理解到一些东西之间的互动之中。这些“东西”并不只是一种对作品的深入认识,而是深入的认知本身。

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aaajiao and the Management of Meaning

aaajiao is a new media artist based in Shanghai, whose solo show opens on Tuesday, 7 September at the 210V Arts Centre, 50 Moganshan Lu, Shanghai. I’ve been working with him for a while now, and when this show was being organised, he asked me to write a piece about his work for the catalogue. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the opening, so, in celebration of this event I’m posting the text here and wishing aaajiao a happy evening!

I want to begin discussing aaajiao’s works with a piece which I believe encapsulates one of his major concerns – the transference of meaning – and from there move onto other pieces that provide methodological examples of this concern and which will provoke some consequences of that activity.

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