徐文愷

Aaajiao （XU Wenkai） was born in 1984 in Xi’an， and later moved to Shanghai， where he continues to live and work. Aaajiao is one of China’s foremost media artists， bloggers and free culture developers. In 2003 he established the sound art website： cornersound.com， and in 2006 he founded the Chinese take on the blog We Make Money Not Art： We Need Money Not Art. He is devoted to Processing， an open source visual programming software， Dorkbot， a non-profit initiative for creative minds， and eventstructure， an interdisciplinary center for art， media technology and academic research based in Shanghai. In his works in general， Aaajiao focuses on the use of data and its various forms of display， and how meaning is understood through the process of transforming the movement from reality， to data， and back again. His most significant aesthetic contribution to new media in China is a social one， acting as a vector for the interpretation and communication of international and local trends in the usages of software in artistic practice.

aaajiao（徐文愷），1984年生于中國西安，后移居上海并工作、生活至今。徐文愷是國內前沿的媒體藝術家、博客寫手，同時也是一位文化交流的積極推動者。2003年創建聲音藝術網站cornersound.com。2006年，創辦基于We Make Money Not Art的中文新媒體信息平臺We Need Money Not Art。致力于推廣processing，一款開源的視覺程序軟件。Dorkbot，一個非盈利的倡導創造的活動，以及eventstructure，一家基于上海的跨藝術、設計、學術以及新媒體技術領域的獨立研究開發機構。他的作品通常專注于對數據的挖掘和使用，并試圖以多種多樣的形式將其表現，以此在數據與現實的“調制解調”之中完成對作品內涵的完整表達。他對中國新媒體藝術最重要的審美貢獻在于他以自身的活躍姿態，在電腦軟件的藝術應用方面，盡力扮演了國內外最新趨勢的交流者與先行者角色。

LZH： GFW is a very interesting piece of work. It is like the mystic， symbolic black monolith in A Space Odyssey. This “monolith” presents data from the GFW， a transformative process cannot easily be accomplished by eyes for the general audiences. Do you think this kind of embedded， metaphorical transformation is integrated， and expresses your view towards GFW precisely？ Where does this piece’s artistic aspects lie in？

XWK： Data presented by the monolith has been encoded， whereas audiences cannot read directly. This is in fact what the GFW is doing-setting blocks for communication and disturbing comprehension. For me， this encoding method is extending the abstractness of GFW’s vision. GFWlist is one piece among the data measurement series （it was exhibited at aaajiao’s solo exhibition： cybernetics）， the notion of which is about measuring the length of data and people can take with them in exported pieces. Here is where I think the project becomes arty.

LZH： Art is complete when people participate in it， I think this also explains the source of art works. Do the symbolic meanings of your work echo with the notion of audience participation？

XWK： The black stone （monolith） in this piece is a symbol of human civilization and wisdom： data printed from the laser printer inside of the monolith then expresses a sense of satire towards civilization and wisdom. This is a kind of obscure symbolism.

LZH： Media art to a larger extent exists and thrives in virtual environments， one example is the birth of the bitcoin. Also your piece， a box that opens and closes automatically， can be seen as your approach to “artistic creation” which pulls existing information from the internet directly and has it manifested artistically. Does the goal and process of this kind of “artistic creation” fulfill what you anticipated？ What is the role of the artist in this context？

XWK： I use the notion of the internet as a way of categorising the abstract. Many works of this type seem more like critical nodes as my own thinking evolves， as opposed to final presentations.

LZH： It is very difficult to treat art today as “final presentations” or a “final statement”： after Duchamp， any type of art piece can also be the material for something else. Time-based art， or timebased presentations， are unavoidable topics in discussions today. Could you describe your notion of connecting your “mind nodes” on a time based context？

XWK： I see this as a conversation about validity， or about whether there is transient， or connective art pieces. When we research a dynamic subject， it is essential to have a continuous series of art pieces to elaborate on or reflect the thinking. Some pieces we discussed before are transient or connective in this sense. Different to these linking examples， are other works that can be seen as“statements”， providing categorising labels for your research subject.

LZH： Your recent work， “The Screen Generation”， and “Obj.12” are both screen based. You explained this before： “Create objects on the screen， enjoy objects.” The process of “creation” via displaying technologies can also be viewed as an electronic visual experiment which produces no twodimensional remnants. Art here is more detached from the medium of video art. I think the situation is that more and more people are experimenting in this direction， trying to skip the jargon of fixed two-dimensional mediums and explore the possibilities of unstable mediums.

XWK： When the screen appears as “a medium”， the fact that its own information and characteristics already exist independently thus slips from our attention. The living nature of the screen has long exceeded the definition of“two-dimensional”， it is variable， it can grow. For me， I am not making use of this “medium”， instead， I live in the living scenario or the ecology of the screen， I even become part of the screen. This will give birth to more uncer-tainties.

lZH： The “living scenario” of information， or information ecology， as part of our life， has also been updating constantly. How do you treat the relationship between this “living nature” of information， and its connection to your own work？

XWK： We will eventually be merged into the information ecology， whist our natural attributes continue to exist. The way we communicate will change ultimately， till the day when we become some communication nodes that have fresh， or natural attributes. That is the moment when our natural attributes do not count anymore as we only exist because we communicate. On that day， the definition of death will equate to “being offline”.

When we arrive at this kind of information ecology， creation will still exist as the most valuable part of “being”： it will override the content release process of existing structures. That being said， I could not imagine what ‘creation’will be like in the future： it could be a sudden， drastic amplification of experience， or something more untouchable.

GFW

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李振華 X 徐文愷

李振華：GFW是一個有趣的作品，作品的如同一個來自《2001：遨游太空》中的石碑，一個神秘的象征物。期間石碑中不斷出現的數據則來自GFW的數據，這個轉化的關系通常一般的觀眾是無法通過視覺來完成的，你認為這一轉換的關系是否完整，或者說準確的表述了你對GFW的真實看法？在這個作品中藝術性存在于哪里？

徐文愷：石碑中出現的數據是被decode過一遍的，觀眾是無法閱讀出實際信息的，這樣做法等同于GFW本身的機制，干擾阻礙無法解讀，對我來說這樣的處理方式反而是GFW抽象視覺的擴展。GFWlist 是數據度量衡系列中的一件，是測量數據的長度，觀眾可以將輸出的數據拿走帶回。也是我認為藝術性存在之處。……