Yu Shang
Programme:
Design - MPhil/PhD
Start date:
Jan-22
Mode of study:
Full time
Research title:
How Does the Roughness in Computer Vision Cause the Rupture between the Human and One's Body Images?
Biography
Academic experience:
Master of Arts in Visual Communication, 2018-2020, Royal College of Art, London.
Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication, 2014-2018, The School of New Media Art and Design, Beihang University, Beijing.
Exhibitions and Awards：
07/2023 xCoAx 2023 Exhibition, Galerie EIGENHEIM, Weimar
06/2023 Bodies in Screen, Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh
07/2023 Visual Artists Association Professional Artist Award 2023, Longlisted, UK
06/2021 The Batsford Prize 2020-2021, Winner of Fine Art, international
04/2019 Visual Forensics, London Canal Museum, London
01/2019 Catalogue, Hockney Gallery, London
Publication:
"How to Be or Not to Be Recognized as a Human: How Do Technical Limitations Influence the Image of the Self?" xCoAx 2023 11th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (ISSN 978-989-9049-52-9). pp. 325-330. DOI 10.34626/xcoax.2023.11th.325
“Absurdist performance online – Define a New Artistic Mode by a Chinese Internet Celebrity Mr. Potion” will be published in Journal of Research on Literary and Art Development (ISSN 2634-7865). UK
Yu’s inspiration for creation is based on the observation and research into reforms brought by the rapid economic and technological developments. She is deeply concerned about the changes brought by science and technology to people's lifestyles and the additional effects brought by such changes. As a practice-based researcher, the practice continues to promote her research and provides Yu with more innovative ideas and unique perspectives. VR, simulacra, Internet, Telepresence... Making the boundary between the "outside" and the "inside" of the body more and more indistinguishable. As Lacan said, modern people's social lifestyle guided by the rational culture does not lead to a free state. On the contrary, modern people's living conditions have slipped into a general dilemma of anxiety, depression, and crisis. The visually uncanny contemporary nature continues to function on the massive screens that immerse us in moving images. Given the ubiquity and development of digital technology in contemporary society, academics must explore how to live in this digital age.
“The body is our anchorage in the world (Merleau-Ponty)”, the zero point in reality, but it is also the only blind spot for the person, especially the face. Initially, people discovered themselves in the mirror as a process of awakening self-knowledge and gaining an identity. Then the camera changed the way we encounter the world, but also the way we encounter ourselves. Today, data-driven technological innovations reshape new systems of images that present a radical challenge to the traditional formations of identity and subjectivity. From representation to post-representation(Steyerl, 2010) to non-representation(Thrift, 2008), the complexity and diversity of these new ways of gaining access to one's own images lead to a transition from unity and identification to a rupture between the individual and one's own images and in turn, affect the rupture and uprootedness of the individual from identity and home in the process of modernity. Until even de-identification.
In this practice-based research, Yu condenses, exaggerates and generalizes vernacular visuality under examination. Utilizing the visual roughness of technological imagery in art practice to examine the technologically-generated roughness pervading digital visuality in everyday experience. This exploration will analyze how roughness, as a virtual "force of chaos" in visual culture, generates coarse aesthetics, and how that impacts modern visual culture. Using the digital representation of the human self-body through my practice as a case study, this examination analyzes what the roughness in computer vision slows down and impedes between the human body and its digital embodiment.