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Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law

a parafictional documentary that discusses unsupervised black-market and drug use.

Zehua Wang

https://youtu.be/ON8XWjl3fRw

Description

Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law is a parafictional documentary that discusses the illegal memory-trading black markets in the imaginary city, Zora, which is described in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. By discussing the issues of manufacturing, selling, purchasing, and taking other's memories as if they truly existed, the project leaves space for the audience to respond to the absurdity of the problems the documentary discusses, and further critically inquire about the real black-market trading and the illegal drug use in real life.

The documentary uses found footage of other non-fictional videos, such as documentaries, news, and interviews, as well as the voiceover written by the artist. By publishing the documentary in a simulated official BBC Documentary YouTube channel, Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law brings the audience into this parafictional viewing experience.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Make Believe
Art,Social Good/Activism
Posted on

COVID-19, Wrath and Greed

A careful observation during the COVID-19 period.

Chenle Li

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xPHY52kWFdav9arWQz-4Qvpe1yffx0t4/view?usp=sharing

Description

The project investigates the firm position held by a certain group of Chinese people during the COVID-19 spreading period and intended to show people’s attitudes toward artifacts.

The project has two parts: Weibo and a photo journal. The Weibo, also named MicroBlog, is one of the most common social media sharing platforms in China, the artifact was published on Weibo which shows the firm position held by some Chinese people during the outbreak of coronavirus through the release of a Chinese citizen's microblog in the outbreak. The publisher is one of the main supporters and distributors of the conspiracy theory of coronavirus; The second artifact is a photo journal of an escaped convict who traveled from Hunan to Henan during the outbreak of coronavirus after ransacking a gold store. The convict is extremely cautious and has a high anti-detection capability. After burying the gold in the countryside of Henan province, the convict returned to Hunan through the highway on bicycles, he was armed to the teeth.

By combining the two artifacts together, the project was intended to show how wrath and greed were revealed during the COVID-19 spreading period. The boundaries between the fictional and the real are blurred.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Make Believe
Art,Narrative/Storytelling
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The Normalization Program

a parafictional business website that examines the misperceptions and the imposed social normalcy of the LGBTQ community

Zehua Wang

https://the-normalization-program.now.sh/index.html

Description

The Normalization Program is a business website that examines the misperceptions of the LGBTQ community and the social normalcy imposed on them.

The project collects found news, social media posts, and personal experiences and translates these narratives into supportive materials on the business website. In the first glimpse of the website, it gives an impression of a genuine business. The appearance of the website with the slogans, the up-to-date technology, the research, the profile of the professional team members, as well as the cooperation with real international organizations, all carries the legitimacy of the business.

However, upon further examination of the website and investigation of the subtle information, the audience might start making associations with misperceptions they’ve experienced or witnessed. With more absurdity introduced along with the experience, the project pushes the audience to question the authenticity of the website and reflect on how the LGBTQ community is suffering from misperception and struggling fitting into the social normalcy as a minority group.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.217.1
Make Believe
Art,Social Good/Activism
Posted on

Two Pieces of Evidence

A two part parafictional project to bring awareness to the ignored severe situation of online sexual abuse.

Xueping Wang

https://youtu.be/-Mf470SwLQY

Description

Two Pieces of Evidence is a two part project: guidebook and a perfume. The guidebook provides suggestions and guidance for people to form a closer intimate relationship with children and is shared in the perpetrator community. Based on the police and media release of online child sexual abuse case files and statistics about annual cases as well as online Pick-up Artists (PUA) training materials, the project brings awareness to the unnoticed severe situation of the online sexual abuse.

According to the UK National Crime Agency, “there could be a rise in online child sexual abuse offenses during the Covid-19 pandemic as it reveals its most recent intelligence shows there are at least 300,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children”. Similar rising tread has been perceived in other countries.

The parafictional artifacts create more authentic experiences of discomfort because the audience experience the fiction as a fact. Like Harvard professor and art historian Carrie Lambert-Beatty argued, parafiction is a very physical experience. “It is cognitive, but you feel it in the body”.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.217.1
Make Believe
Accessible