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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
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TURS

The Ultraviolet Respiration System

Zehua Wang

https://youtu.be/Z9AGKCLCHhQ

Description

The Ultraviolet Respiration System (TURS) is a human body extension that receives, processes, and reacts to ultraviolet light radiation. TURS extends our perception of the unseen light by encoding technology into the body. It explores posthumanism with a practical implementation that reimagines the integration of machines into the functions of the flesh.

TURS is designed as a soft robotic system that includes a receiver attached at the user's back and an actuator attached at the arm. The receiver constantly collects the UV intensity, sends the data to the cloud for data processing, and stores the data in the database. The actuator, a soft robotic arm, subscribes to the database and reacts to the data. The soft robotic arm can be inflated and deflated, creating an effect of a breathing skin. The change of the respire rate is a representation of the change of the ultraviolet intensity and the ultraviolet dose.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.138.1
Extended Perception
Art,Wearables
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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
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Remodeling the Mundane

Building a memory palace with 3D-scanning technologies

Zehua Wang

https://youtu.be/XfIIaKWmHZI

Description

This project is inspired by Fred Dretske’s theory on our ontological development and Derren Brown’s interpretation of the “memory palace”. Dretske argues that information is the core of the development of our “umwelt”, the consciousness of our “self” and the surroundings. He further defines “knowledge” and “perception” as the two main status of our acquired knowledge (Dretske). Derren Brown challenges the interpretation of the “memory palace” merely as a tool for the purpose of memorizing better. He sees the “memory palace” as a virtual space that helps with a more successful spiritual development (Brown).

Many scholars and artists have touched upon either the ontological discussion of the “self” or the various representations of a “memory palace”, but few of them have explored or discussed the privacy nature of these topics. Thus, this project attempts to challenge the long-believed privacy and self-centered nature of the ontological development and explore the possibility of building a “umwelt” shaped from both individual and collective experiences.

The project will be an interpersonal experience in which the audience can both annotating their own memory and experience in a digitalized virtual environment and actively interact with others’ annotations. The project turns physical public space into a digital environment by 3D-scanning the space and reconstructing the environment using photogrammetry. This reconstructed digital environment allows the audience to associate their own memories and experiences with different parts of the environment and annotate the related memories right on the spot. Besides annotating their own memories and experiences, they can also explore others' annotations in this digital environment, leave comments, learn other's experiences and memories, further extend their own memory palace, as well as use them as part of their own spiritual development.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.401.3
Capstone Studio (Shanghai)
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