Household Tongs

Tong Wu

Could human bodies become household goods?

http://tongwumedia.com/blog/performative-avatars-final

Description

The products of technology, such as household goods, have developed way beyond the mere role of everyday tools, it has such a significant existence that it has transcended their natural form. Their meanings in our lives have expanded into something more complex. You could say, human create objects, and objects re-create human beings.
I am deeply obsessed with the vague boundary between humans and objects in modern context. Are humans objects? Or could the human body become object? Inspired by this idea, I did a series of AR tiny installation, in which I turned my avatar into a fan, a spiral bone and a set of headphone. What I want to explore through this project is that, If we deprive ourselves of the uniqueness of being “us“, human beings, freeing our body parts to be duplicated, cut off, folded, twisted, enlarged, shrunk, adapting bodies into inanimate objects and using it to recreate daily life context, would the concept of being human change, or it just better depicts the identity of “human” in this era of tech mania?

Classes

Performative Avatars

Dear Younger Me

Nick Wallace, Sam Chasan, Tong Wu

If you were given a window into the past, what would you say to yourself?

http://www.dearyounger.me

Description

Dear Younger Me invites people to share their joy, their love, their advice, their regrets, and their heartbreak with their younger selves via text. Each message is printed out onto a continuous feed of paper, slowly filling the space and allowing passersby to read messages others have sent to themselves.

Classes

Pop Up Window Displays