随着现代科技的发展,人类能够承担、扮演以及放弃各种虚拟身份,本次展览就以这些虚拟角色的文化和艺术意义作为主题,审视和探讨个人和文化自我定义的新问题。展览的标题”我们之后”,揭示了这个源于现实却又独立于现实的世界的“幽灵”,而参展的艺术家们将他们对未来的想象叠加在当下这个纷繁复杂的社会之上。
《我们之后》不仅探讨了虚拟化身通过哪些方式拓展我们的情感,还让我们能够设计并使用虚拟身份,同时也重新界定人类的范围。虽然不少作品流露出反乌托邦的倾向,反映出当今社会弥漫的焦虑情绪,但更多的作品则借由虚拟身份,通过多样的手法和风格投射出一个开放、进取、互联互通的世界。
The cultural and artistic adoption of avatars and digital surrogates is the subject of “After us,” an exhibition that examines new questions of personal and cultural self-definition arising from the ability, facilitated by recent technologies, to take on, role-play, and discard myriad personae. While the title, “After us,” raises the specter of a society that will replace our own, many of the featured artists layer virtual or projected future states onto an already complex present.
“After us” looks at the ways avatars extend the range of our emotions, allow us to design and inhabit alternate identities, and remap the boundaries around what is considered human. While many of the works are dystopian in nature, reflecting present-day anxieties, others use temporal bodies to project a more open, progressive, and less isolated world—a world that all these works, regardless of their tone or approach, yearn for.