From the perspective of media artist Aaajiao (Xu Wenkai), human beings’ existence has reached a high degree of informatization, forming a new ecosystem of humans and screens. We are both the screen generation and the screen itself. In 2013, he launched the Screen Generation project and held several exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai. As the exhibitions went on, Aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) extended the presentation of Screen Generation from an installed device to a performance, and from vision to touch.

Obj. 1 is part of his Ornaments series, which Aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) describes as “Create objects in the screen, enjoy objects.” This series of works presents the process of generating a three-dimensional shape on a computer with a two-dimensional screen. A rotating object is gradually generated in the basic blue color of a fluorescent computer screen. In this way, the artist reminds us that the work is based on a computer startup screen, simultaneously hinting at the virtual reality of objects on screens as he reminds the viewer that screens are inescapable in everyday life.

Ornaments extends the concept behind six video installations depicting jewels in the Screen Generation exhibition – “soft”, “repetitive”, “hard”, “pure”, “stationary” and “noisy”, abstracted from human temperaments and emotions. The jewelry model is essentially derived from the algorithmic performance Meta in Screen Generation. Aaajiao (Xu Wenkai) created six pieces of jewelry in collaboration with jewelry designer Shen Lei, which in turn constitute an independent jewellery installation. Here, the artist subverts the stereotype that jewelry is ‘precious metal used to decorate the human body’. Not only does the jewelry look fashionable and avant-garde, but it tries to participate in the body, and talks to the wearer with every unintentional touch.

(Edited by Lijie Wang & Miao Zijin)