Vivian Xhu and Benjamin Bacon
With this ArtSci Salon /LASER morning event, we welcome interdisciplinary artists Vivian Xhu and Benjamin Bacon. Their transdisciplinary design lab, the Dogma Lab (http://dogma.org/), not only combines a diverse range of mediums (including software, hardware, networked systems, online platforms, raw data, biomaterials and living organisms), but also considers “the entanglement of technological systems with other realities, including surveillance, sensory, bodily, environmental, and living systems. They are interested in complex hybrid networks that bridge the digital with the physical and biological realms, speculating on possible synthesized futures”.
Their research outcomes both individually and collectively have taken the form of interfaces, wearables, toolkits, machines, musical instruments, compositions and performances, public installations, architectural spectacles and educational programs.
Situated in China, they have an invested interest in understanding and participating in local design, technology and societal discourse, as well how China as a local actor affects the dynamic of the larger global system.
This event was inspired by the NewONE, Learning without borders, a program dedicated to interdisciplinary pedagogies and ecological learning experiences. Both pedagogically speaking, and research wise, Xhu and Bacon’s lab represent what research and learning should and could be.
Biographies
Vivian Xu is a Beijing-born media artist, designer, researcher and educator. Her work explores the boundaries between bio and electronic media in creating new forms of machine logic, speculative life and sensory systems often taking the form of objects, machines, installations and wearable. Her work has been presented at various institutions in China, the US, Europe and Australia,
She is an Assistant Professor of Media and Arts at Duke Kunshan University. She has lectured, held research positions at various institutions including Parsons New School for Design, New York University Shanghai, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). https://www.vivianxu.studio/
Benjamin Bacon is an inter-disciplinary artist, designer and musician that works at the intersection of computational design, networked systems, data, sound, installation and mechanical sculpture. He is currently Associate Professor of Media and Art and Director of Signature Work at Duke Kunshan University. He is also a lifetime fellow at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
He has exhibited or performed his work in the USA, Europe, Iran, and China such as the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), Gallery Ho (NYC), Wave Gotik Treffen (Germany), Chelsea Museum (NYC), Millennium Museum (Beijing), Plug-In Gallery (Switzerland), Beijing Design Week, Shenzhen Bay Science Technology and Arts Festival, the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Most recently his mechanical life and AI sculpture PROBE - AVERSO SPECILLO DI DUCENDUM was collected by the UNArt Center in Shanghai, China.
