Shu Lea Cheang
Code Me, Love Me, Set Me Free: Queerdom in other-worlds
14. 8. – 26. 9. 23
We are swarming. On the way to reproducing a new colony, we are embedded with obj. fbx. asset. poly., dissected body parts, along with almighty AI acting as automated Virgin Queen. The migration to a self-prescribed Queerdom in other-worlds requires a brand new 3D‑enhanced self-portrait. 3D models can be purchased, modified or AI‑generated. Meanwhile, the OpenAI text‑to‑image application sees no boundaries to exploiting artists’ creation, as the Capitalists stock up their dataset. This course engages the students in hands‑on production of 3D avatars and investigates issues such as the algorithm of gender & race in the digital age; the condition of outsourced low‑paid labourers in upkeeping toxic-free AI. We embark on this journey of relocation tagged with our kins, our lovers. We ask if there is a turning‑back juncture, a return button or jointly we brave the Queerdom where we command our massively composed polygons be truthfully rendered.
key data
- Venue
- Festung Hohensalzburg
- Date
- 14. 8. – 26. 9. 23
- Assistant
- Roland Lauth
- Method/Process/Aim
- Review and explore current AI imaging generating tools on web. Critical reading on the algorithm of race and gender in digital age. Critical study on current 3D animation software’s race/gender approaches. Hands on learning of cinema4D for avatar creation and animation. Create a Queerdom of selves represented by 3D avatars.
- Requirements
- Computer graphic design basic software, i.e. photoshop, self-learnt current AI imaging tools available online i.e. Midjourney, DALL-E2, DeepAI, class teaches 3D animation software Cinema4D.
Shu Lea Cheang
Shu Lea Cheang “My work aims to re-envision genders, genres, and operating structures. My genre‑bending, gender‑hacking practices challenge the existing operating mechanisms and society’s structural boundaries. I build social interface with transgressive plots and open network that permits public participation; I construct networked installation and multi-player performance in participatory impromptu mode; I draft sci-fi narratives in film scenario and artwork imagination. I seek to define a genre of new queer sci-fi cinema.”
Education including teaching experience
1979 Master of Arts, Cinema Studies, New York University
1976 Bachelor of Arts, History, National Taiwan University
Teaching
2003-2004 Networked performance, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich (CH)
2002 HUMANMATERIALMACHINEFACTOR, Dasarts, Amsterdam
Website
Exhibitions
Group exhibition
2023 Sade Freedon or Evil, CCCB, Barcelona (ES)
2023 Matter of Flux, Art Laboratory Berlin, Berlin
2022 Reproduction Otherwise, MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven (NL)
2022 Kingdom of the Ill TECHNO HUMANITIES, MUSEION, Bolzano (IT)
2022 FUTURE BODIES FROM A RECENT PAST, Museum Brandhorst, Munich (DE)
2022 A Portal to the Next, Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan, South Korea
2021 Witch Hunt, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (US)
Publications
Recent publications/reviews
Pleasure by Extraction Shu Lea Cheang at the musee departemental des arts asiatiques review by Fracesco Tenaglia, published at Art in America, 2021
Viral Love, Shu Lea Cheang portrait by Banyi Hwang, Spike Art, 2021
Dissident Interfaces, Shu Lea Cheang’s 3x3x6 and the Digital Avant-Garde, Paul B.Preciado, 3x3x6 catalogue, 2019
Society Has Become the Biggest Panopticon, Zach Blas/Frieze, 2019
The Digiarchitextual Body – or: Brandon’s Corporeal Virtualities, Jeppe Ugelvig, Parallax 91, Routledge, 2019
