The big picture of bits and bytes

Digital art show explores multisensory dimension to inspire enthusiasm for the future, Lin Qi reports.

Whether embraced or feared, the emerging reality deeply embedded in digital technology is rapidly reshaping lives, and advances toward a future of even greater possibilities empowered by developments such as AI, big data and the metaverse.

The ever-evolving technological scene is blurring the boundaries between disciplines and inspiring people to create change in the current world, as well as to imagine all the worlds possible in the years to come.

This has motivated Hangzhou's China Academy of Art in Zhejiang province to mount Hello World: Digital Art China, an exhibition that will run at its art museum until June 3. The show navigates the influence of digital technology on art and design since the start of the century, as well as cross-disciplinary education blending art, design and technology at universities.

Every exhibit is chosen to enrich the audience's experience of the world and their vision of future existence, says Gao Shiming, president of the China Academy of Art, and takes visitors from the origins of Chinese civilization to the frontiers of space exploration, the making of the metaverse and future cities equipped with intelligent networking.

"Art is essentially a channel to all possible worlds that can be imagined … and the evolution of digital technology greatly empowers people to envisage and realize possible worlds," Gao says.

"A lot of the work at the exhibition is projected onto digital screens, which are like windows that open up eyes and minds to these visions of the future, and which tell people that everyone, not only artists, designers and scientists, can contribute to the process."