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Post by Julian Yip.

'Shadow Play' Visualizing Urbanization of China with New Media

On the 25th. Anniversary of Student Protest at Tiananmen Square 1989, New Radio and Performing Art INC, a non-profit cultural institution based in New York, announced their new commission of net-art project, ‘Shadow Play: Tales of Urbanization of China’ by Lily & Honglei Art Studio. The artwork is currently viewable via NRPA's website -
 http://turbulence.org/Works/shadowplay

(image courtesy of Turbulence.org)

Shadow Play, Chapter I. The Land: Death of the Village Head

Shadow Play, Chapter II. The Ruins: Lost Children

‘Over the past few decades China has been urbanizing at an astounding pace. In 2013, the People’s Republic unveiled its plan to relocate 260 million people from China’s countryside to one of 21 “mega regions” by 2020 (cbsnews.com). Such a significant shift will undoubtedly transform China’s national character, which has been predominantly agrarian for millennia. Shadow Play weaves three interfaces, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Physical Reality (PR), and combines the past and present – through time-honored imagery, paint, shadow play, and new media technologies – to immerse participants in the realities of contemporary China.’ – Turbulence.org.

Shadow Play, Chapter III. The City: Into the Void

Shadow Play, Chapter IV. The Maze: No Exit

‘Shadow Play,’ according to the artists, ‘creates an opportunity for the audience to experience the changing landscapes of contemporary China. In four chapters, virtual installation sheds light upon real-life incidents such as clashes during land evictions resulting from urban expansion, children abductions, suicides of migrant workers, and predicaments involving the cultural and environmental degradation.

Chapter I. The Land: Death of the Village Head
Chapter II. The Ruins: Lost Children
Chapter III. The City: Into the Void
Chapter IV. The Maze: No Exit‘

Chapter II. The Ruins: Lost Children (AR screenshot)

Chapter III. The City: Into the Void (AR screenshot)

Chapter III. The City: Into the Void (AR screenshot)

Chapter IV. The Maze: No Exit (AR screenshot)

‘Shadow Play’ has been selected by the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, to become part of the Special Collections at Cornell University, NY.

To commemorate Tiananmen Protest, the artist collective presents once again their award-winning piece Forbidden City produced in 2008.

Tiananmen: How Wrong We Were - by Jonathan Mirsky

Source
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/20/tiananmen-how-wrong-we-were/

... ... The next morning, Sunday, June 4, I cycled back to the edge of the square just in time to see soldiers mow down parents of students who had come to look for those who had not returned home and who were feared to have been killed and their bodies burned. While I lay in the grass at the side of the avenue, doctors and nurses from the Peking Union Hospital (where my father had briefly worked in the early Thirties) arrived in an ambulance and in their bloodstained gowns went among the fallen; the soldiers shot them down, too. I managed to fly back to London later that day. Hundreds were shot in the square that night and the following morning, or crushed by tanks, and the shooting up and down the streets and avenues of the capital continued for several days. Long red and gold signs hanging outside buildings that had said, “Support the Students,” were quickly replaced with others proclaiming, “Support the Party.” A decree went out: “No Laughing in Tiananmen Square.” Tank tread-marks scarred the main roads for a year and bullet holes pockmarked the buildings along those roads. Those scars remained until 1990 when the center of capital was scoured clean for the Asian Games. ... ...