Yishuai Zhang (London, UK): All is a transient dream

In Daniel Quinn’s novel ‘Ishmael’, an interspecific dialogue unfolds between a jellyfish and a gorilla. The conversation is about the evolution of different species. As a result, the jellyfish reluctantly took the honour being a pinnacle of the evolutionary process because they proceed strictly on the basis of ‘observation, logic and the scientific method’. These 96 percent water entities mock the omnipresent aggrandisement of human beings as the essence of all creatures. Jellyfish are bio-machines, emotional AI and a multi-layered interconnected conscious web. With the help of computation, ‘All is a transient dream’ simulates this temporal-spatial dialogue between ‘gorilla’ and ‘jellyfish’, physical and virtual, organisms and machines. Hence in this project, performers and an interactive system that materialises itself through the imitation of jellyfish as well as the dancing motion of the performer. This interactive performance intends to illustrate a dynamic relationship between organisms and machines through a series of visual effects, free-flowing choreography and special commissioned soundtrack.

BIO: Yishuai Zhang is an artist and researcher specializing in the demystification of the entanglement between art and science. His artworks intend to explore and navigate a spectrum of dynamic resonance between organisms and machines based on the progression of his interdisciplinary research across biophysics, computation, and art. The media of his works vary from painting, installations, performance, to digital and computational expressions. An overarching concept, \”fluid equilibrium,\” is conveyed by his practices with incorporated media to create an extension of aesthetics: from the perception of visible things with natural organs to the perception of invisible things with the help of computation. He simulates metaphysical reality to bring the meaning of art into more aspects of this current reality. He is currently pursuing the MFA Computational Arts program at Goldsmiths, University of London. ARTIST’S WEBSITE