3/2015: Visual arts graduate season | Exhibition one

Reception: 19 August 2015 6:00pm

Yike Gao Master of Philosophy Photography and Media Arts

The practice-led research project iMemory is an installation art based on the blueprint of my personal story. It is designed to investigate the influence of the Chinese media environment on the memories of Chinese post-1980s urban youth.

In iMemory, I have selected the three most significant memory phenomena of China’s post-1980s generation: collective nostalgia; state-controlled historical memory; and China’s internet memory policy. I employ three different installation art forms respectively, to express them in series.

As a multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk, the project adopts installation, video art, digital compositing, motion sensor technology, virtual reality and augmented reality to present its theme. I also incorporate my own images, performances, and autobiographical materials in the work. By adopting various new media technologies and reconstructing my own memories using digital tools, the artwork not only expresses my personal artistic responses to the aforementioned issues, but also explores the possibilities of representing memory via new media technology and the potentials to enhance interactive experience: in particular, the immersion of audience in an artwork.

Born in Beijing, Yike Gao is a post-80s Chinese film director and digital artist whose practice explores the connection between technology and identity. She began working in interactive installation in 2011 and the research journey not only lead her to the creation and completion of iMemory, but also opened her up to a deeper understanding of Chinese media, history, politics, and the recognition of personal identity.

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday-Friday 10.30AM-5PM; Saturdays 12-5PM

Date and Times

Location

Main Gallery, 105 Childers Street, 2601 Acton,