KZ, 2016, styrofoam, concrete, sand, clay, and iPhone 4 with video; 2 min. Courtesy the artist.
Debate Competition: In the future, an artist does not need a body, performance, May 8, 2016. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Xiaoshi Vivian Vivian Qin.
(L to R): Panelists Andrew Durbin, Caitlin Cherry, T.L. Cowan, and moderator Kenneth White speculate on the future in iHistory: Everyday Life and Culture in the Early 21st Century, panel discussion, May 22, 2016/2116. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Xiaoshi Vivian Vivian Qin.
Select slides from iHistory: Everyday Life and Culture in the Early 21st Century, panel discussion, May 22, 2016/2116.
Xiaoshi Vivian Vivian Qin uses video, installation, and performance to create works that question technology’s influence on learning and communication between individuals, and the ways in which digital tools simultaneously frame and shape the multidimensional attitudes and cultural characteristics of an era. Qin’s installation, KZ, is a fossil of the present. Consisting of a glitchy, but still functioning iPhone discovered in the year 2116, the piece prompts viewers to imagine how current digital communication technology will be considered in the future. The recovered device, displayed in a way that recalls an archaeological artifact in a natural history museum, plays the phantom activity of the 2016 user: rapidly flipping through her calendar, maps (geolocating the phone at the Queens Museum), photo stream, and videos. The future-viewer is transported to a previous cultural moment via an unexpectedly intimate encounter with this user’s personal information and interests. The voyeuristic nature of the experience also speaks to the current politics of data encryption and privacy standards.
Performances:
Debate Competition
May 8th, 3:30pm
Local debate students from the High School for Dual Language and Asian Studies will argue the pros and cons of the resolved statement: In the future, an artist does not need a body. Presented in collaboration with the Museum’s Queens Teens program and the New York City Urban Debate League.
iHistory: Everyday Life and Culture in the Early 21st Century
May 22nd, 3pm
A “fictional” panel discussion on the discovery of KZ in 2116
Moderator: Kenneth White
Panelists: Caitlin Cherry, T.L. Cowan, and Andrew Durbin
Xiaoshi Vivian Vivian Qin received her MFA from Columbia University, New York, NY (2015) and BA from Denison University, Granville, OH (2012). Her work has been screened or exhibited at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY (2016), Barnard College, New York, NY (2016), 221A Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2015), I: project space, Beijing, China (2015), Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY (2015), the Jewish Museum, New York, NY (2014), and HB Station at Times Museum, Guangzhou, China (2014), She received the Lotos Foundation Prize in 2015. She writes about art and technology for Modern Weekly Magazine (周末画报) and Leap Magazine. She is the co-founder of forty six meow, Astoria, NY.