Critical Practices in Digital Art and Culture: Technologies of Control, Co-Creation and Embodiment
Curated by Ashley Lee Wong, Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies, CUHK
Exhibition hours: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, 12-13 December 2025
Venue: 1/F, Lee Shau Kee Architecture Building, CUHK
A parallel exhibition featuring artwork by the artists and scholars presenting in the panel “Critical Pedagogies in Digital Art and Culture”, Day 2 of the 6th ANCER Conference.
The works in the show demonstrate critical approaches to technology that help bring awareness to algorithmic violence of machine warfare, and questions of creative labor and authorship with AI (artificial intelligence), while exploring the political aesthetics of coding, and embodying the queer experience through VR (virtual reality). Each of these works reflects technology from diverse perspectives as a coder, civilian, collaborator, and spectator that reveal critical perspectives of creative practice with algorithms, such as in the book by Soon & Cox and the work of Bacon; it highlights the psychological impact of drone warfare as form of treat autonomously controlled by algorithms, in the case of Wu’s artwork; while Chou’s work allows audiences to enter intimate and often hidden spaces of a gay sauna pushing the potential of immersive virtual experiences. These works reflect on technological systems and our relationship with them through practice, while allowing technology to bring new social and psychological experiences that challenge norms and conventions of these tools.
Artists: Winnie SOON, Associate Professor of Art and Technology, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, and Geoff COX, Professor of Art and Computational Culture, London South Bank University, Benjamin BACON, Associate Professor of Media & Arts and Major Convener of the Computation & Design program, Duke Kunshan University, Ziyang WU, Department head of Open Media, School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art, CHOU Tung-Yen, Artistic Director of Very Theatre & Very Mainstream Studio.
Exhibition Credits
This exhibition is organised and supported by the MA Cultural Management programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Special thanks to:
- Venue and equipment: The School of Architecture, CUHK
- VR equipment: CUHK Library MakerSpace
- Promotion: The Centre for Cultural Studies, CUHK
- Planning and coordination: Li Jinghui Issac
- Exhibition advisor: Melody Hoi-lam Yiu
- Technical advisor: Andrew Crowe (MetaObjects)
- Exhibition assistants: Zhu Hanhang, Su YaHong, Deng Baoxin, Bao Fute
Featured artworks:
Aesthetic Programming (2021)
Winnie Soon and Geoff Cox
Book, interactive website, concept diagrams on paper
The book, Aesthetic Programming: A Handbook in Software Studies is available at: https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/aesthetic-programming/
L(AI)bor (2025)
Benjamin Bacon
Paintings, time-lapse video, worker’s uniform, time-card machine, instruction fapiao printer, laptop, and artifacts.
Two Walls: Ordinary War Rehearsal (2025)
Ziyang Wu
Video of real-time AI simulation and lecture performance
18:01
Traversing the Mist (2023)
Chou Tung-Yen
Free Roaming LBE, VR, colour, 30mins