The practicality of aesthetics reconfigures the art as a site for judgement and sensori-emotional experience (Bennett 2012). So, I want to explore my work in a way of apprehending things through sensory experience and affective transmission. So how to create a given space for perception? and what should be sensed in this environment?

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"The space of engagement, of 'viewing' is itself a sphere - an 'inside-like, accessed, shared circle that humans inhabit'(Bennett 2012, cited Sloterdijk, p.28)."  That is to say, a good perceptual space is one that can regulate the atmosphere and air conditions by itself, through our bodily experience, stimulate affect and promote connection. And affect is not triggered by an individual or collective entity, but by the space itself.  Then, I considered that how can I emerge affect and enhance its intensity in a space. 

 

My artwork demonstrates a strong intention to lead my audiences to learn the implications behind and to create opportunities for further discussions. In the very beginning, I, inspired by Apocalypse, attempt to explore the narrative by describing a disastrous scene using montage. Though the apocalyptic narrative can arouse people’s fear of potential disasters, I should consider how to avoid audiences’ response as helplessness. Another problem is how to make up the gap between virtuality and reality. Since Apocalypse can easily turn into an entertainment activity whose goal is to seek a temporary sense of pleasure filled with fear, audiences, after recovering from the above feeling, might get adapted to their own life without any reflections. Therefore, I think the work themed on “doomsday” should emphasize its function of revelation so as to remind people of their limited cognition of the world rather than reductionism.

 

Hence, my intention is not to stimulate the sense of fear but to turn disastrous events into one after another individual element in the space which can influence audiences’ perception.

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I develop it into an immersive video installation, which describes the nightmare of the upcoming doomsday. In a bid to create a sense of immersion and authenticity, I paste the exhibition wall with the reflective sheeting to ensure infinite circulation of these frames. At the same time, audiences will also appear in the mirror reflection. Through the reflection of the reflective sheeting, the frame is divided into different sections to strengthen the feeling of memory sections.

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This animation makes the images of the Kun and Peng, Characters in Zhuang Zi philosophy, to descibe a imagination which is about doomsday.

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“A thunder and lightning battered the city, the world seems to be destroyed  because of the imminent flooding. Kun and Peng try to rescue them but failed. The noise of the thunderstorm waked me up, and I ran out and panted for breath. I was in a darkness, listened carefully, the howls of them.”

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This video eliminates the aesthetic distance and creates a dynamic exchange between the audience and the atmosphere. Although this immersive experience enhances the intensity of affect and possibility of understanding, it might lack the sense of fear. But the reflective cellophane on the wall creates an immersive environment that enhances the feeling of presence. Affective transmission in the video also draws the attendee into the story. At that moment, we are all sunken in the disastrous dreamland.

 

To my excitement, all audiences can understand my intention. After watching my work, they sit nearby me, talking with me and telling their fondness of my use of the reflective sheeting, which creates a strong sense of immersion for them. Some artists also express their fondness of the second part of the video, which contains only sounds but no frames. In their opinion, the audio perception is faster than the visual perception in the dark space, while the white space of frames also gives them more room for imagination.

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