Jiayi Young: Science and Culture

Wednesday Jiayi Young gave a talk about her work as a new media artist and briefly explained how her work and experience make her a worthy candidate for the open new media art teaching position at Sacramento State.

Young has an MFA in new media and painting and a MS in atomic physics.  She uses both sets of skills in her artwork.  According to Young, she is "interested in where the balance is" between technology and humanity.  Young is interested in creating experiences, which can be especially seen in her 'sound visualization' and 'real time sensing works', as well as her on-going projects.

Young is inspired by a myriad of influences, from Norbert Weiner to Nam June Paik to Nancy Burson.

Jiayi Young went over some of her older work, using digitally converted slides, which I found quite interesting, combining new and old technology, considering her emphasis in art.

In some of her older works, installations, Young exhibited themes of immigration, especially pertaining to Chinese immigrants, the idea of an "incomplete home" and Chinese politics.  She seems interested in identity within a given environment, which can also be seen later in her GPS data related works.

Young works quite a bit with data representation.  I would argue that most of her later work deals with different kinds of data representation, as well.  Pictured below is one depiction from her Pi Study.  In Pi Study, Young wanted to see what would happen when a human and a computer were given the same set of data.  The data in this case was, as the title denotes, pi.  As the human, Young assigned the numbers of pi different values.  In one example, she gave each number a different color and created colored stripes representing pi.  Below, Young takes the technique of crosshatching and for each number, assigns a square that number of layers of crosshatching.  For example, some squares only have two layers of cross hatching and others have several.  She then gave the same set of data to a computer, which created a much more finely dispersed three-dimensional design.  Young is interested in using numbers to trigger memories to then create a narrative.

Values of Pi, 2010.

In the work Baby Nuna, 2007, Young uses sound and graphics inside the small space of a chateau tower in France to create a sense of chaos and fear, especially relating to nuclear energy.  When viewing the projection of symbols and the sounds accompanying it, the effect is somewhat anxiety inducing and reminds the viewer of chaotic explosions.  This, of course, was intentional since the site of the installation was in Nogent-sur-Seine where a power plant is very close to residential areas and the waste drains right into the Seine.

In Young's works, The Beating Heart (2009) and Dance (2012), she continues her interest in sound.  In The Beating Heart viewers were able to see the sound waves their heart beat makes and interact with it.  Young is interested in attempting to answer the question, "If you could see sound, what would it look like?"  She also attempts to answer this in her work, One Moment in Time, where she visually layers the waves of sound in one moment.  In Dance, Young converted data of ocean temperatures and fish tagging into sound and used a soundscape to make that data a physical experience.  The idea is that through this soundscape, you could hear and feel the temperature of the sea changing and the fish moving around you.  One of the things I personally admire most about Young is her ability to make data personal.  Even though her artwork stems from a very scientific place, the effect of it is very intimate.

Dance, 2012-2013.

Gee Whiz!, pictured below, is large camera obscura built from apple boxes.  The lens is pointing outside towards the street and focuses on consumerism.  Every time a different sort of visual consumptions, someone eating, drinking, etc, a different sound bite is triggered.  "Every moment...I'm consuming something," Young says, whether it's food or driving her car or flushing the toilet, she is consuming some sort of energy and in this piece she highlights that idea and concern.  She wants to bring attention to the vast amounts of things we consume.

Gee Whiz!, 2012.

One of her on-going projects and one her most interesting works is her Message in the Sky: 1001 Dreams.  Message in the Sky is based highly on audience participation and is essentially an online catalog of the wishes, hopes, and dreams of people around the world.  The wishes, designed as small blue rings, are on top of a real time view of the night sky, symbolizing the idea of sending a message out into the universe.  The rings softly fade in and out, designed to be at the cadence of a human breath, according to the artist.  This work was inspired by and a response to the psychological effect of the economic recession.

 

I find Jiayi Young's work very interesting and I am especially fascinated by the ideas behind her work.  I have never been much of a science-minded person, but I think the themes of her artwork are universal and she uses technology in a way that enhances those themes and some ways creates themes without ever trivializing them.  

All images are credited to Young's website.