CHEN
LAN
YAO

Strawberry

Feb. 2024
Public Art | Experimental

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Strawberries are connected to me, so as how I am connected to them. This false but real connection pervades my multiple senses, from sight, touch, smell, to hearing. I was absorbed, focused, and longing to gaze at strawberries while wandering around the market. So what is me, the strawberry, and my relationship to the strawberry, to other people, other things, and other things that exist in this world?

This is a discussion of self-identity and social identity. Strawberry and I are so different, and there seems to be a connection. When I try to connect with the strawberry through multiple senses, I embrace the strawberry and fall into a whole new world together. It was just strawberries and me. We will be the protagonists.

When people move in front of us, what kind of interaction do they give us? Will it be passing by, wondering, trying to join in? In doing so, I wanted to explore how the protagonist‘s perspective is placed in a public space.

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Audio, Cardboard Paper, Threads

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Lightness being Borne

Aug. 2023
Public Art | Installation

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(name originated and inspired by the title of Milan Kundera‘s The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

abstracted and visualized the innocuous suffering that could be accumulated and lead to mental collapse.

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Threads, Metal Sword Head, Pendulum

输入/文字<19/60s>

Nov. 2022
Video Recording | Responsive System

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‘Controlling the led with a button, I turned the led on everytime I found my eye blinking. I tried to imitate the way that algorithm and machine learning see the world as accurate as possible, but it was not an easy case‘

输入/文字！tried to explore the relationship between human reaction and machine behavior. The process is analog and primitive. A button is connected to a small LED light bulb, and a computer may simply be programmed to light it up at the exact time. But the human reaction is not necessarily. Keeping track of blinks is boring but difficult. It's not an easy job.

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Arduino,  LED

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Meteorite Landings

Jun. 2020
Data Visualization

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Meteorite Landings focus on the basic information about all the meteorite landings throughout history. From the form of a meteorite to the real stories behind those space rocks, the audience are expected to experience the splendid natural phenomenon and to hold a neutral perspective on it, without bias.

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A Refrigerator

Nov. 2022
Physical Installation | Interactive Experience | Story Prototyping

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This project is a scenario setup for a science fiction device, Predictor.

[By now you’ve probably seen a Predictor; millions of them have been sold by the time you’re reading this. For those who haven’t seen one, it’s a small device, like a remote for opening your car door. Its only features are a button and a big green LED. The light flashes if you press the button. Specifically, the light flashes one second before you press the button.]

The setting of having a refrigerator is life based but sometimes no sense. Same as life. There are many things that people are used to doing without being able to say why. Pressing a button on a refrigerator is the same.

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Arduino, Cardboard, Ultrasonic Sensor, Button, LED

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Botanic Citizen Illusion

Oct. 2022
City Design | Video Installation | Storytelling

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A tour of a decentralized city based on the plant system for the Emergent City project.

This is a hyperthree-dimensional space. The city works like a system of interconnected rhizomes in plants. Residents work among the blocks and constantly move through them. In the process, the identity of residents is constantly changing. Nothing is permanent here: identity, address, job, currency, relationships. Everything is fluid, but everything is connected.

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Touch Designer, Projector, Paper

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Self-Portrait

Oct. 2022
25’ x 11’ Printed
Self-mapping | Image Documentation | Data Collection

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I started a journal, but not by writing.

Scrolling through my personal photo albums, logos and food fill my life. I feel like I'm being filled by them. To do this, I kept track of all the food I consumed for two weeks. They make me, and I make them.

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Procreate, Image Documentation

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Self-Portrait 02

Sept. 2022
25’ x 11’ Printed
Self-mapping | Image Documentation | Data Collection

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I started a journal, but not by writing.

I was asked to use the software Measure, which comes with the Apple system, to draw a self-portrait. I began to think about the relationship between distance and the individual. From near to far, I divide them into three kinds: appearance, space and existence.

In terms of appearance, distance can define beauty and ugliness. For the size of the features, the proportions of the body, size is always a standard that can be used to measure these things.

To enlarge more, the possession of space is also a kind of self-expression.

What about existence? If it is just a moment, a place, can human existence be defined? Can it be everywhere?

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’Measure’ App on iOS

ELEME

Dec. 2019
VJ Performance | Realtime Audiovisual

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ELEME is a VJ&DJ performance. Using the basic geometric shapes and lines coordinating with the musical materials come from real-life, the musical and visual performance was trying to show how social media and network is offering convenience to us. At the same time, the chaotic visuals and sounds are also part of our real life.

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A Family Photo

Nov. 2021
Parafiction | Photo Editing | Research and Storytelling

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A Family Photo is a parafiction and narration aiming at reflecting the Chinese real estate policy through history and its impact. By looking at the degree of alienation among each person in a family over a period of time, the project is trying to connect and question about the tension between the family atmosphere which should have been warm and cozy with the consequence of the policy as time went by.

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velour printed photo, stickers, pvc, metal

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The Seventh Day

Aug. 2021
VR Experience | Interactive Media

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Imagine you are dead and reviewing your life before reincarnation. You are about to make certain choices for your next life. Can you picture this situation? The Seventh Day, combines Buddhism and the death theory in traditional Chinese culture and demonstrates the concept of death in traditional Chinese society with body interaction, projection, and VR technology.

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Oculus Quest 2, Projector, Hospital Settings

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(IN)Dependent

Anthropic Memory

Nov. 2020
Interactive Installation | Media Art

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Anthropic Memory is a web-based interactive portraiture experience. Through motion capture and machine learning, the user's image will be pixelated. At the same time, the pixels begin to float, distort, and eventually dissipate. The work aims to embody the human image that may be engulfed by big data in the future in a concrete way.

Try it online:
https://roomy-descriptive-block.glitch.me/

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东南西北 | The Flower of Answer

Jun. 2020
Interactive Installation

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东南西北 | The flower of Answer is a nostalgic interactive installation driven by sound input and servo motors. A player can speak out and ask one question towards the flowers, and one of the origamis will start to move and offer an answer to him/her, which is similar to the fortune-telling game played in childhood. The project is aiming at expressing and provoking a kind of nostalgic atmosphere for people to retrospect and share old happiness with my audience.

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