China Residencies is excited to support Arvid&Marie, the artist duo Arvid Jense & Marie Caye, as the 8th #slowtrain artists-in-residence. Arvid&Marie are riding trains between Guangzhou, where they took part in the Guangzhou Triennial with S.A.M, their Symbiotic Autonomous Machine, and Beijing, where they will be residents at the Inside Out Museum (as they were among the exceptional finalists for our joint open call, Locality/Reality.) For their residency, they researching the visual language of China's biggest online platform -- WeChat -- as a way to communicate between computers and humans. They are asking: If an artificial intelligence would emerge from the billion data produced by WeChat users, how would it communicate with humankind?

"Through our research, we want to collect WeChat stickers from commuters we meet in the train and train stations. This sample of how people express themselves digitally is used as as an alphabet made of digital images. We want to create an language of images understood both by programs and humans with which we generate bilingual phrases and collage." 

~ follow along on China Residencies' Instagram ~

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(2/9) The beginning of the novel “The Waveries” is in fact something quite unique where the writer Fredric chose to use the crucial first sentences to explain by himself, in the first person, his choice of protagonist. For the first and only time in the entire story the narrator smashes through the fourth wall, quite bravely we have to admit but knocking off the reader in the process, to never return again. We were baffled, it was nice to meet you Fredric. The sci-fi story, when you get to the point where it actually starts, plays in a post second world War USA. One day a strange signal is heard on the radio, overpowering all signals, stopping all broadcasts and communications. Later TV and telephone get infected until finally no electrical devices can be used anymore. Through this plot device, the author brings back society to a time of horses and steam engines for which he seems to nurture an unhealthy nostalgia. In this regression of technology, the protagonists can finally find their purpose in life and happiness. Sorry Fredric, but we spent many kilometers of train tracks behind a mud screen dissecting your lack of objectivity on the matter which we will explain in this way… (to be continued) @mariecaye and @arvidjense during #slowtrainresidency researching #stickers #wechat #ai #emergence #posthumanism #art

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