1
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(airy music)

2
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- I believe artworks are self-portraits.

3
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It is really difficult not to
carry yourself in the works.

4
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As artists, we tear ourselves
apart and reassemble it

5
00:00:33,930 --> 00:00:38,337
in every piece that we are
creating and recreating.

6
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(airy music continues)

7
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I started as an engineer
basically because I was a student

8
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who was good at math and physics.

9
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Art later came into my life

10
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because the pure pleasure of creating

11
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got me quite addicted.

12
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I grew up in the northwest part of China

13
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in the city that is called Karamay.

14
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It means black oil in Uyghur
language, our local language.

15
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My grandparents' generation
immigrated to that area

16
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under the state order to
develop a city digging oils.

17
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I have this memory of
celebrating oil in my hometown.

18
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All the families working on oil

19
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will get this souvenirs from the city.

20
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It looks like a pyramid,

21
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and in the middle of it,

22
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there is a drop of actual crude oil.

23
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I want to kind of create like
a magnified version of that,

24
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but then at the same time, the bottom

25
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of the entire work would
be a fountain of oil.

26
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(motor humming)

27
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I kind of like the air bubble one.

28
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I feel it's more lively, or
if I really want a lot of air,

29
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I just let the tube expose to the air.

30
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(liquid gurgling)

31
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I want it to have this
motion inside the oil pan,

32
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giving this sentient existence.

33
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It's not just a passive
material to be extracted.

34
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It's a living being
beneath the earth's crust

35
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and transforming the world above it

36
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with terror and lots of violence.

37
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(airy music)
(liquid dripping)

38
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Growing up in a town that
essentially was built

39
00:03:13,980 --> 00:03:18,980
by immigrants within China,
I felt very much connected

40
00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,280
to the idea of going to
a place for its resource,

41
00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:28,280
creating generations and
prosperity in that sense.

42
00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:35,460
That entire idea is parallel
to space exploration,

43
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which is a big part of my practice,

44
00:03:38,430 --> 00:03:42,510
the idea of people traveling
so far going to another planet

45
00:03:42,510 --> 00:03:46,140
felt like what my
grandparents' generation did,

46
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when they were in their 20s.

47
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(rocket humming)

48
00:03:53,190 --> 00:03:56,040
I started working on space exploration

49
00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,343
when I was a grad
student in MIT Media Lab.

50
00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,970
I submitted the proposal and made a robot

51
00:04:02,970 --> 00:04:06,933
that carried my tooth and went to space.

52
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It was launched as a research project,

53
00:04:14,850 --> 00:04:17,373
but for me, it is really
a performance piece.

54
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:21,690
I want a part of me to go to space.

55
00:04:21,690 --> 00:04:26,690
I wanted to create an avatar
that enabled that journey.

56
00:04:30,060 --> 00:04:34,203
- We count down, the rocket
blazes, engines pulse.

57
00:04:35,610 --> 00:04:39,243
Now we sing like birds
breathing cedar air.

58
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We are made of dust and light.

59
00:04:44,851 --> 00:04:47,601
(ethereal music)

60
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- There's something about expedition.

61
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It's very beautiful, very glorious,

62
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but at the same time, it's
a very lonely journey often.

63
00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,880
Going to Beijing for college

64
00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,520
and going to the United
States for grad school,

65
00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:14,790
I was trying to arrive at
somewhere for a better life,

66
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but then that journey is just pulling me

67
00:05:17,070 --> 00:05:18,723
further away from my home.

68
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And I think as humanity,

69
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we are imagining all
this version of futures

70
00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,540
of living on another
planet, or living with AI.

71
00:05:36,540 --> 00:05:40,350
But I feel like as you're
leaving your current place,

72
00:05:40,350 --> 00:05:45,273
some part of yourself died and shed away.

73
00:05:50,460 --> 00:05:53,093
There is this inevitable death

74
00:05:53,093 --> 00:05:58,042
that happens along with the
growth that we so desire for.

75
00:05:58,042 --> 00:05:59,918
that happens along with the
growth that we so desire for.

76
00:06:16,380 --> 00:06:20,613
I am thinking a lot about
my own reproduction.

77
00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:24,600
Nowadays, I'm at that age,

78
00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:25,537
people are just telling me,

79
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"Oh, you should freeze your eggs.

80
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Don't even think too much about it."

81
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I have a level of alienation
and fear over that process.

82
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(gentle music)

83
00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,574
Reproduction technologies claim
to solve all the problems,

84
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but in fact dramatically change our body.

85
00:06:55,890 --> 00:07:00,890
We freeze time in this biological machine

86
00:07:01,500 --> 00:07:06,000
because we need to get a better
career, we need to go study,

87
00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,430
we haven't found a good partner yet.

88
00:07:08,430 --> 00:07:10,923
I felt like it's all about productivity,

89
00:07:12,060 --> 00:07:15,843
whether time is useful or not useful.

90
00:07:19,860 --> 00:07:24,180
I'm making this collection
of objects and sculptures

91
00:07:24,180 --> 00:07:29,180
about this fear, referencing
lots of bone structures,

92
00:07:29,940 --> 00:07:31,860
but they're all warped and twisted

93
00:07:31,860 --> 00:07:34,530
as I imagine how our body would change

94
00:07:34,530 --> 00:07:36,603
through these experiences.

95
00:07:39,300 --> 00:07:42,540
And I'm cooling down the
sculpture to a low temperature,

96
00:07:42,540 --> 00:07:43,980
so they're gonna freeze,

97
00:07:43,980 --> 00:07:47,343
kind of having frost
growing on the sculpture.

98
00:07:50,129 --> 00:07:53,296
(dark ethereal music)

99
00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,880
I do believe in science and technology,

100
00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,010
in lots of its methods,

101
00:08:26,010 --> 00:08:28,923
and its ability to transform the world.

102
00:08:32,670 --> 00:08:36,930
But at the same time, I'm
hoping there is a limit,

103
00:08:36,930 --> 00:08:38,970
that we can never reach,

104
00:08:38,970 --> 00:08:42,990
because it also strips away
this kind of fundamental idea

105
00:08:42,990 --> 00:08:45,063
of what it means to be human.

106
00:08:50,071 --> 00:08:54,363
In this calibrated and measured world,

107
00:08:54,363 --> 00:08:59,326
art allows beauty and emotions
to be part of the process.

108
00:08:59,326 --> 00:09:00,459
art allows beauty and emotions
to be part of the process

109
00:09:01,526 --> 00:09:05,526
(dark ethereal music continues)