WEBVTT 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:02.917 (airy music) 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.233 - I believe artworks are self-portraits. 00:00:17.400 --> 00:00:22.400 It is really difficult not to carry yourself in the works. 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:33.930 As artists, we tear ourselves apart and reassemble it 00:00:33.930 --> 00:00:38.337 in every piece that we are creating and recreating. 00:00:38.337 --> 00:00:41.670 (airy music continues) 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:02.700 I started as an engineer basically because I was a student 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:04.413 who was good at math and physics. 00:01:06.493 --> 00:01:09.360 Art later came into my life 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:12.940 because the pure pleasure of creating 00:01:14.160 --> 00:01:15.873 got me quite addicted. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.200 I grew up in the northwest part of China 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:24.330 in the city that is called Karamay. 00:01:24.330 --> 00:01:28.593 It means black oil in Uyghur language, our local language. 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:35.640 My grandparents' generation immigrated to that area 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:38.943 under the state order to develop a city digging oils. 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:45.270 I have this memory of celebrating oil in my hometown. 00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:47.910 All the families working on oil 00:01:47.910 --> 00:01:50.490 will get this souvenirs from the city. 00:01:50.490 --> 00:01:51.990 It looks like a pyramid, 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:53.010 and in the middle of it, 00:01:53.010 --> 00:01:55.383 there is a drop of actual crude oil. 00:01:56.850 --> 00:02:01.080 I want to kind of create like a magnified version of that, 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:03.120 but then at the same time, the bottom 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:07.113 of the entire work would be a fountain of oil. 00:02:08.546 --> 00:02:11.213 (motor humming) 00:02:13.447 --> 00:02:16.065 I kind of like the air bubble one. 00:02:16.065 --> 00:02:18.990 I feel it's more lively, or if I really want a lot of air, 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:22.203 I just let the tube expose to the air. 00:02:27.762 --> 00:02:30.300 (liquid gurgling) 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:34.470 I want it to have this motion inside the oil pan, 00:02:34.470 --> 00:02:37.230 giving this sentient existence. 00:02:37.230 --> 00:02:41.190 It's not just a passive material to be extracted. 00:02:41.190 --> 00:02:45.150 It's a living being beneath the earth's crust 00:02:45.150 --> 00:02:47.730 and transforming the world above it 00:02:47.730 --> 00:02:50.004 with terror and lots of violence. 00:02:50.004 --> 00:02:55.004 (airy music) (liquid dripping) 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:13.980 Growing up in a town that essentially was built 00:03:13.980 --> 00:03:18.980 by immigrants within China, I felt very much connected 00:03:19.320 --> 00:03:23.280 to the idea of going to a place for its resource, 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:28.280 creating generations and prosperity in that sense. 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:35.460 That entire idea is parallel to space exploration, 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:38.430 which is a big part of my practice, 00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:42.510 the idea of people traveling so far going to another planet 00:03:42.510 --> 00:03:46.140 felt like what my grandparents' generation did, 00:03:46.140 --> 00:03:47.643 when they were in their 20s. 00:03:48.483 --> 00:03:51.233 (rocket humming) 00:03:53.190 --> 00:03:56.040 I started working on space exploration 00:03:56.040 --> 00:03:59.343 when I was a grad student in MIT Media Lab. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:02.970 I submitted the proposal and made a robot 00:04:02.970 --> 00:04:06.933 that carried my tooth and went to space. 00:04:11.670 --> 00:04:14.850 It was launched as a research project, 00:04:14.850 --> 00:04:17.373 but for me, it is really a performance piece. 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:21.690 I want a part of me to go to space. 00:04:21.690 --> 00:04:26.690 I wanted to create an avatar that enabled that journey. 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:34.203 - We count down, the rocket blazes, engines pulse. 00:04:35.610 --> 00:04:39.243 Now we sing like birds breathing cedar air. 00:04:41.070 --> 00:04:43.353 We are made of dust and light. 00:04:44.851 --> 00:04:47.601 (ethereal music) 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:56.370 - There's something about expedition. 00:04:56.370 --> 00:05:00.300 It's very beautiful, very glorious, 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:05.193 but at the same time, it's a very lonely journey often. 00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:08.880 Going to Beijing for college 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:11.520 and going to the United States for grad school, 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:14.790 I was trying to arrive at somewhere for a better life, 00:05:14.790 --> 00:05:17.070 but then that journey is just pulling me 00:05:17.070 --> 00:05:18.723 further away from my home. 00:05:25.854 --> 00:05:28.187 And I think as humanity, 00:05:29.310 --> 00:05:32.760 we are imagining all this version of futures 00:05:32.760 --> 00:05:36.540 of living on another planet, or living with AI. 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:40.350 But I feel like as you're leaving your current place, 00:05:40.350 --> 00:05:45.273 some part of yourself died and shed away. 00:05:50.460 --> 00:05:53.093 There is this inevitable death 00:05:53.093 --> 00:05:58.042 that happens along with the growth that we so desire for. 00:05:58.042 --> 00:05:59.918 that happens along with the growth that we so desire for. 00:06:16.380 --> 00:06:20.613 I am thinking a lot about my own reproduction. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:24.600 Nowadays, I'm at that age, 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:25.537 people are just telling me, 00:06:25.537 --> 00:06:27.300 "Oh, you should freeze your eggs. 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:29.277 Don't even think too much about it." 00:06:32.490 --> 00:06:37.490 I have a level of alienation and fear over that process. 00:06:37.897 --> 00:06:40.564 (gentle music) 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:48.574 Reproduction technologies claim to solve all the problems, 00:06:48.574 --> 00:06:51.991 but in fact dramatically change our body. 00:06:55.890 --> 00:07:00.890 We freeze time in this biological machine 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:06.000 because we need to get a better career, we need to go study, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.430 we haven't found a good partner yet. 00:07:08.430 --> 00:07:10.923 I felt like it's all about productivity, 00:07:12.060 --> 00:07:15.843 whether time is useful or not useful. 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:24.180 I'm making this collection of objects and sculptures 00:07:24.180 --> 00:07:29.180 about this fear, referencing lots of bone structures, 00:07:29.940 --> 00:07:31.860 but they're all warped and twisted 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:34.530 as I imagine how our body would change 00:07:34.530 --> 00:07:36.603 through these experiences. 00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:42.540 And I'm cooling down the sculpture to a low temperature, 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:43.980 so they're gonna freeze, 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:47.343 kind of having frost growing on the sculpture. 00:07:50.129 --> 00:07:53.296 (dark ethereal music) 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:23.880 I do believe in science and technology, 00:08:23.880 --> 00:08:26.010 in lots of its methods, 00:08:26.010 --> 00:08:28.923 and its ability to transform the world. 00:08:32.670 --> 00:08:36.930 But at the same time, I'm hoping there is a limit, 00:08:36.930 --> 00:08:38.970 that we can never reach, 00:08:38.970 --> 00:08:42.990 because it also strips away this kind of fundamental idea 00:08:42.990 --> 00:08:45.063 of what it means to be human. 00:08:50.071 --> 00:08:54.363 In this calibrated and measured world, 00:08:54.363 --> 00:08:59.326 art allows beauty and emotions to be part of the process. 00:08:59.326 --> 00:09:00.459 art allows beauty and emotions to be part of the process 00:09:01.526 --> 00:09:05.526 (dark ethereal music continues)