1st. Draft
“Journey to the West” is a net-art project with the structure inspired by folk novel of China. It combines virtual realities, videos, animations, sound tracks, pictures, text, and interactive elements including hyperlinks as artistic expression. Using Internet as a platform, it invites audiences to experience, to participate. It investigates the individualism in Eastern or Chinese culture, its collision and fusion with the contemporary global culture, and reflect on a series of related social issues from an individual’s perspective.
As Chinese artists born in the seventies, we are afraid that our way of thinking will not be fundamentally affected by network culture. Today, the Internet has become one of the main ways accessing to information and developing social networks for communication. However, in our view, its disadvantages include, the lack of focus and belief, and that it is too spread and tend to occupy all the time used to ‘feel’ the lives. Frankly, our evaluation of the network culture will be nothing more than the old cynicism – it embodies human beings’ uncontrollable desire for profit and vanity. Of course, we are interested in applying information technology to artistic creation, in part because it is groundbreaking, in part is that it provides infinite personal freedom of choice, and from this perspective, the invention of Internet and its application in the cultural field, undeniable, are the best embodiment of the democratic will of people, individuality and freedom of thought.
Here we immediately relate to ‘democracy,’ this taboo subject. We can not but ask, ‘Do you all, especially the Chinese people, should enjoy freedom and democracy?’ If someone says ‘no’, we usually disagree, but if we think of ‘democracy’ means that every member of society must take on more responsibility, must devote more time and effort, and, perhaps also sacrifice financially to challenge the existing social system, then why not that denial is a favor? Moreover, as a mature social practice, the ‘individualism’ tradition is the basis that democracy builds upon. And is there such a tradition that exists throughout Chinese history as a long-term, sustained practice? If so, what is the situation then? Instead of ‘inforViz’ or ‘remix,’ these are what we inquire with the new media art project “Journey to the West.”
As the incarnation of ‘individualism’, there are two protagonists in “Journey to the West,” – the Monkey King (appears as female), who is known for subversive personality and unbeatable magic power, later becomes Tang Monk’s disciple; the Tang Monk, a Tibetan master monk who suffers temptation and frustration on his way fulfilling his mission. In spite of all perplexity, hesitation and confrontation during the long journey of Monkey and Monk, whose spirit and mind are once deeply puzzled, the final roads lead to Rome.
The creation of this work is based on Chinese folkloric traditions. For us, this approach is effective because that folktales and legends have a profound influence on our generation’s perception of life and society. Here, we are back to the earlier topic of the means of communication. In fact, in the seventies, we saw and heard enough about ‘faith’ rather than ‘information’ in China. Schools and institutions spread the orthodox concept of ‘communism’ and ‘nationalism,’ in contrast, beliefs delivered by folktales were more popular elsewhere – children were fascinated by folk legends, myths and historical romances, and begged their parents, grandparents to repeat again and again. What exact messages did these stories convey? In short, those include faith, braveness and other Chinese traditional moralities, include endless trickery, greed and power struggles of ruling class, but also rebellions of the weak, which takes various forms, sometimes a violent civil uprising, and sometimes a love tragedy – often, the monologue of a lovelorn is a disguised political statement expressing the oppression of humanity given by a society. Perhaps because the oral tradition of communication primarily dealt with beliefs and conveyed compassions, they were not well equipped with today’s cynical attitude that may be resulted by communications dealing with facts manipulated by media in this information age. This may sound like a sentimental nostalgia, but we would like to bring into discussion that what is the ultimate role of mass information and related technology in human life? How will they impact human nature? These inquiries are central to this project as well.
We use new media imaging technology record and edit the visual-spiritual journey, and share it with the audience through Internet. Anyhow, our protagonists need to face the reality (even if a virtual reality), socio-cultural issues, political incidents and environmental problems during their adventures from the east to the west, sometimes travel to ancient times or future —— regardless of geographical and cultural differences, we are happy to carry out this piece revealing some unspoken feelings of mankind in our times. Audience/readers are encouraged to provide suggestions for developing storylines, as correspondence, your contributions will be properly credited; meanwhile, as collaborators, we also welcome artists to participate the creation of this piece.
《西游 记》是一件网络艺术作品。它采用中国民间文学章回体小说的结构，艺术表现手法结合虚拟现实、影像、动画、音轨、图片、文字以及包括超级链接在内的网络互动 元素，并以网络为平台，邀请观众进行交流、参与。这件作品探讨的是东方或中国文化中的个性主义,它与当代全球性文化的碰撞与融合,以及对一系列相关社会问 题的反思。
对于在七十年代在中国出生的一代艺术家来讲,网络文化恐怕对我们的思维方式不会有根本的影响。今天，网络成为获取信息、人际交流的主要方式之一；而 在我们看来，它多少缺乏重点与信念，过于泛滥，倾向于占用所有我们用来感受世界的时间。如果说我们对网络文化进行评价的话，无非是老生常谈的愤世嫉俗—— 它体现的是人对利润、虚荣无限的欲望。当然，我们感兴趣将网络信息技术用于艺术创作，部分是由于它的开创性，部分是它提供了自由选择的无限空间，从这个角 度讲，网络的产生与在文化领域的应用当然是民主意志、个性和思想自由的最佳体现。
这里我们 立即涉及到‘民主’这个忌讳的话题。我们不能不问，‘是否所有人、特别是中国人，都应该享有自由、民主？’如果有人说‘不’，我们通常认为他缺乏正常思 维，但如果我们想到‘民主’意味着每个社会成员都要承担更多的责任，意味着投入更多时间、精力以及金钱对既有社会体制进行挑战, 这一否定又何尝不是一种恩惠与保护？更何况作为一种成熟的社会实践, 民主是需要建立在 ‘个性主义’传统的基础之上。而这种传统是否长期、持续地在中国历史与现代社会中存在？如果有，它的境遇又是怎样？这些问题正是我们要在新媒体作品《西游 记》中探索的，虽说谈及网络时代的艺术时，‘信息视觉化’这类字眼显得更入流些。
作为‘个性主义’的化身，《西游记》安置了两个主角——孙悟空（作为女性出现），这是一个以反叛性格与魔力著称的精灵；唐僧——一个富有使命感的西藏高僧，作为肉体凡胎，他一路饱受诱惑与挫折。这两个角色的精神与行为交错碰撞，最终殊途同归。
这件网络 艺术作品是基于中国民间文化传统而创作的。 对我们来讲，这种传统之所以有效，是由于民间传说、传奇等文化对我们这一代人的根深蒂固的影响。这里，我们又回到起初关于交流方式的话题。实际上，在七十 年代的中国，我们耳濡目染的更多是关于‘信仰’而非‘信息’。学校与官方传扬的是正统‘共产主义’、‘国家主义’观念，在家庭成员与民间则是另一回事—— 孩子们百听不厌的是民间传说、神话与历史演义。这些故事反复传达的是什么？简而言之，是忠信骁勇等中国传统道德，是统治阶层无穷的阴谋、贪婪与权力之争， 更是这会中弱者的彻底反叛。这种反叛以不同形式出现，有时是民间暴力起义，有时是爱情悲剧——那些痛彻心肺的情感独白往往是乔装的政治宣言，抒发了社会中 受压迫的人性。也许，正因为人们所传达的更多是信念而非被媒体操纵的事实，民间文化并不充分具备当今玩世不恭的处事态度。这听起来或许是像怀旧感伤，但我 们想提出的是，信息在人类生活中到底在演什么角色？它对于人性的作用有是怎样的？这些讨论也是我们的网络艺术作品的重点。
我们用新媒体成像技术记录与编辑这些旅程的图像，以网络作为与观众交流的手段。具体说，作为风险与奇遇，我们的主角一路将经历与面对各种现实（哪怕 是虚拟现实）的社会、文化问题——不分地域与文化，我们乐于通过这件作品来进行揭示。提供建议的读者、观众会得到相应的发表记录；同时我们也欢迎艺术家作 为合作者参与到这件作品的创作中来。
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