Infinite Games: I. Impossible Improvisation
Nov 11th, 2022 - Nov 13th, 2022
Westbund Art & Design, Shanghai, China
Westbund Art & Design, Shanghai, China
Games are an integral part of human life. Through games, we relieve intellectual anxiety, simulate and extrapolate the changes of the world, as well as accomplish heroic fantasies which we can’t achieve in our normal lives. Games are a complex system of rules, its challenges, tastings, and fantasies that draw us into them over and over again to explore the nuances in them, then ends in the joy of victory. We have a clear goal when playing a game by racking our brains to find the magic formula for victory, but the excitement will be gone abruptly as the game reaches to the end. We inadvertently give up the freedom to leave the field for the sake of a game, and ignoring the fact that victory is the result of following the rules of the game.
We are always playing with limited time and limited resources, trying to reach far from the rules that have been formed. When we face new problems and challenges, we must go beyond the immediate rules and enter the world of infinite games. The purpose of the infinite game is not about success or failure, but about continuity. As a result, countless possibilities and endings will be formed in the process of continuity. This diversity also comes from the repetition and derivation of rules and standards, however, the infinite game does not stop there, because the rules themselves are dynamic.
The improvised passages of a jazz musician and the “fiddling” of a kid need to be distinguished by a rigorous set of musical rules, and the sparks of innovation need to be interpreted through the lens of consensus and culture. It is remarkable that we don't stop at the termination that comes with winning and losing, but know how to recalibrate and reshape the lenses we use. There is always a new lens that allows us to see the further order.
Impossible Improvisation not only promises change from standardization, but also stands on the top of the rules, reveling in the pleasure of swaying between conformity and disobedience. These digital artworks continue the artist's exploration of data visualization and digital genesis, and demonstrate the ambition by using digital tools, to reorganize rules and explore the world's multifarious appearance between constant reconfiguration and deconstruction.
Is that possible that Mario doesn’t need to save the princess, but only be a teenager seeing the clouds? Welcome to the world of infinite possibility.
Jiatao Li & Chouran Li & Sirui Dong, Jellyfish Universe, 2022, 1’12’’
Jiazi Chen & Yuken Lin & Jiaping Wang & Yihan Zhou, Spectacle Farce, 2022, 3’20’’
DaDa, Robotopia 1.0, 2022, 59’’
ZZYW, Out of Sight, 2022, 14’50’’
Yibin Chen & Shunyi Yao & HONGL & Jianing Xu & Dian Liu, Black Swamp, 2022, 3’15’’
Xinyue Wang & Yue’er Chen & Nan Zou & Siyu Zhao & Xiaowen Cao, The Seventh Heaven, 2022, 3’18’’
Reraner, The Edge of Chaos, 2021, 5’06’’,
Storytelling Studio, Orbital Archaeology, 2022, 5’18’’