Abstract
This paper examines how Chinese new media artists negotiate the symbolic nature of urban space via 3D-modelled simulations, augmented and mixed reality. Via semiotic and media analysis, the paper scrutinises the ontology of these media in their deployment of spatial parameters such as proportion, perspective, stasis and motion to create an ideologically informed spatial narrative. The paper contrasts the imaginary of architecture and space in the independent 3D animation film Mist by Zhang Xiaotao and Cao Fei’s Second Life project RMB City against the implementation of video art in Zhu Xiaowen’s mixed reality performance Wearable Urban Routine and the augmented reality app Statue of Democracy & Tank Man by artist collective 4 Gentlemen. It be will argued that in all the discussed works, the use of the digital medium serves to create a temporary illusion whereby the ephemeral experience of a virtual world can help to better understand the role of the human in actual, physical space, which adopts particular importance in the context of a radically transforming country. This study contributes to the growing scholarship on the interlinkages between Chinese art, architecture and the city and on the increasing importance of technology within Chinese cultural studies.
 Image with permission from © Zhu Xiaowen
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