Tong Wu’s solo exhibition “Daily Dividuals” , LATITUDE Gallery, New York, 2021
“Daily Dividuals” is an artistic research project about our relationship with our digital doubles that I have been developing since the year 2019. This ongoing project documents my observation and thinking about the expanding philosophical brokerage between the physical world, the virtual sphere, and online avatars and the fluid yet dystopian nature of the "self."
“I am your FAN”, 3d-printed Sculpture, 2021
It’s also a project in which I experiment with emerging multimedia storytelling methods, including 3D animated videos, Augmented Reality (AR), digital sculpture installations, and digital paintings.
In etymology, the original meaning of "Individual" can be traced back to "not to be divided" in Latin. As recent technological advancement has enabled us to see the world beyond the naked eye, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze believed that the word "Individual" is no longer able to convey the meaning of the smallest unit that the society could be reduced to. In a contemporary machine-dominated society where most of the communication and perception are transmitted through digital screens, the Internet is gradually taking over the physical experience of our bodies, monopolizing all of our perceptions into the digital realm. Interpersonal relationships have also been transformed into virtual conversations between online avatars — this alienation has been further catalyzed by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Living in a digital era, individuals are metamorphosing into unrecognizable masses of data. But our online avatars, our 'Dividuals", on the other hand, are increasingly active in the fragmented virtual world, wandering, resting, and interacting with one another. Behind their numerous forms and facades, these online avatars conflict and blend with our physical individuality, creating more confusion and detachments via their accumulation of self-imagination and desires.
