From the Shadows 来自暗影

November 30, 2022 2022年11月30日

Even small sparks of light can be appreciated in the dead of night, but in broad daylight, they’re not worth a glance. When you’re all alone, brief interactions become significant. The way our relationship with everyday things changes depending on our situation is at the core of Korean artist An Gyungsu’s paintings. He dwells along the fringes, making himself at home on the outskirts of cities, burrowing into forgotten spaces. Untended fields and dead forests, empty construction sites and abandoned lots, dark back streets and alleys. They all evoke unsettling feelings and hint with dread at their uncertainty. What’s obscured by those shadows and hidden behind those cluttered coverings? How can such simple settings hold such power over us? But here lies hope, it presents the ability to value small pleasures.

漆黑的夜，再小的火花也格外亮眼；当独自面对孤独，瞬间的互动也能带来强烈的感受。我们与日常万物的联系在不同处境下发生变化，这是韩国艺术家 An Gyungsu 的绘画创作核心。他安家于城市郊区，徘徊于边缘地带，深入探索那些被人们所遗忘的角落——从荒凉的田野和森林，到空荡的建筑工地和废墟，以及深幽的小巷，无一不令人毛骨悚然，弥漫着死寂与诡秘的气息。黑暗的阴影与杂乱的外表之下隐藏着什么？这些空空如也的不毛之地为什么能让人们产生如此强烈的感受？而同样也是在这些角落里，闪烁着希望的微光和发现生活乐趣的能力。

An grew up in Busan and moved to Seoul to study art at university. He majored in traditional art, which was called Korean painting at the time, but found the style too restrictive, forcing him to rethink his understanding of art. One day while waiting for a bus, he found himself staring at a construction site and an uncomfortable curiosity took hold. The building was sheathed in massive blue tarps and in front of it was a wooden barricade with cheap paintings of trees, lakes, and rainbows on its surface. Crowds of people passed by the whole thing without a glance. The mystery of what was going on behind all those coverings and the concept of different layers of reality stuck with him for several years, eventually becoming the foundation of his current style. “The place was temporarily a ruin but would soon be reborn as something new and alive,” he says. “Time was paused and filled with an artificiality that we all recognized only very vaguely.”

Gyungsu 从小在釜山长大，大学时搬到首尔学习艺术，主修传统韩国绘画。但后来他意识到，这种绘画风格过于局限，并重新梳理了自己对艺术的理解。某天在等公交时，他不由自主地盯着一处建筑工地，一种奇怪的好奇心涌上心头。这幢建筑由巨大的蓝色防火布覆盖，前方设置木制路障，表面绘有树木、湖泊和彩虹的图案。周围人来人往，却没有人看它一眼。多年来，他一直着迷于遮盖物背后的神秘世界，关于不同层次的现实这一概念也始终萦绕于心，最终奠定了他如今的创作风格。他说：“这些地方暂时是一片废墟，但很快就会重见天日，焕发新的面貌和活力。时间像是被暂停，表面的荒凉背后却有人情味若隐若现。”

To capture that type of visceral feeling, An only paints urban landscapes that he’s visited personally and he returns to them several times before. Because of this he only paints scenes close to home. He doesn’t go out looking for inspiration but keeps a watchful eye as he goes about his daily life. Reference photos bolster his works, and he takes numerous shots of the same spot from different angles. Recently, he’s even started showing photos of his paintings in the settings that inspired them to further add layers to his work.

为了捕捉真实的心理感受，Gyungsu 只画自己曾亲身踏足过的场景。每次创作之前，他往往都要多次探访现场。他不会刻意外出寻找灵感，但会在平日的生活里留心观察。同时也会拍照来作为参考，喜欢从不同角度拍摄同一地点的大量照片。最近，他甚至将照片与绘画放置在同一幅画面中进行比对，为作品增添更丰富的层次。

The concept of exploring multiple layers in one space is a major theme. Dense but leafless trees are silhouetted against lighter backgrounds, while brightly lit objects with high contrast sit in front of them. Electrical wires often streak across the foreground or light refractions glitter on top of everything. Scenes are often depicted from behind a glass, while the background behind the viewer is superimposed over the painting as a reflection. All these aspects lead to a very deep sense of depth. An also explores the idea of layers in metaphoric ways. Time is a common layer. Dead trees and grass are merely existing in a liminal state, soon to bloom again with Spring. All the things hidden in the darkness will be exposed when the sun returns. Nothing is static in his world.

探索同一空间的多个层次是他在创作中最注重的环节之一。高低、明暗、对撞色、以及前后事物的对比，这些都为画面增加层次。他的很多作品仿佛是观者在室内隔着玻璃看到的画面，而观者室内的背景则叠加、反射在画面上。所有这一切都加深了画面的深度和空间感。除此之外，Gyungsu 还在创作中融入了对时间的隐喻。凋零的树木花草仅以临界状态存在，闪光只以刹那间留在画面，仿佛即将随着春天的到来再次焕发生机；仿佛黑暗中的一切都会在即将到来的黎明中展露。在他作品的世界里，没有什么是静止不变的。

An finds comfort in the night. Although darkness cloaks everything in mystery, there’s a definitiveness to it that he revels in. It focuses the eye. “Artificial light creates clear boundaries, binding our sight to what it’s illuminating,” he says. “I like the emotion that light offers when revealing itself in the dark.” The way the light changes the character of things in the dark is important as well. A bright flash makes an everyday object seem to float in isolation. “I think I find my feelings in these landscapes and painting them is a way to express those emotions.”

Gyungsu 从黑夜中寻求慰藉。尽管黑暗的一切如此神秘，但又有让他着迷的确定性，令人难以移开目光，他解释道：“人工光源划分出清晰的界限，将人们的视线吸引到它所照亮的事物之上。而我喜欢光在黑暗中闪现时所透露的情绪。”另一个重点是光线在黑暗中如何改变事物特征。耀眼的闪光使得那些平凡的物体有了一种孤立漂浮感，“这些画面给我的心灵带来震颤，因此绘画也成为了抒发情感的一种方式。”

Isolation can be lonely but introverts often revel in it, and it’s something that An gravitates towards himself. A touch of brightness in a desolate scene can focus the attention on glimmers of positivity in an otherwise bleak setting. “A private workspace, a meeting place where a few people can gather, or even a powerful spotlight erasing any darkness near it. These are signs of life, evidence that people are active there even if I’m not painting them into the piece.”

Uncertainty is a constant in An’s work as well, and the vague anxiety from that first construction site has never left him. He frequently obfuscates objects by smearing sharp lines, using bright light to wash sightlines away and he hides things within patches of shadows. “This alters our perception, it’s more unstable,” he says. “We feel more intensely when we don’t totally understand what we’re looking at.”

作品中那股孤立感虽然渗透着无与伦比的孤独，但内向的人却能乐在其中，吸引着 Gyungsu 不断去探索。即便再黑暗的场景，在零星光点的加持下也会变得饶有希望的存在，他说道：“这些就是生命的迹象，是人们生活的证据。”

此外，不确定性是 Gyungsu 作品的一个重要主题，也是最初那个建筑工地在他心中留下的那种从未消失的焦虑感。他常常通过抹掉锐利的线条来模糊物体，使用明亮的光线偏移观众的视线，“这样可以改变人们的感知，更具有不确定性，”他说，“当你不确定眼前的事物时，往往心里的感受会更强烈。”

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @angyungsu

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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Gentle Fiction 人情科幻

November 23, 2022 2022年11月23日

Rain Szeto paints watercolor illustrations of street life and science-fiction, all packed with an endless amount of detail that a viewer can lose themselves within. A picture depicting a cat laying blissfully in a ray of sunlight is crammed with as many objects as that of a cyborg repairman tinkering away in his studio. In her street scenes, shops are overbrimming with items; buildings are covered with signage, grime, and textures; and sidewalks are stuffed with foliage and vending machines. In her sci-fi work, wires feel tangled throughout the scene, bolts and dials are squeezed into every corner, and gadgets litter every available surface.

Rain Szeto 的水彩插画以一种爆炸式的科幻视角描绘我们日常里的街头场景，每幅作品都毫无例外地融入大量细节，令观众目不暇接。无论是阳光下惬意的猫，还是在工作室里捣鼓设备的机器人，所有场景都被各式各样的物品塞得满满当当。在她的作品中，小卖部里好像没有落脚的余地、街面上挤满了各类招牌，就连墙壁上的污垢和纹理都显而易见。各种电线在整个画面中蔓延纠缠，螺栓、仪表盘以及小工具散落在角落，这些都是增添科幻感的关键所在。

Whether it’s a cyberpunk-inspired scene or a simple restaurant, there’s always a certain mundanity to it—and it’s all by design. “I always try capturing the feeling of having something small to enjoy, or of being content in the moment,” Szeto says. “For sci-fi, the challenge lies in designing these futuristic elements so that they are not too far removed from our reality, while still clearly being sci-fi. For real world scenes, the challenge is arranging the scene in a way that feels lived-in and recognizable.”

从乍看之下的赛博朋克到细看下的人间冷暖，她的作品总透露出一抹平淡与凡俗。这恰恰是她想通过作品来传达的感觉，“我想要寻求一种小确幸式的心理，一种满足于当下平静状态，” Rain 说，“对于科幻题材的作品，则是想要挑战如何将未来主义元素变得更贴合现实，同时又能保留其科幻感；而那些生活场景的创作，则建立在生活中熟悉、平易近人的基准上。”

While studying art at a university in Chicago, Szeto was originally interested in comic art. But she soon realized that her favorite part of the medium was the establishing scenes—the large, detailed pictures situating a character in their environment. It’s a pretty clear line from there to her current style, which she landed on about two years ago. You can see the influence in her compositions as well, where scenes are usually contained within framing that resembles a comic panel.

She used to draw and paint everything manually until about a year ago when she realized using a miniature projector was an efficient way to transfer digital sketches to paper. But she only sketches her characters digitally, because she says she was getting lost in the infinite zoom on her tablet. “I was getting too stuck in details that wouldn’t be legible at the actual physical size. For example, I would spend time detailing a bolt, only to realize that it was reduced to a tiny dot once transferred to paper.” She also does rough color and shading studies digitally before adding paint to her final pieces.

Rain 此前在芝加哥一所大学攻读艺术专业，最初的兴趣是漫画。但很快她就意识到，自己更喜欢将场景融入创作，将角色置于充满大量细节的环境之中。她开始尝试转变创作思路，并在两年前开始逐渐形成现在的作品风格。从她作品构图中不难发现明显的日式漫画痕迹。

她早期的创作都以手绘制成，直到大约一年前，她尝试使用迷你投影仪，将数字草图的映像直接投影在画纸上，使得创作效率大大加分。数字创作的部分主要侧重人物，原因是平板电脑的无限变焦让她一不小心迷失在事物的细节。Rain 解释说：“我很容易会过分纠结于一些细节，而这些细节最终在实物作品中可能根本无法辨析。可能我会花很多时间来细致描画一个机械螺栓，最后却发现这些无足轻重的小部件在画纸上根本无法辨认。”此外，她还会在数字创作阶段进行粗略的上色测试，之后再给决定作品使用的颜色。

Szeto’s work is based on a combination of memories, photographs, and the internet. She combines multiple reference images for each piece, and she says they’re especially important for her sci-fi pieces in order to make the details believable. “I’m no engineer, so I have to search for real-world examples of how an engineer would arrange their workbench.” She compares her process to “kitbashing,” where model builders combine multiple kits to create something new and unique. “A lot of the machines in my sci-fi pieces are imaginary but reference parts from real-world machinery.”

The street scenes are usually based on places in Hong Kong or San Francisco but not usually as exact reproductions. (She was born and raised in San Francisco, and her parents are first-generation immigrants from Hong Kong and Nanping.) “When I’m out and about doing other things, such as grocery shopping, I’ll keep an eye out for interesting details, arrangements, etc. It’s more about keeping myself open to inspiration rather than seeking it out. I often find that if I go out specifically to find inspiration, it eludes me.”

Rain 的作品糅合了记忆、照片和网络素材。她的每幅作品都基于多张图片进行参考，这对于创作科幻题材的作品尤其重要，即在确保细节真实性下进行想象，“我不是工程师，因此参考现实里工作台细节是必要的。”她将自己的创作过程比作“Kitbashing”（实现快速概念设计），即建模者将多个原本的模型组合在一起，创造全新且独特的模型过程，“在我的科幻作品中，即便许多机器都是虚构的，但都参考了现实世界的机器零件。”

她从小在旧金山长大，父母是来自香港和南平的第一代移民。因此，她作品中的街景通常以香港或旧金山为原型，但不会原封不动地照搬。“每次出门上街，比如去杂货店买东西，我都会特别留意各种有趣的细节和布置，等待灵光一闪的时刻，但不会刻意去寻找灵感。一旦我刻意地去寻找灵感，往往都会无功而返。”

Sometimes the lines are blurred between real life and science-fiction. “Space Noodle” is actually based on a photo of the cupola module in the International Space Station, so it’s not exactly fiction, except for the artificial gravity and cyborg limb. Even in the cold vacuum of space, Szeto makes it feel like a quiet, everyday moment. The main character sits on the floor, leg crossed and sneakers off, snacking on some comfort food. “My mom came up with the title: When she first moved to America, she always called the Space Needle in Seattle the Space Noodle,” she laughs.

有时，现实和科幻之间的界限是模糊的。作品《Space Noodle（太空面条）》以国际空间站一张穹顶舱的照片为原型而创作的作品。除了人工重力和半机械人肢体之外，画中的其他元素并非虚构。而即使是冰冷的真空空间，Rain 也让整个画面透露出平静的日常气息。画中的主人公脱下运动鞋，双腿盘坐在地板上，正享受着手里的泡面，“作品标题是妈妈帮我起的。她刚搬到美国时，总是把西雅图的太空针塔（Space Needle）叫作太空面条（Space Noodle），”她笑着说道。

Szeto prefers to avoid darker themes, and likes the description of “gentle sci-fi” that a classmate once used for her work. An exception is “Forest 2.0,” which imagines a world where forests no longer exist and depicts a ghostly woman standing in lush foliage grown within a sophisticated electronic box. A messy array of levers, wires, pipes, and breakers keep the plants healthy but on life support. “It’s hard to ignore the influence of the climate crisis,” she says, explaining her reasons for broaching difficult subject matter. “But even though it depicts a post-natural world, it’s not quite apocalyptic or dystopian. It’s ambiguous whether the forest is meant to restore the natural world or is just a reminder of the past. I’d like to believe the former! It may seem cliché, but I’ll be glad if my art can make people happy.”

Rain 很少创作黑暗风格的主题，之前身边同学称她的创作是“温柔的科幻作品”，对此她表示十分赞同。不过，作品《Forest 2.0（森林2.0）》则不再温柔。其描绘了一个与现实隔绝的森林世界，一位白衣女子四下张望，森林之外，则是一个电路环绕的密闭空间，仿佛一切只是一场实验，像极了《银翼杀手2049》中安娜博士的实验室。

关于这幅作品，Rain 解释道：“气候危机的影响不容忽视。作品描绘的是一个自然消失后的世界。作品中，森林的意义，也许是被用来重建自然世界，或是为了提醒人们过去大自然的存在，其实作品中并没有明确说明。而我更愿意相信是前者！虽然这么说有点陈词滥调，但我觉得，如果我的作品能带给人们快乐，我也会很开心。”

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @rainfsh

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Dhol Dance Music 南亚伦敦腔

November 17, 2022 2022年11月17日

Massive barrel drums roll brusquely over pattering hand drums. Guttural chants well up and a bamboo flute loop flutters about. A heady kick drum drives the track along, hidden within the mix. This is “Dhol (part 2),” and it’s a conscious effort to combine the instrumentation and rhythms of South Asia with club music from Africa and the UK. The track was produced by British-Pakistani artist Ahad Elley, better known as Ahadadream, a London-based producer, DJ and organizer.

Listen to select tracks below:

筒鼓与手鼓的混响在空中此起彼伏、粗粝的吟唱声与循环往复的竹笛乐句完美契合、猛烈的鼓点将整首曲风不断推向异域。这首名为《Dhol (part 2)》的歌曲尝试将南亚律动与非洲、英国的俱乐部之声相融，其所用到的采样来自南亚婚礼现场使用的乐器，制作则以激进的舞曲形式迎人。它的创作者是英籍巴基斯坦音乐人 Ahad Elley （Ahadadream），这位现居伦敦的音乐制作人、DJ 和派对组织者深入挖掘自身南亚文化根源，尝试将其烙入英式地下俱乐部之声的大染缸之中。

点击即可试听 :

Elley immigrated with his family to England when he was 13 years old. Although he spoke English daily in Pakistan, it was a difficult transition coming on the heels of the Sept. 11 attacks. “Moving to the UK as a brown kid with a Pakistani accent wasn’t the easiest adjustment,” he explains. “I was also one of the only South Asian kids in my school,” which was in Bedfordshire, just north of London. But he jumped right in, trying to figure out where he belonged among all the different cliques in school. He eventually started a band, teaching himself guitar and writing all the tunes. But in his home life, he was still surrounded by music from Asia. “I was really into rock music, which was popular in Pakistan. Me and my cousins grew up watching MTV. But Bollywood was always playing in the car. My grandad was always listening to the older stuff. The dhol was always around. It really stuck with me.”

Ahad 十三岁时随家人移民英国。尽管年少就会讲几句英语，但作为在 911 事件后的新移民，他经历了异常艰难的过渡期，他回忆道：“作为一名带有巴基斯坦口音的棕色皮肤小孩，要适应搬到英国后的生活并不容易，况且学校里南亚孩子不多。”他的学校位于伦敦北部的贝德福德郡。校内，他试图寻找自己的圈子，先后自学了吉他和作曲，组建乐队。而在家里，他仍然会被各种亚洲音乐包裹，“我那时候沉迷摇滚，摇滚乐在巴基斯坦也蛮受欢迎的，从小和兄弟们看 MTV 长大。而在大人车里，也总能听到宝莱坞式的旋律。祖父曾喜欢在家里播一些南亚经典老歌，印度传统的 dhol 鼓声总是萦绕在我的耳边。”

At family weddings, he’d always choreograph dances, so when he discovered garage music at the local teen dance parties, he was quickly out on the floor soaking up the rhythm. Garage started in the mid-90s, but the syncopated British style of music blending 4/4 kicks with jungle and R&B was still popular, and this was Elley’s introduction to UK dance music. Like many kids, he followed garage to dubstep, which at the time was deeper and more attuned to reggae. He was a bit late to funky—which blended house with sped-up dancehall rhythms and followed dubstep in the British dance music continuum—but it would come to define his music up to this day.

每逢亲朋婚礼，他总会为现场编排舞蹈。也因如此，当他第一次在英国俱乐部里接触到 UK Garage 这种舞曲类型时，双脚便没离开过舞池。Garage 诞生于 90 年代早中期，那个锐舞风潮正值浪尖的年代，也是 Ahad 接触的第一个英式舞曲风格。和许多年轻人一样，在接触 Garage 之后，他很快迷上了 Dubstep，当时的 Dubstep 受雷鬼影响痕迹还较重。后来，他开始爱上 UK Funky（一种将传统 House 舞曲与南美 Dancehall 律动相融合的曲风），也是 Ahad 目前的主打音乐风格。

When Elley went to university in Surrey, also just outside of London, there were no funky parties, so he started throwing his own, meeting many of the leading names in the scene. He didn’t start producing until he moved to a small industrial town in Germany, where he studied for a year. “I was on my own with nothing to do after class,” he says. “With production, I didn’t need a whole band, I could just open my laptop and start making tunes.”

In 2017, he dropped his first EP, Movements, introducing the world to his blend of stripped-back funky with global percussion, often from South Asia. Sometimes he outwardly combines them, like with “Dhol” and “Little Pakistani Boy,” other times it’s much more subtle. Since he deconstructs the instruments and pieces them back together in a British dance music context, it can be hard to distinguish them from other drums like the djembe or bongo, which he’s also fond of using. He further combines the sounds with African styles of electronic music like South African gqom and Angolan kuduro. Around the time of that first EP, he also started More Time Records, signing artists with a similar mindset.

Ahad 所就读的大学位于伦敦郊外，那里没有 UK Funky 派对，他便自己组织活动，也因此结识了许多圈内红人。后来他在德国一个工业小镇走读一年，期间他第一次开始尝试音乐制作。“当时上课放学总是我一个人，课余时间也比较多，”他说，“索性音乐制作不需要整支乐队，一台笔记本就够了。”

2017 年，他发行个人首张单曲《Movements》，将简洁俐落的 Funky 音乐与世界各地（主要是南亚）的打击乐巧妙融合，在歌曲《Dhol》和《Little Pakistani Boy》中均有明显体现。他的制作始于对各种乐器的解构，再以英国舞曲风格重新拼凑，带来一种“四不像”的感觉，有时乐迷甚至能在他的制作中听到非洲鼓和邦戈鼓的音色。在之后的创作中，他又进一步融入南非 gqom 和安哥拉 kuduro 等非洲电子音乐风格。第一张单曲 EP 发行前后，他还创建了 More Time Records 舞曲厂牌，联络了多位志同道合的朋友。

Two years later Elley launched the No ID party, leaning further into his Asian roots by showcasing all-South Asian DJ lineups. “All of us were doing our own things, so I wanted to see what would happen if we put everyone together,” he says. “I wanted to prove that we do a lot, because the diaspora is actually very complex and nuanced.” After the pandemic lockdowns, he was approached by a local government council who wanted to do something around South Asian artists in London. So he teamed up with Daytimers and Chalo and started the Dialled In festival, which added a live band element. It was also the first time he worked with artists from the region, not just diaspora artists.

Elley took it a step further this year, visiting Pakistan for the first time in a decade. “My parents moved back there so I have a place to stay, and I’m now old enough to do my own thing while there for the first time,” he smiles. He packed his three weeks there with parties, workshops, networking and fundraising. He curated the first Boiler Room in Pakistan with Dialled In featuring four live acts and five DJs. “It was intense! It was 45 degrees out and there were four power cuts during the event.” They also dropped a Boiler Room T-shirt, raising nearly $9,000 for Karachi Community Radio, which will help them buy CDJs. “Hopefully people can go there and use them and practice. It’s an ongoing skills exchange.”

两年后，Ahad 推出 No ID 派对活动，以全南亚 DJ 阵容，进一步追述自身的亚洲文化根源。“每个人都有自己的风格，所以想看看把大伙儿凑在一起会碰撞出怎样的火花，”他说，“这个圈子其实非常多样且丰富，呈现在音乐上更是大不相同。”欧洲疫情过后，伦敦当地一位政府议员来电，表示希望他能为伦敦的南亚艺术家做点什么。他拉来艺术家 Daytimers 和创意组织 Chalo，联合举办了 Dialled In 音乐节，增加了许多现场表演和互动环节，人与人之间的距离增进了不少。

今年，Ahad 在音乐事业上更进一步，他十年来首次回到巴基斯坦。“爸妈搬回去住了，我在故乡有了归宿，加上我现在有了我自己的事业，想看看回去能做点什么，”他笑着说。他在巴基斯坦度过了三个星期，期间参加了各种派对、论坛、讲座和筹款活动。他通过 Dialled In 策划举办了巴基斯坦的第一场 Boiler Room（地下电子音乐直播平台），一共包括四场现场设备表演和五名 DJ 表演。“气氛实在火爆！当时气温高达 45 度，活动期间甚至导致过四次停电。”他们还通过出售 BoilerRoom T恤，为卡拉奇社区电台（Karachi Community Radio）筹集近 9000 美元，用于帮助电台购买 CDJ 播放器。“希望没有条件的音乐爱好者都可以去电台练习，这是一次具有持续意义的技能交换活动。”

They also held two-day workshops in each city they visited with a priority on women and non-binary people. “They were super engaged, people came up to us saying they hadn’t produced in ages but were excited to get back into it,” Elley recounts. As inspiring as it was, he also points to difficult barriers there like small crowds, an alcohol prohibition and a lack of equipment. He believes there’s potential for building a community there though. “I don’t think many of them had ever seen people making a living off underground music. It made me realize the privilege we have in London, where we have access to everything we need to make music. But I can’t wait to spend more time there and get into the studio with people.”

除此之外，每到访一个城市，他们都会举办为期两天的讲座，女性和非二元人群被允许优先进入活动。“大家都很踊跃，有些人其实本身就会制作，但中途放弃过，在参加完活动后现在又打算重新拾起，”Ahad 回忆道。虽然这一切很鼓舞人心，但他也指出当地仍面临重重困难和障碍，例如舞客和观众基数少、禁酒令和设备短缺等等。但他相信，当地社区拥有巨大潜能，“他们中许多人可能都没亲眼见过全职地下音乐人。这也让我意识到我们在伦敦生活是多么幸运，我们可以获得创作音乐所需的一切。我多想未来能再回到故乡，这次要多呆一阵子，和当地艺术家一起在像样的工作室里创作。”

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Photographer: Aiyush Pachnanda
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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Soundcloud: ~/ahadadream

供稿人: Mike Steyels
摄影师: Aiyush Pachnanda
英译中: Olivia Li

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A Piece of Strange 在时尚圈内做个局外人

November 15, 2022 2022年11月15日

A girl rides a T-rex while a boy hangs on to its stout front legs. An elderly woman in red heels and sunglasses sits cross-armed, surrounded by piles of pastel toys. Men with horse heads sit within a car parked sideways across a night road, the interior glowing a crimson red. This is the surreal world of Nguyễn Anh Hào, a 22-year-old photographer based in Saigon. His work is always subtly off. Light comes from weird directions, gravity seems to have different rules, and characters are very out of place. It’s a strange and mysterious world with a touch of levity that bridges fashion and art photography.

当霸王龙成为女人的坐骑捕获年轻男子；穿着精致的老太太坐在地上，成堆的彩色玩具围绕在身旁；深夜，马男们西装革履，坐在泛着霓虹色灯光的商务轿车内——这些风格怪异的作品竟都是时尚大片，均来自 22 岁胡志明市摄影师 Nguyễn Anh Hào 所打造的超现实世界。他的作品总是透露出微妙的诡谲怪诞——不同寻常的光照、不再成立的重力定律、还有与周围环境格格不入的角色。在这个神秘且怪诞的世界，一切飘忽而难以捉摸，弥漫着时尚与艺术相融的摄影美学姿色。

Nguyễn picked up the camera three years ago when he dropped out of university and decided to strike out on his own instead. That characteristic independence colors his work, which peers into the mind of an outsider—someone who forges their own path despite the loneliness that can accompany such a lifestyle. But he’s drawn others into his orbit, working with edgy local brands like Feng System and legacy outlets like Le Official. “I didn’t really care about fashion until I got into photography,” he says. “But fashion and art combined leads to some great pictures.”

Nguyễn 三年前开始接触摄影，当时他从大学辍学，决定独自出去闯闯。如此特立独行的个性在作品中也有体现。他的作品透露着局外人的心态，即使缺乏旁人的理解，也要坚持自己的路线。这股子楞劲儿却在圈内引起关注，此前，他就曾获得 Feng System 等本地前卫品牌和 Le Official 等业内大牌合作的机会。“在拿起相机之前，我其实并不关心时尚，”他说道，“只不过，时尚和艺术的结合确实会产生一些很棒的效果。”

Although Nguyễn’s work is heavy on world creation, portraits are always front and center. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell when something is a personal series or an editorial shoot, and that’s part of the appeal. In Alita’s Scandal, a beautiful celebrity is followed around after the fallout of being publicly shamed. In one shot, she stands in a rainstorm wearing a metallic red-carpet dress as a beam of light from some unknown place illuminates her face. In another, she stands in a dirt field with black sweats and a winter hat, another cold beam of light glaring across her face. The final shot is erotic, and she sheds her worry for what people say, giving herself over to the passion of another woman.

在 Nguyễn 的创作构思中，个人始终是要考虑的因素。透过作品，有时甚至很难区分个人与商业时尚作品的界限，而这也恰恰是他作品的魅力所在。在系列作品《Alita’s Scandal（阿丽塔的丑闻）》中，他用镜头讲述一位遭遇公开羞辱的女星。其中一幅作品，女星穿着金属质感的连衣裙站在暴雨中，一束莫名的光线照亮她的面庞；另一张照片中，她身处荒郊，背后投来执勤人员意味不明的微笑；故事情节在系列最后一张照片中得以释怀，女星显然已对公众的视角视而不见，完全投入到同性之爱的怀抱。

Sex and sexuality are common themes for Nguyễn. “I think it reveals people’s raw and honest selves, it shows their most human side,” he says. One series features an elderly white man and a young Asian man grappling with their relationship. The old man is at once dominated by his latex-covered partner and then cradled as the partner dons a wedding gown. In the final shot, they lay face to face as the partner cries and a sign in the background reads, “Live, laugh, love.” It’s good advice but not always easy to live by.

The Cô Tấm series draws on Viet folktales for inspiration. It’s loosely based on the story of Tấm and Cám, which is very similar to Cinderella and features a poor stepdaughter who meets a king and loses a slipper. In the Vietnamese story, she’s trying to raise shrimp and fish but the step-sister keeps sabotaging her. Nguyễn substitutes dinosaurs for aquatic life, so a variety of plastic Jurassic creatures fill the pages. They’re outlandish and comical, both tiny and small, their painted skin glowing brightly under clear rays of mystical light. At the end of the series, Cám is off the ball in a black áo dài dress, walking through a war trench toward fireworks that light the sky like artillery.

性和性取向是他作品中的常见主题，Nguyễn 说：“性揭示了人们原始和真实的自我，是最人性化的一面。”他另一组系列展示了一位年长的白人男子和一名年轻亚裔男子之间的情感纠葛。亚裔男子身着 BDSM 套装与白人男性进行私密游戏，又会换上婚纱彼此拥抱。系列的最后一张照片，他们四目相对，亚裔男子泪水哭花了眼妆，身后粉色的标语赫然出现在门框上——“Live, laugh, love”（生活、笑、爱）。

《Cô Tấm》系列灵感来自越南民间故事《碎米与米糠》（Tấm and Cám）。故事与西方的“灰姑娘”非常相似，讲述了类似继女遇到王子并无意间丢掉鞋子的故事。原版故事主人翁叫做米糠，每日繁养鱼虾，却遭受同父异母姐姐的阻挠。照片中，Nguyễn 用恐龙模型代替虾和鱼的意象，在场景灯光的照射下闪闪发光。系列的最后照片中，米糠穿着黑色的越南传统奥黛裙，穿过战壕，走向黑暗中星星点点的烟火。

Even though a lot of Nguyễn’s work is for other people’s companies, it’s still very personal to him. Perhaps the most personal of his projects is the editorial for women’s wear brand Wephobia. It stars his grandmother and is shot in his hometown of Bù Đốp, a three hour drive north of Saigon. It begins with her flashing big smiles under cool, sunny skies. Her smile falters in a strange scene where she juggles a naked baby and baby goat. Things get weirder and more dejected as the shoot goes on. In one, she sits on the floor complacent but uncomfortable, surrounded by abandoned toys. In a diptych, she alternately sits slumped at a vanity desk and then lies listless on the floor in a pink room. Perhaps the strongest image finds her sitting alone, smoking in the dark as snow swirls and a cake sits uneaten. Themes of isolation are prominent, and yet its a celebratory project: “It was a present for her,” he says. “She was willing to do every pose I asked, not a single complaint! At the end, I think she was happy with the result. That’s what matters the most to me.”

虽然 Nguyễn 的很多作品都是受客户公司委托创作，但对他来说仍然具有浓重的个人色彩，尤其是他为女装品牌 Wephobia 拍摄的作品，作品模特选自他的祖母，拍摄于他的家乡 Bù Đốp，距离胡志明市以北三小时车程。

系列第一张照片，是明媚的天空之下，祖母露出灿烂的笑容，身边有山羊与婴儿相伴；而随着镜头的切换，笑容则逐渐崩解，伴随的是场景的深沉，氛围转向了怪诞和哀伤。她坐在地上，一副怅然若失的模样，周围摆满了废弃玩具；或是坐在粉红色房间的梳妆台前暗自神伤。最令人难忘的一张照片中，祖母坐在黑暗中抽烟，四周雪花纷飞，旁边是一个人吃不完的蛋糕，透露出令人难忘的孤独，“我的这次创作一是为品牌拍摄，二是为祖母拍摄一套写真，”他说，“看似意想不到的转变，其实描写出人生的起伏。整个拍摄过程祖母都很开心，这对我来说是才最重要的。”

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Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Instagram: @nguyenanh_hao_

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Pop Proof 不可思议的椅子

November 10, 2022 2022年11月10日

When people think of balloon art, they usually think of children’s entertainers at birthday parties, or else they’ll picture one of Jeff Koons’ chromatic balloon creatures. Only rarely will someone think of furniture. South Korean designer Seungjin Yang did. Since 2013 he’s been perfecting his Blowing series, a collection of colorful and glossy chairs, stools, and benches that look exactly like balloon art—and, in essence, that’s what they are.

提起气球艺术，人们通常会想到生日派对上的气球小丑，或是美国艺术家 Jeff Koons 的彩色气球动物雕塑，但很少人会想到使用气球来做家具。2013 年以来，韩国设计师 Seungjin Yang 一直专注于《Blowing》系列，整个系列围绕各式各样的椅子，它们缤纷怡人，统统用气球打造完成。

Yang makes everything using various brands of ordinary party balloons he picks right off the shelf. You can try, but it’s impossible to pop any of his pieces. In fact, they’re so resistant that you can take a seat and lean your entire body weight on them without risking them bursting loudly underneath you.

What seems like a magic trick is the result of a eureka moment that came as he experimented with combining unusual materials and shapes. “I was experimenting with epoxy, and then I thought of how interesting it would be to apply it to a balloon. I knew it would still keep its rounded shape,” he says. Epoxy resin is a substance that’s first highly viscous but solidifies itself, taking the appearance of glass. Therefore, as Yang discovered, it makes up the perfect material to create a hard coating that can prevent balloons from bursting.

Seungjin Yang 的创作原料都来自商店货架上各类品牌的普通派对气球。但与日常气球用途不同，他的作品你甚至可以完全坐下，将全身重量靠在上面，也不用担心爆裂的状况。因而对材质的坚固度很有讲究。

这些看似不可思议的气球家具，是他在尝试组合不同材料创作中的灵光乍现。他回忆道：“当时在考虑使用环氧树脂进行创作，如果把它用到气球上会很有趣，能保持气球圆润的形状。”环氧树脂具有高粘度，但也会自行固化，最终呈现出玻璃般的外观。这正是 Seungjin Yang 心中的理想材料，非常适合用作防止气球破裂的硬涂层。

Balloons, in turn, are flexible and easy to manipulate, which makes them particularly sculptural, and their fundamental qualities, especially their transparency and hollowness, enable exciting visual possibilities. However, these same traits make it very challenging to use them as raw materials for anything durable; they can easily burst, not to mention they’ll inevitably deflate with time.

One of Yang’s motivations for his Blowing series was precisely to turn these challenges around and create something entirely new and unexpected. By combining latex balloons with epoxy, he knew he could. “The unexpected interests people,” he says, before adding, “I think I turned this imperfect material into something sustainable for design.”

而气球刚好相反，既灵活又易于操纵，具有雕塑美感，加上气球本身透明和中空的特点，可打造出十分有趣的视觉效果。也正是这些特点，使得气球通常难以用来任何耐久的创作——不仅容易爆裂，且长时间很容易泄气。

Seungjin Yang 创作《Blowing》系列的动机之一，正是为了克服这些挑战，创造出新颖独特、出人意料的作品。他相信，乳胶气球与环氧树脂的结合可以做到这一点。“人们都喜欢意想不到的事物，”他接着补充道，“我想让这种不完美的材料变成了一种可持续的设计。”

Born in 1986, Yang grew up in Hongcheon County. He has enjoyed building things with his own hands ever since he can remember. Admittedly, though, his models were far more intricate than anything a regular child would create. Later, studying at the department of Metal Art and Design of Hongik University in Seoul, he had an unparalleled opportunity to make a career out of his passion. He not only experimented with the most varied types of materials but also studied their fundamental properties, following the institution’s purpose to open possibilities in the design field.

Seungjin Yang 出生于 1986年，从小在洪川郡长大。在他很小的时候，就喜欢摆弄各式各样的模型，而他做的模型往往比很多同龄小孩的模型复杂得多。后来，他进入了首尔弘益大学金属艺术与设计系，得以将自己的兴趣变成事业。他不仅喜欢尝试各种不同类型的材料，还会研究材料的基本特性，延续其母校关于在设计领域开拓创新的宗旨。

Creating his furniture pieces requires exquisite yet relatively simple craftsmanship. It all starts with him making simple sketches on a pad. They give him the visual representations he needs to know the number of parts for each piece, and their rough sizes and shapes. With the help of an air machine, he then blows up latex balloons to form such parts.

Yang then coats the blown balloons with a layer of epoxy resin, which can be pigmented or not. After this first coating layer, he lets the balloons dry in his studio, for about seven hours. Hanging there like (colorful) sausages in a butcher shop, they could be mistaken for an art installation.

Still, the process continues. Making one piece of furniture usually takes up to two weeks. That’s because he needs to repeat the coating technique seven to eight times until he reaches a consistency that’s hard enough to support the weight of an adult. The more layers he applies, the more resistant the piece will be.

Once the balloon parts are hard enough, he polishes out the dried epoxy drips to give them a smooth surface. He then assembles and glues them together, creating a functional piece. Finally, he applies a final coat of epoxy to reinforce the structure and give it a sense of unity. Yang adds no screws, joineries, or adornments to his pieces. He likes to keep their minimal aspect, just like balloon art.

他的作品所需的工艺其实很简单，但对细节的要求很高。通常，他会先画出简易的草图，以便自己能直观了解每件作品需要的部件数量，以及粗略尺寸和形状。然后，他会使用充气机来吹乳胶气球，做成一个个零件。

接着，Seungjin Yang 会在吹好的气球上涂上一层着色或无色的环氧树脂。涂完第一层之后，他会将气球进行干燥处理，像肉店里（五颜六色的）香肠一样挂起来，一般持续大约七个小时。乍看下，就像是气球装置艺术现场。

制作一件气球家具通常需要多达两周时间，因为涂层的工序需要重复七至八次，直到硬度足以支撑成年人体重。涂抹的层数越多，作品就越坚固。当气球部件变得足够坚硬，他就会打磨掉干掉的环氧树脂滴液，以呈现光滑的表面，然后将所有部件拼装并粘合在一起。

创作的最后一步，是涂上环氧树脂，加固整个结构，让整个作品看起来更统一。Seungjin Yang 的作品没有任何装饰物，他喜欢保持最简约的外观，让作品本身保留了原有的气球模样。

That’s not to say he doesn’t aim to create something visually striking. His furniture pieces come in different levels of transparency, translucency, and opacity, and it’s fascinating to see how they’re indeed empty on the inside. Such an effect delivers a sensation of fragility, and the overlapping of different translucent parts results in new shades and hues, adding to the visual impact of each piece.

Knowing bold colors are usually appealing to most people, Yang doesn’t shy away from bright reds, deep royal blues, or even pitch-blacks. He also likes to mix the most unexpected combinations, including fluorescent pinks, greens, and yellows, to achieve the ultimate “wow” effect. Beyond bright colors, the glossiness of Yang’s pieces never fails to evoke that inner child in all of us who’s fascinated by shiny things.

当然，这并不代表他不追求在视觉上的吸引力。他的家具作品呈现出不同程度的透明、半透明和不透明程度。这种效果透露出一种脆弱感，半透明的不同部件相互重叠，产生出新的色调，增添每件作品的视觉冲击力。

Seungjin Yang 知道对大多数人来说，大胆的颜色往往更有吸引力。他还喜欢搭配出人意料的色彩组合，比如荧光粉色、绿色和黄色，以达到令人眼前一亮的效果。除了鲜艳的色彩，作品外形与表面的光泽和梦幻，也会唤起人们内心着迷于闪亮事物的童真。

His designs are a source of curiosity for children and adults alike. Anyone who lays eyes on them will instantly wonder what they’re made of. Most people think they’re heavy and made of glass and assume they also break easily. That’s not the case at all. “My chairs are very strong, like any other chairs. They can support up to one hundred kilos,” Yang assures. “They’re also more comfortable than they look. Of course, it’s not like sitting on a cushion, but I still think I made them pretty comfortable.”

Yang’s playful signature style didn’t go unnoticed even in more classical design circles. In 2021, Maison Dior invited him to reimagine the elegant Louis XVI Medallion Chair that has traditionally been used in its runway shows. It was a special commission to be exhibited at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan, together with works by Ma Yansong, Tokujin Yoshioka, and other prominent designers from all around the world. His version had white matted balloons filling the chair’s iconic oval shaped backrest.

无论大人、小孩，看到他的作品，也许都会好奇知道它们由什么材料制成。大多数人都会以为它们很重，由玻璃制成，或者觉得它们也很容易破裂。而事实并非如此。“我的椅子和其他椅子一样，非常坚固。它们可以承重一百公斤，”Seungjin Yang 说道，“而且它们坐上去比看起来舒服。”

Seungjin Yang 趣意十足的设计同样引起了经典设计领域的关注。2021年，Dior 邀请他重新设计品牌时装秀上的路易十六式椭圆型靠背椅。这是一次特别的委托，椅子会在米兰国际家具展上，与马岩松、吉冈德仁等世界著名设计师的作品一起展出。最终他用白色哑光气球填充了椅子标志性的椭圆形靠背，将个人风格拉满。

Although he admits liking the fact that taking a seat on one of his pieces for the first time can be a little unsettling, Yang says there’s no metaphor behind his work and no deep meaning stemming from the fact that he transforms fragile objects into solid and durable ones. He goes as far as refusing the assumption that what he creates is even art. His philosophy is much more straightforward: to create minimal and practical furniture.

To him, his work process can be thought of as a slightly more elaborate form of child’s play. “My process when creating a new piece is like when we play with toys as kids. It’s like playing with Lego, except that the shape of the balloon is very natural and rounded, which allows me to create nice chairs,” he says. Whether a chair, bench, or stool, Yang’s designs will undoubtedly stir up any decor with a good dose of playfulness and glossiness. In the end, that’s precisely his goal: he wants people to see them and feel like a child looking at a balloon.

Seungjin Yang 为人们第一次坐上他的作品时那种忐忑不安而暗自开心，但也表示，自己的作品并没有什么特别的隐喻，也不存在什么由易碎物体转化为坚固物体所引申的深刻寓意。他甚至拒绝将自己的椅子定义为艺术品。他的想法很简单直接：创造简约实用的家具。

对他来说，创作的过程只是更为精致复杂的儿童游戏，他说：“我在创作新作品时，就像小时候玩玩具一样。和玩乐高积木差不多，只不过气球的形状更自然和圆润，这样我可以制作出比较漂亮的椅子。”无论是摆放在怎样的环境中，Seungjin Yang 所设计的椅子、长凳或凳子都可以给空间增添趣意与亮眼的光泽。而这正是他的目标：他希望人们看到这些家具时，会变成看见气球的小孩。

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Website: www.seungjinyang.com

Contributors: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

网站: www.seungjinyang.com

供稿人: Tomas Pinheiro, Lucas Tinoco
英译中: Olivia Li

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From Vision to Fruition 霸王视觉

November 8, 2022 2022年11月8日

Thana Seangsorn refers to himself as a “visionary artist”. Not a visual artist or video artist, but visionary. The play on words is an apt description of the Thai artist’s work, which spans motion design, graphic design, mixed media, and more. His work is larger than life, visual art for the 21st century. It’s maximalist, huge, and mind-altering. Full of sharp, angular shapes and kaleidoscopic colors fluttering and spiraling at warp speeds, it tests the boundaries of human experience. His work has found a place on festival and mega-club LED screens, creative project-mapped sculptures, immersive physical installations, and digital NFTs.

不是视觉或是视频艺术家，来自泰国的 Thana Seangsorn（Pai Lactobacillus）喜欢称自己是“狂想艺术家”。用“狂想”来形容或十分贴切，其作品涵盖动态设计、平面设计、混合媒体等不同领域，追求极繁与磅礴力气，是令人目眩神迷的二十一世纪风格。各种尖锐线条、棱角分明的形状配合万花筒色彩，以扭曲、飘浮的姿态旋转，挑战肉眼感官界限。他的作品常出现在节日活动和大型俱乐部的 LED 屏幕、创意投射雕塑、沉浸式艺术装置和 NFT 领域当中。

Seangsorn, who goes by the alias Pai Lactobacillus, was born and raised in Bangkok. He originally studied ceramic design at university, creating miniature sculptures with similarly bold shapes and colors. But a news story his wife saw changed the trajectory of his life. It was about Indian craftsmen who made ivory sculptures of tiny Russian dolls losing their eyesight at 40. Fearing that staring a such small details would damage his health as well, she urged him to change careers. So he decided to enroll in graphic design classes advertised on bus stops and television across the city. “I hated computers back then,” he laughs. Not long after completing the class, he found opportunities with major record labels, who eventually asked him to do some commercial motion design work.

Thana 出生并成长于曼谷，大学时期学习了陶瓷工艺，曾创作过很各式各样色彩大胆醒目的微型雕塑。直到某日，他的妻子看到一则新闻，改变了他的艺术轨迹。据那则新闻报道，一位象牙迷你俄罗斯娃娃雕塑工匠在 40 岁时突然视力丧失。妻子担心如果他一直从事这种微型雕塑创作，可能会影响视力健康，希望他可以换个职业。听了妻子的劝告，Thana 报名参加了公交车站和电视上宣传的平面设计课程，他笑着说：“那时候我其实我很讨厌电脑。”不过在完成课程后不久，他就获得了与大型唱片公司合作的机会，应公司要求开始创作一些商业动态设计作品。

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The medium captivated him and he started experimenting with basic content, usually in support of electronic DJs. “There’s been a small audio-visual community in Bangkok for about 15 years,” Seangsorn says. “It was very low tech back then, with just one low-power projector and one screen at underground venues where everyone knew each other.”

These days, Seangsorn creates visuals for massive spaces, with screens that scale the walls of three-story clubs, bending onto the ceiling. He’s also recently made projection mapping work for four-meter-tall sculptures at festivals. Opportunities for this type of work began popping up in Thailand about eight year ago.

很快，他开始沉迷于这种媒介，尝试大量简单的创作，早期通常是与电子音乐制作人或是 DJ（唱片骑师）合作。他聊到：“曼谷的视觉、声音艺术社区很小，大概发展了十五年时间。以前用的装置技术含量很低，只一台低功率投影仪和一台笔记本，就是一个地下圈子，大家互相都认识。”

如今，Thana 与大型场所合作，有时屏幕大到覆盖三层楼高的舞台墙壁，有时甚至将视觉延伸到天花板。最近，他还在一次活动上为四米高的雕塑制作了投影。而大概在八年前，泰国才渐渐开始出现此类型的工作机会。

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Big events like these take a team and Seangsorn’s role is to create the graphic assets and motion design—which take two weeks of non-stop work. He then hands them over to video and light jockeys who manipulate and play them during the live performances. When designing these visuals, Seangsorn considers what type of genre and BPM range the DJs will be playing. Then he coordinates with the VJ and LJ, explaining what type of mood and tone he’s looking for. For LEDs, he says it’s important to tone the colors and brightness down because they can damage people’s eyes. But projection mapped lights travel away from people’s eyes, so his options are limitless with those tools.

大型活动往往需要团队。Thana 在团队中的角色负责平面素材和动态设计，通常一次创作需要他两周时间不间断工作。完成后，他会把作品交给 VJ（影像骑师）和灯光师，由他们在现场表演时进行操作。创作时，Thana 需要考虑 DJ 播放的音乐类型和节奏速度范围，然后与 VJ 和灯光师沟通希望营造的氛围和色调。他表示，使用 LED 灯时要调低颜色和亮度，否则会伤害眼睛。但投影的灯光不会直射眼睛，因而摆脱了许多限制。

For smaller, less commercialized events, Seangsorn himself performs with a MIDI controller and Resolume software. He was recently booked for The Visual Abstract City event in Vietnam alongside other international, regional, and local artists. There, he was the one on stage for a change, standing in front of a two-story projection, making his designs warp and dive for a live audience. “The audio-visual community is small there, but they started before us and have a more experimental bent,” he says. “We’re getting there in Thailand now though, there’s a whole new generation of artists.”

A few years ago, Seangsorn started bringing his work to life, giving it physical form in the real world. His first attempt was at a group show of mixed-media artists blending prints and sculptures with new media. One of his pieces was a multi-level, circular design with steps that led down the center like a stadium. At the bottom was an embedded screen with looped visuals to make the stairs decsend infinitely. His most recent installation was an immersive show called Lucid Dreamers, which featured inkjet-printed vinyl stickers covering every surface of the space, including the ceiling and floor. It felt like stepping into his trademark digital world of polychromatic colors and rigid shapes.

对于不那么商业化的小型活动，Thana 会亲自用 MIDI 控制器和 Resolume 软件进行表演。最近，他被邀请参加在越南举行的The Visual Abstract City （抽象视觉城市）活动，与世界各地和本地艺术家一起演出。这是他第一次站上舞台，在两层楼高的投影前，于现场观众面前操纵着自己的设备。他说：“越南在这方面起步比我们早，也有更多实验性倾向。现在泰国也慢慢赶上来了，涌现新一批艺术家。”

几年前，Thana 开始尝试将作品带入生活，在现实世界中赋予其物理形式。他的第一次尝试是在一个混合媒体艺术群展上，将版画、雕塑与新媒体相融。其中的一件作品是多维度环形设计，中间是向下的台阶至场馆中心，底部是嵌入式屏幕，循环播放视觉图像，让台阶在视觉上无限延伸。他最近的艺术装置更带来沉浸式体验，名为“Lucid Dreamers”，喷墨打印的乙烯基贴纸覆盖空间的每个表面，包括天花板和地板。置身其中，仿佛踏入他一贯的数字缤纷世界。

Seangsorn is far from abandoning the digital realm though. In addition to the digital art he’s creating for clubs and festivals, he’s also delving into the Thai NFT scene. There, he’s pushed his details even further with increasingly intricate designs and more active animations—everything unfolding in seemingly endless patterns.

His work is often dependent on deep-pocketed sponsors. Giant LED screens, HD projectors, and meters of vinyl printouts cost a lot of money. Oftentimes, Seangsorn’s art ends up at expensive venues where patrons are more interested girls and booze than appreciating the creativity and ingenuity on display. And some of his festival designs wouldn’t look out of place in a white cube gallery. But he’s still breaking boundaries, whether they realize it or not. One day the cost will drop to the point where smaller, art-driven spaces will be able to embrace immersive designs like these, and he’ll be there, waiting and ready.

Thana 决定将数字艺术一直继续下去。除了为俱乐部和节日活动创作数字艺术作品外，他还投身于泰国的 NFT 场景，并进一步打造更精细的作品，设计细节越来越复杂，动画效果也越来越出彩，一切似乎以无穷无尽的图案在无限延展。

Thana 的作品往往需要有财力雄厚的赞助商，毕竟大型的 LED 屏幕、高清投影仪和数米的乙烯基印刷品都需要大笔的资金。他的作品通常都是出现在昂贵的场所，比起欣赏作品的创意与独创性，那里的顾客往往对美女和酒水更感兴趣。而他为一些活动设计的作品即使放在画廊中也绝不会显得格格不入，他一直在不断打破界限。伴随成本的下降，总有一天，小型的艺术空间也将能够接纳这样的沉浸式艺术。而在这之前，Thana 会一直做好准备，等待时机的出现。

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Behance: ~/lactobacillus

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

Behance: ~/lactobacillus

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li

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Cuddle Me, Don’t Colonize Me 抱住我，别殖民我

November 3, 2022 2022年11月3日

“Documentation of the colonized was one of the earliest usages of photography,” says Han Zhang. “It was portrayed as a ‘scientific tool’ or ‘anthropology analysis,’ but in reality was a way to illustrate a biased construction of genetic superiority and inferiority.”

The power dynamics of those behind the lens and those being gazed upon continues to this day, and new technologies reinforce them, such as dating apps dominated by white males that set the tone for the rest of the world—including LGBTQ dating apps—which Zhang says has spread their values globally.

“摄影最早的用途之一是用来记录被殖民者，”来自上海的艺术家 Han Zhang 说道，“虽然人们将其美化作‘科学手段’或‘人类学研究’，但实际上却是一种制造优胜劣汰与文明偏见的方式。”

镜头背后，摄影师与被凝视者之间的权术角逐一直持续至今。而现代科技更使得这种现象愈演愈烈，譬如白人男性在世界各地约会软件上所占据的主导地位，同性约会软件亦是如此。在 Han Zhang 看来，这些软件不过是在全球范围内传播白人男性价值观罢了。

Zhang, who goes by the alias boihugo, is pushing back against these forces, while also exploring nuances on both sides. Their photography series Cuddle Me Don’t Colonize Me positions kindness and femininity as being praiseworthy with healing potential. They attempt to decouple themselves from a narrative set by those who view them as an “other.” “Mainstream white queer culture is mean and proud of it. That’s something I definitely don’t subscribe to,” they say. “I believe in the power of being nice and gentle to each other in our community of queer people of color. That sense of warmth, sisterhood and solidarity is a possible solution to gendered violence.” First comes the “them,” where they are separated by their gender and ethnicity. But following that exclusion is an idea of “us,” where they find purpose and supprt in each other.

Han Zhang（又名博惠果 Boihugo）渴望通过作品推翻这股力量，同时探索凝视与被凝视者之间的微妙连接。在其《抱住我，别殖民我（Cuddle Me Don’t Colonize Me）》摄影系列作品中，Ta 赞扬善良和女性的治愈力量，试图在叙事中消除主体与“他者”之间的界限。Han Zhang 解释道：“主流白人酷儿文化以尖酸苛刻为荣，而这是我不敢苟同的。相反，我认为有色人种酷儿社区应该彼此友善且温柔相待。这种温暖、情谊和团结的方式，才是解决性别暴力的办法。”Ta 希望酷儿群体应是从“他们”到“我们”的转变，前者是因性别和种族而分隔的“他们”，“我们”的概念则带有共同目标，相互支持的理想。

Black and white staged portraits of couples, close-ups of skin and food, and even depictions of nature explore these power relations and how they might be inverted. Glitter, shiny fabrics, candy, and toy jewelry elevate playfulness and femininity, relishing in camp rather than seriousness. The faceless subjects recall queer dating apps where the majority of profiles hide their faces. Food is sexualized.

Zhang shot the series on a consumer-level DSLR camera that their dad bought for family trips. The Shanghai-based artist aims for an amateur and imperfect aesthetic, particularly through the use of an on-camera flash. It’s a rejection of the smooth and elegant format of higher institutions that they feel unrepresented by, largely because of their marginalized status as a queer person of color.

从黑白色情人肖像照、皮肤和食物特写、再到风景照，Han Zhang 透过镜头探索这些权力关系以及它们之间如何被颠倒。各种亮片、闪亮面料、糖果和玩具首饰增添了画面的趣味性和女性气质，从中取乐，规避一味的严肃性。不露面的拍摄对象令人想起同性约会软件上面那些隐藏面部的个人资料页面。而食物则以一种“性”化的方式呈现出来。

Han Zhang 所用的相机是 Ta 父亲为家庭旅行购买的平价数码单反相机。Ta 通常喜欢以相机自带的闪光灯进行拍摄，想要刻意营造一种业余和不完美的美学气息。这是对高等学府精雕细琢的优雅作品的一种否定，以抗议公众机构对有色人种酷儿的边缘化和忽视。

The project got its start when Zhang was studying in London, where they started by exploring the dominant concept of masculinity framed by a white majority, which that they say both desexualizes and simultaneously fetishizes East Asian queer people. Although they still discuss these issues in a Western context, they’ve broadened their interests to reach a wider audience, including those within China.

In one close-up image, fishing wire is tied so tightly around skin that it takes on new, strange shapes. This is the slow violence that LGBTQ people experience in everyday life in China and much of the world. “It’s the slight discomfort that is not widely noticed or challenged,” they say. “It’s not anything intense but you can see the tension emerging.”

整个项目始于 Han Zhang 伦敦求学时期，最初以对白人为主的男性气质探索作为主题。在 Ta 看来，这种概念既剥夺了东亚酷儿的去性别身份，同时又体现出对东亚酷儿群体的一种迷恋。尽管以西方语境来探讨该话题，但 Ta 也尝试扩大自己的探索范围，以覆盖国内和更广泛的受众群体。

在一幅特写作品中，渔网线紧紧勒住皮肤，呈现出怪异且紧张的态势。据 Han Zhang 解释，这幅作品寓意了中国和世界大部分地区的 LGBTQ 群体在日常生活中所遭受的慢性暴力。Ta 接着说道：“这些轻微的不适也许不会引起太多注意和质疑。但即使表面温和，你仍然可以感受到暗涌的紧张态势。”

Ultimately Zhang hopes to discover how a gaze—colonial, sexual or racial—can be interchangeable, even finding common cause with those who’ve excluded them. This is perhaps most clearly expressed in the image with the businessman sitting with a smaller naked figure on top of them. “The white man in a suit could be the representation of a traditionally tough hegemonic form of masculinity,” they explain. “But if we think of him as a disposable element in a big firm, he could be immediately emasculated.” The body in the forefront may also be perceived as vulnerable because of their nude exposure, but they’re posed with an upright back and firmly placed hand to suggest agency and dominance. “The intention is to highlight the possible interchangeable power.”

Han Zhang 的最终目的是希望凝视者与被凝视者的身份互换，内容涉及殖民、性别和种族方面。Ta 希望通过作品让自我与排斥 Ta 的人达成一种和解。系列中一幅作品充分地诠释了这一点：一位身形娇小、全身赤裸的人坐在西装革履的男性身上，Ta 解释说：“身穿西装的白人代表了传统的强硬男性气质。但如果我们把他看作是一家公司中可被任意替代的员工，那他的力量会被瞬间消失得荡然无存。而身坐前面的人虽可能因为赤裸身体而被认定是脆弱的代表，但 Ta 正直的姿势与坚定有力的双手，暗示权力和支配的地位。其目的就是为了强调力量的互换。”

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Website: www.boihugo.com
Instagram: @boihugo

Contributor: David Yen
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

喜欢我们的故事？欢迎关注我们 Neocha 的微博与微信。

网站: www.boihugo.com
Instagram: @boihugo

供稿人: David Yen
英译中: Olivia Li

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Digital Infusion 人脑智慧展示

November 1, 2022 2022年11月1日

A dense web of blue wires swirls around a chromatic mesh, forming the outline of a human face. Around the edge, a sharp digitized logo resembling a metal album frames the piece. The piece resembles a data visualization, depicting how it might look if the wealth of human knowledge were to coalesce into a new conciseness born to the cloud. This is the work of Sol Whi Park, a young Korean artist whose style rests on the main trends of the digital artist community but stands out for its substance, personality, and care.

Park, who goes by the moniker Visualocto online, infuses his work with overwhelming saturation, rich textures, and tangible depth. He turns experiments with chrome typefaces, skeletal design motifs, and glitch art into arresting pieces that outpace the wealth of similar artists suggested by tunnel vision-prone algorithms.

密集的蓝色线条旋转编制成彩色的网，抽丝剥茧出人物的面庞，锋利的金属字体修饰两旁。这幅像是由数字可视化技术完成的作品，描绘出人类智慧汇聚在云端的样子。作者是年轻的韩国艺术家朴乺辉（Sol Whi Park），他的创作立足于当代数字艺术浪潮，但又以其背后内涵、个人风格以及人文关怀在一众作品中脱颖而出。

朴乺辉在社交媒体上以 Visualocto 自居。他的作品与那些拘泥于算法创作的同类艺术家完全不同，以吞没式的高饱和度、丰富纹理和几近逼真的立体造型为特点，融合了实验性质的彩色字体、骷髅图案和故障艺术（Glitch Art）元素，往往令观众看得入迷。

Online creative communities revolving around popular trends are what drew Park to art in the first place. He says he used to doodle on schoolwork as a kid but had no real interest in art. In fact, he was prone to sleeping in art class. Exploring the new features of smartphones and tablets was more to his tastes. But the chance discovery of designer Olly Moss on Tumblr five years ago inspired him to give digital art a try, so he learned Photoshop and Illustrator through Youtube tutorials. When he discovered the Glitch Artists Community, he fully realized art that could be much more than just paintings on canvas.

最初指引朴乺辉开始艺术创作的是网络上的流行文化创意社群。虽然从小就喜欢乱涂画，但一直没有对艺术产生过浓烈兴趣，甚至常常在美术课上睡大觉，反倒是更热衷于智能手机和平板电脑的新功能。而就在五年前，他偶然在 Tumblr 上发现设计师 Olly Moss 的作品后，内心对数字艺术的创作欲才被彻底激发。他开始在 YouTube 上观看教程，先后自学了 Photoshop 和 Illustrator 软件。他还在互联网上加入了“故障艺术家社群”。并逐渐明白了一个道理：艺术，绝不仅仅诞生在画布而已。

“There are no galleries or museums where I’m from in Incheon,” Park says. “To this day, I still have to travel to Seoul to see art shows and graffiti. That might be why I gravitate to digital art in the first place.” He points out that while there’s a lot of attention paid to teaching fine and traditional arts in Korea, digital art is overlooked in the education system. “I was never exposed to it before, so when I found it, it felt so new and fresh to me.”

朴乺辉聊道：“我住在仁川，这里没有画廊和博物馆，即使现在，看艺术展和涂鸦作品还得跑到首尔。这可能是我最初对数字艺术如此感兴趣的原因。”他指出，韩国的教育很注重美术和传统艺术的教学，却忽视了数字艺术教育，“我以前从未了解过这种艺术形式，所以一开始就感觉特别新鲜和好奇。”

Park started his two years of mandatory military service in 2020, living on a base that he couldn’t leave because of COVID-19. And he wasn’t able to create art due to software restrictions on his military laptop. But he could use his phone, and he watched as his friends and the scenes he was involved with progress without him on social media. “It was harsh.” When he finished service this May, he immediately jumped into new programs like Blender, C4D, and Maya.

2020 年，朴乺辉开始服兵役，为期两年。因为疫情，他不得不一直留守在部队，不得离开。而军队的笔记本电脑对下载软件有限制，因此无法保持艺术创作。唯一了解外面世界的途径就是手机，只能在社交媒体上眼睁睁地看着外界不断变化的一切，“感觉糟透了”，他感慨道。今年五月服役结束后，他立刻开始了 Blender、C4D和 Maya 等新型创作软件的学习。

“Glitch art was restrictive because you’re limited by the images you’re altering, but there are no limits with these programs,” Park says. “You can create whatever you can imagine.” He still works with photos—sometimes his own and other times collaborating with a photographer—but now his options are much broader. He learned C4D quickly, which he says was very similar to a program he used in the military for 3D designing. You can see the change in style and quality on his feed clearly; the month he was finished it was like he became a brand new artist.

To create a piece, Park draws super rough sketches on paper, then he downloads objects or sculpts them himself in C4D, filling out the details in Blender. “I saturate my colors to levels that Photoshop has trouble handling,” he laughs. ” I want them to pop, but it affects the shaders, shadows, and lighting so it’s hard to control.”

“故障艺术具有一定限制，基于创作的图片本身就会限制你，但软件的使用能让你摆脱这些限制，” 朴乺辉说道，“你可以创造任何你能想象到的东西。”

以前，他仍会以图片作为每次创作的基础，有时是他自己拍摄的照片，有时则是与其他摄影师合作完成的照片。不过在学会了 C4D 软件之后，他的创作素材变得更多。从他最近发表的作品不难看出创作风格上的明显变化。结束兵役的一个月后，他的创作仿佛完全摆脱了此前的限制，尝试突破想象力的边界。

创作时，朴乺辉通常会先在纸上画出粗略草图，然后下载素材或自己在 C4D 中建模，之后再转到 Blender 软件中补充所有细节。“我的色彩饱和度会高到 Photoshop 都难以处理的程度，”他笑着说，“我希望作品能足够抢眼，因此有时候着色器、阴影和光线等处理很难把握。”

Recently his work was featured in a monthly group show in Dubai called Project 22, where they displayed artwork in a circular room with a wrap-around screen and reflective floor and ceiling. The show was many firsts for Park. It was his first exhibit, the first time his work had been seen outside the internet, and his first NFT. The show’s theme was sustainability, which Park found ironic since cryptocurrencies have been notorious for carbon emissions: “I think NFTs have been great for artists and they’re one of the reasons digital art is so exciting right now, so I’m really hoping for a more environmentally friendly approach.”

最近，他的作品在迪拜一个名为 Project 22 的月度群展中展出。展厅为一个圆形房间，四周环绕屏幕，还设有反光地板和天花板。这是朴乺辉的第一次展览，也是他第一次将作品以线下形式公示于众，成就了他的第一个 NFT 系列。

可持续发展，是贯穿朴乺辉作品的主题。这对他来说略显讽刺，因为加密货币本身一直被指责造成了严重的碳排放问题（据统计，比特币挖矿每年会排放二十兆吨二氧化碳，相当于爱尔兰一个国家的碳排放量），“我认为 NFT 对艺术家来说是一件好事，也是数字艺术如此令人期待的原因之一，所以我相信之后定会出现更环保的解决办法。”

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Instagram: @visualocto

Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li

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Instagram: @visualocto

供稿人: Mike Steyels
英译中: Olivia Li