【题 记】陆蓉之女士的声名和她的艺术才情，早在2003年时既已耳闻许多，她是当代知名女性艺术家，同时又兼台湾实践大学教授。印象最深的是她那非常独特的爱情宣言。随后也搜集过一些她的论文，并相继在本站的相关栏目里登出来过。但至今尚无谋面的机会，记得2004年时曾有一个会面南京的机会，当时我在南京师大美院读研，院里有一个学术沙龙，我就通过关系联系上了她，力邀其来南师做讲座，可惜由于某些手续上的原因而搁浅，甚是遗憾。最近笔者欲谋食海上，又听说她现在是上海当代艺术馆的创意总监，同时又兼溢名艺界的上海外滩18号创意中心的艺术总监。于是便欣欣然起来。正好最近听朋友说她在她的“玻璃皇宫”里又策划了一出非常独特的以《虚拟的爱◆当代新异术》命名的大型数字媒体艺术展。自从2005年上海当代艺术馆在人民公园正式开馆以来，这座镶嵌在清幽恬然的公园深处的玻璃建筑，就一直以她对当代世界艺术新人新作的不停发觉而为业内人士所瞩目。这次陆蓉之女士在新世纪来临的第六个年头，为我们送上的又一道融艺术与时尚于一体，溢满才性与热情的世纪大餐。显然“创意”已成为了这位驰骋艺坛的尖锋“女侠”的毕生使命。2006年1月22日下午，上大美学的马琳博士说陆蓉之女士要在当代艺术馆的讲座厅做一个《虚拟时代的爱情》的报告，于是应邀而去。穿过石子铺砌的弯曲小道时，在一汪清塘边上，终于见到了“传说”中的她。听完讲座后，我们一起在三楼的MOCA咖啡意大利餐厅聊了起来。当然因为谈话比较随意，并且跳跃过快，不便刊出，以下是陆蓉之女士提供给本站的一些有关这次《虚拟的爱◆当代新异术》的一个策展理念文章，现刊出，以飨读者，中文后又附有英文，一并刊出。（本站主任编辑：陈浩）
文章索引： 数字化虚拟的新世纪； 新世纪艺术馆的新视觉震撼； 21世纪动漫新美学(The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix
(一). 数字化虚拟的新世纪
上一世纪人类最大的文明成就，即是将人们日常生活带入数字化的环境里，从每日清晨叫醒的闹钟开始，准备做早餐的微波炉、上下楼的电梯、出门驾车、搭地铁、乘飞机….，都得靠电子仪表和数字化系统来操控，提款机、洗衣机、干衣机、视听设备、电饭锅、防盗监视器、自动浇水设备、通讯器材、中央空调、计算机和其接口设备…..等等，人们不知不觉在食衣住行各方面都已经深度依赖数字化的科技。
计算机替代人脑担任记录、管理、计算、传达和沟通….等工作，甚至在「人」缺席的时候仍能继续操作。再加上互联网络的出现，人类的沟通和传达的管道，不再依赖书信实体的信物，或面对面实际的接触，网络上的虚拟世界，和以血肉之躯去感受的真实世界，在数字化的环境里越来越难以区分。
数字化环境必然是当代人无法逃离的生存空间，而且应用范围只会越来越广，而且产品种类也会越来越多，影响力自然也就越来越大。因此，数字化人工计算机对人类生存环境的影响等于是无所不在、无远弗届。新世纪的人类在数字化环境中的认知与情感，无法抗拒地沉溺在虚拟与真实的挣扎之中，新世代的审美经验，也无法避免从虚构的卡通、动漫、游戏和互联网的传输中，不知不觉产生了新的认知与欣赏系统，已经远远脱离了传统的认定标准。
这一个世纪的年轻一代，瓦解了对任何神明的崇拜，他们的生活被物质消费信息牵引着，从小浸淫在动漫艺术世界中长大的他们，从动画(animation)、漫画(comic)、卡通影片(cartoon)、电视广告里那些虚拟的角色，启迪了孩童对人际关系与感情互动的憧憬和遐想。电玩、线上游戏引导孩子们模仿成人世界的爱恨情仇，新世代在网络谈话室里的神交，透过全球联通的互联网络，国界、人种、语言的差异，因为实时的通讯，造成想象和心理距离的贴近，当然不能代表实际的距离。
芬兰的手机名牌Nokia，结合艺术界十位顶尖的著名艺术家Kati Aberg, Osmo Rauhala, Stefan Lind Fors, Nam June Paik, William Wegman, Juha Hemanus, Brian Alfred, David Salle, Louise Bourgeois, Sari Kaasinen，投以重金发展出Nokia 联结艺术计划Connect to Art Project，这次来到上海是首次对外公开发表，Nokia在展览现场提供设备，可供观众免费下载到自己的手机中。
新世代透过一种建构在虚拟空间里的角色扮演，在层出不穷的互动之下，自我的认同也不断变化着。感情在虚拟的环境中依然可以仪式化地进行着，缤纷炫奇的想象丰富了角色的扮演。所以，艺术家不再是一种少数人寡占的职业身份，基本上，是人人均有机会参与的角色演出。虚拟的爱，以其汹涌澎湃之势，袭卷网络世界，真实与虚构，难以界分的复杂情境和感受，势必影响新世代艺术创作的发展路线。
(二). 新世纪艺术馆的新视觉震撼
建筑在20世纪现代主义基础上的艺术欣赏概念、艺术教育、美术馆和其相关领域的专家、学者，仍不免以为艺术有别于通俗文化，强调个人主义的特殊性，用来区隔那些属于大众的流行文化。因此，目前一些当代艺术的展览，仍然以艺术圈内极少数人为对象，所进行的仪式化行为。那些被艺术圈内少数人自我认定的艺术表现形式，对极大多数的群众而言，却不存在任何具有特殊影响的意义，也更谈不上具有强大的吸引力。
21世纪美术馆和游乐园的竞争，将无法避免，虽然这种比较，既不成体统，也不成比例，甚至文化精英还会认为是一种使艺术低俗化的不堪想法。但是，艺术建构在生活的游嬉之中，或许更应该说在游戏文化中，孕育出各种艺术的精萃与升华，这种由人类文明史上前所未有过的庞大中产阶层共同热衷的消费行为，正是新世代浸淫在大众流行文化品味所发展出来的生活美学，将透过互联网络和各种传播媒介迅速泛滥全球，却不是艺术圈内少数自认为是精英的人士所能主导或操控的。
艺术，在人类历史中被记录为上层社会或少数精英所寡占的优质生活品味，进入中产阶层扩大的信息流动年代，这种寡占的现象必然会受到挑战。广大消费者透过拥有设计精美物品的无限欲望，一步步进逼上层寡占的精致美学，艺术创作者和设计师的身份区隔逐渐模糊化。同时创意的生产和制造，也渐渐从个人工作室发展为互动团队，甚至以公司的型式进行跨国的生产线布局。艺术家的生产模式也和设计师越来越相似，但这并不表示孤绝独立的艺术工作者从此无法生存或消失，只是在制度、机构、营销、传播网络系统以外的独立创作者，生存会日益困难。面对艺术创作环境的日新月异的变化，当代艺术馆的展出和布展的方式，也必定受到影响。
传统美术馆作为一个白盒子(white box)的空间，将作品疏松地放在墙面上，以专注的光源突显出每一件展品，观众必需静默地移动在展场里，虔诚地观看至高无上的艺术品，几乎是一世纪以来国际间美术馆、博物馆界奉行的法则。这次《虚拟的爱》特展故意打破白盒子的法则，将大量使人眼花缭乱的展品充满展场每一个角落，甚至出现在一些出人意表的位置。这种由巨量视觉符号所引动的视觉震撼，在信息爆炸的新世纪，必将是未来发展美术馆的新方向。从作品传出的各种音响此起彼落，到处闪烁的七彩光芒，大量而密集的鲜艳视觉符号，使得情绪高昂的观众喧哗嘈杂的状态无法避免。这次展出的部分作品，强调或鼓励和观众之间的互动，观众可以轻松欢喜雀跃的心情看展览，甚至和作品互动去玩展览，就像到了游乐场一般。
(三). 21世纪动漫新美学(The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix)
如今随着数字科技的发展，漫画、卡通、动画的形式也更加复杂，流通的管道也更加多元化，各种简化的视觉造型，成为大量传输的视觉符号，形成各种文化背景和区域性认同的个别系统，在传媒一波接连一波的烘炒下，已经深化为世界各地青少年文化彼此之间的沟通符码，而不仅仅是一个时代或一个族群所垄断的集体认同而已，却更像是个人追求表现、传达意念或发挥想象力的仿真和再创造的沟通途径。
动漫艺术(Animamix Art = Animation+Comic)的流行，受到数字化环境中不断推陈出新的影响，造成视觉造型高速度的异化。这些在数量上急速成长的视觉符码，一种数字虚拟世界的新图腾，所形成的动漫新美学(The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix)，不再局限于叙述性文本的再现，那些不断激发和蜕变的视觉造型，已经和纯艺术创作中企图表达的视觉语言日益趋近。新世代的艺术工作者、设计师或动画、漫画、插画家，在雷同的环境中长大，连教育的背景也十分接近，他们对生活美学的品味追求也都普遍受到了流行文化的影响。新世代的艺术家将漫画、卡通、动画等形式作为复合媒材环境中的一种选项，超越了早期在社会中对漫画、卡通、动画的刻板印象，随手拈来反映自身生活的境遇，赋予简化的视觉造型更深一层的文本涵意。
数字环境中不断推陈出新的视觉造型高速度异化，不但可以瞬间成为新世代追求流行新鲜感的通关密语，也反过来融入流行产业商品造型的语汇本体，成为时尚流行产品的象征符码或代言者。这种时下年轻人对流行文化的翻新、求鲜与寻求变化的永无止境追求，艺术的创新，从上一世纪极度自我表现个人主义的「原创(originality)」诉求，转化为「新异术(ultra new vision)」的视觉符码游戏。新鲜的感官刺激，比形式的创新更重要。新世代的创作者经常以互动的手法处理视觉符码，观众与作者沟通的讯息交流，一来一往之间像是游戏的阵仗，其中充满不确定的变量。
上一世纪电子媒体作为影像传播的载体，彩色光线在空间里释放、流动、充满，是一种等同用画笔沾染颜料在画布上作画的表现方式。色光的艺术，在这个世纪将会形成一股加强发展的趋势。更因为在数字化环境中成长的新一代，非常习惯于萤光幕上的影像接收，由光点构成的色光和影像，和由色粉、油墨混色合成的色彩和图形，在视觉方面，自然造成截然不同的感受和反应。因此，在屏幕上看到的是萤光色或鲜明对比的彩色光点，杂陈在一起，就会形成缤纷耀眼的色感。这种亮丽的多彩视觉效果，也是「动漫新美学(The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix)」的特征之一。
从上一世纪以来，卡通、动画、漫画内容所表现出的可爱造型，包括角色的塑造，或萤光高彩极具装饰性图案式的绘画，非现实的奇想，都深深印刻在孩子的脑海里，这些视觉符号也就成为每一代人成长过程的集体记忆。原本由美国迪斯尼或华纳公司所领导的大众文化，在二十世纪末逐渐被日本流行文化追赶上，进入新世纪以后更明显看出亚洲在青少年认同的领域中爆发出不可思议的能量。属于这一个世纪的缤纷多彩的新美学，一种新世纪的游嬉文化正在成形，这些都属于《虚拟的爱》特展所探索的「动漫新美学」范畴，针对这种新美学的现象，以当代西方与东方艺术家的作品为例，进行展示、比对、讨论和进一步的研究。本展所提出的「动漫新美学(The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix)」，即是以亚洲立场所创造的新名词，描述这股不断追求变化，极度喜新厌旧的视觉新潮流。
其实，1960年代的波普艺术家像先知一般，早就预告了大众虚拟文化时代的到临。
挪用(appropriate)、仿真、漫画、卡通和动画的造型设计、流行音乐演唱会、商业广告等….视觉符号，很容易从大众流行文化之中不断被下载，成为某一代人或某一族群的认同基础。
21世纪新一代艺术家在他们创作中所展现的动漫画的元素，不像上一世纪波普艺术家，只是直接挪用动漫艺术的视觉符号。新世代艺术家的作品本身已经完全融入了动漫艺术的造型美学，这些看似动漫化的风格，其实就是艺术家本身创作的原型。
新世纪动漫新美学的特征表现在四个方向：一是青春美学的膜拜，二是动漫美学中丰富的叙事性文本，三是动画中的色光艺术，四是动漫产业所带动的应用艺术美学。
在大众流行文化中如浪潮般推涌的大量、多样化的动漫形象，不论是人物的还是动物的造型，都是永远不会衰老的形体，例如美国迪斯尼公司发行的米老鼠已经高龄七十五岁，可是依然可爱、清新如昔，受到一代又一代孩子们的衷爱。反过来回顾七十五年前的著名演员，今日即使在世，也一定已经今非昔比。动漫时代这种对青春不老的影像的集体记忆，在潜移默化当中，形成了21世纪新世代所崇尚的青春美学，不仅在创作上形成巨大的影响，更深刻地影响了大众的审美观念。
追求理想化的青春美，不仅是动画、卡通、漫画里，虚拟角色塑造的问题，而且它已成为现实人生中，实现人工理想美的心理因素。如今一发不可收拾的抗老、反老的趋势，造成愈来愈多人想要保有青春不老的容颜和躯体，不分男女都找得到走进手术室里追求人工造型美，以便永保青春的理由。
动漫美学中充满了千奇百怪变化、无比丰富的叙事性文本，使得图像呈现的本身，就具有强烈的叙事性格。回想19世纪末萌芽的现代艺术，在上一世纪初，全面朝向抽象风格的路线发展。即使是以语言叙述为主的现代文学作品，也未能免俗地卖弄文字语意或结构方面的抽象性，经常解构话语的完整面貌，以致读者难以一窥究竟。
然而在21世纪数字化的环境里，文字叙述的转换，变得更为多元、有趣，愈来愈多的讯息，透过图像化的语言，来沟通和交流彼此的意念。卡通动漫作品里面，拟人化的造型，以及配合叙事性，所形成夸张的变形美学等，都会在这一世纪形成视觉造型美学的主流，就像抽象艺术主导了20世纪的美学一般。
从上一世纪中期开始，电子媒体作为影像传播的载体，彩色光线在空间里释放、流动、充满，是一种等同用画笔沾染颜料在画布上作画的表现方式。新世纪里的人类共同经验，不分人种、国籍的孩子们，都几乎是在电视机前面和计算机前面成长的。他们接受到的信息，所看到的影像，都是由光电所构成的色光视觉经验。这类由色光所形成的绚丽美学，对于艺术家创作的色彩运用，具有非常深远的影响。色光的艺术，在这个世纪会更加强发展。这种亮丽、多彩的色光视觉效果，也是21世纪「新异术」的美学特征之一。
有别于传统的艺术创作，动漫艺术的完成，往往需要团队整合以及专业分工的多重交叠的合作，因而必需动员庞大的人力、物力与财力，不像是传统的艺术创作者，可以在一个封闭的工作室里独立完成。因此，跨领域的产业整合，是动漫艺术的特殊现象，例如美国、日本的动漫画产业所发展的衍生产品，种类之丰富，涵盖到民生用品、衣食住行，几乎无所不包。所以，动漫产业的产值，不仅在于动漫艺术的本身，而是一个时代文化力量相加的总体。未来的艺术家将以创意总监的身份，走出纯艺术、高艺术的象牙塔，进行跨领域的资源整合。艺术的创作与行销，将是全球性的创意产业中的重要一环，这类艺术创作和大众流行文化之间，不再存在高、低的位阶之分。
日益壮大的大众流行文化，其实是建构在生活的游嬉与享乐之中。或许更应该说在丰富的感官享受的消费文化里，孕育出各种生活美学的品味，精淬然后升华。这种由人类文明史上前所未见的庞大消费人口，所共同孕育的全球化「追新」、「追星」行为，正是新世代浸淫在流行文化生活里，所发展出来的大众化美学，透过互联网和其他传播媒介迅速泛滥全球。
(四).结语
21世纪人类的感情，在虚拟的环境中，以各种仪式化的行为进行着。
真实的存在，和虚拟实境的相交，激发出缤纷炫奇的想象，丰富了每一个人的角色扮演。今日由动画、漫画所带动的新世纪美学，从虚拟世界里的情爱和真实人生的情感密切互动，由数字影像呈现的鲜亮色光，构成变幻多端的视觉造型，培养出新世代喜好奇幻的审美品味。这些眩丽的视觉效果，带有隐喻和幽默的内容，充斥在亚洲的流行文化之中，在日常生活情境中体现这种虚拟的美学立场。
上一世纪的西方现代艺术，塑造了全球都会文明现代化的审美标准，其实是以欧美的立场马首是瞻。现在，在网际网络的虚拟世界里，艺术家能够跨越国界，不断摸索出新时代追求变异、更新的视觉剌激。当今艺术的发展方向，走出「艺术为艺术而艺术(Art for art sake)」的象牙塔，回到生活美学的基本诉求，应该能够为美术馆开拓了更广大的观众群。以东方文化立场作为铺垫的展览，应该具有深远的历史意义，并且以超越商业行为以外的宏观与开放的视野，提出了从亚洲出发的新美学观点，正是当代的新异术。
Fiction@Love / Ultra New Vision of Contemporary Art
Victoria Lu Curatorial Statement
(I). The New Century of Digital Fiction
The greatest human cultural accomplishment of the last century was the immersion of our lives in a digitized environment. Everything from the alarm clock that wakes us up in the morning to the microwave oven that prepares our breakfast, the elevators that take us up and down our buildings, the cars we drive, the trains and airplanes that we ride on, all depend on electronic gauges and digital systems. The list goes on and on: radios, washing machines, drying machines, audiovisual equipment, hot plates, burglar alarms, automatic sprinkler systems, signaling devices, central air conditioning systems, computer hardware and software etc. Without realizing it, everything we do—including eating, dressing, staying at home, and moving about—is already deeply dependent on digital technology.
The computer is replacing the human brain in performing many tasks such as recording, organization, calculation, transmission and communication, to the extent that many systems can continue to operate without any “human” presence. Furthermore, the appearance of the Internet means that human communication channels no longer depend on tangible written letters or face-to-face encounters. The boundaries between our virtual world on the web and the real world that we sense with our physical bodies are becoming harder and harder to distinguish inside our digitized environments.
Inevitably, digitized environments are becoming our inescapable living spaces. The scope of digital applications can only widen, the variety of products increase, so naturally their influence can only grow. Therefore, the influence of digitization and cybernetics on our living environment is not only ubiquitous, but also inescapable. Since human cognition and feeling in the digitized environment of the new century cannot resist being immersed in the struggle between “virtual” and “real,” it is becoming impossible to prevent the imperceptible formation of new cognitive and appreciation systems out of our aesthetic experience. These systems such as cartoons, animation, games, and Internet transmissions have already become very distinctly separated from traditional standards of criteria.
The young generation of this era grew up alongside the data of material and consumer culture. Immersed from childhood in the world of animated art, their longings and fantasies about personal relationships and feelings of interaction were inspired by the fictive roles they saw in animations, comic books, cartoons, movies, and advertisements. Video games and on-line gaming influence children in imitating the loves and hates of the adult world. The new generation’s collective imagination in on-line chat-rooms goes around the world through the Internet, and because of the instantaneous nature of the communication, national, ethnic and linguistic differences are reduced, as are the distances in people’s imagination and psychology, though the actual geographical distance of course remains.
For example, Finland’s name brand Nokia has united ten of the world’s most renowned artists, Aberg, Osmo Rauhala, Stefan Lind fors, Nam June Paik, William Wegman, Juha Hemanus, Brian Alfred, David Salle, Louise Bourgeois, and Sari Kaasinen to invest in Nokia’s Connect to Art Project. Having their first public release in Shanghai, Nokia invites its audience to download this new technology for free during the exhibition.
The self-identity of the new generation is also constantly changing due to its endless interactive role-playing games (RPGs) constructed in cyberspace. Romance can also be conducted in ritualized forms in a virtual environment, while the colorful human imagination enriches the role-playing. Artists no longer have unique status as creators, since everyone basically has the opportunity to act out a role. As virtual love in all its turbulence rolls through the Internet world, complex emotional states and feelings that are generated by the difficulty of distinguishing what’s real and what’s fiction will certainly affect the new generation’s path of creative development.
(II). The New Visual and Emotional Appeal of Contemporary Art Museums in the New Century
This aesthetic concept based on 20th Century modernism has led some experts and scholars of art education, as well as some art museums and other related organizations to persist in the belief that art should be different from popular culture, that is, art should emphasize the specialty of individualism to differentiate it from the popular culture that belongs to the public. Therefore, contemporary art becomes a ritual behavior by a small group of people in the art world. Some forms of art that are recognized by a select few in the art world have no special effect upon the masses, let alone attract them. Contemporary art has become a social game between elite groups, an arbitrary area less and less friendly, and one that has been losing public concern and participation.
In our century, the competition between art museums and amusement parks will be unavoidable. Although some cultural elites might think that such an unorthodox, crosscutting comparison is unacceptable because it would vulgarize art, art is constructed on life’s amusements—or perhaps it would be better to say that it is in game culture that the essence, the sublime of various kinds of art is nurtured. Gaming is a kind of consumer behavior that many in the middle class have engaged in to an unprecedented degree in the history of civilization. While the new generation immerses itself in it and develops a taste for it, the aesthetic that develops out of it will quickly spread around the globe through the Internet and various communication media, and it will not be something that the self-appointed elite minority in artistic circles will be able to guide or control.
Whereas art in history has always been considered something that records the high-quality lifestyle and taste exclusive to the upper classes or a small elite, we have now entered an era when the middle class enjoys a broadened flow of information, so the phenomenon of exclusivity has come under challenge. Meanwhile, the limitless desire of consumers to possess exquisitely designed commodities steadily adds pressure upon the aesthetic of the exquisite that was once the sole prerogative of the upper class. The status distinction between the creative artist and the designer is gradually blurring. Meanwhile, the creative production system is gradually developing from the individual studio to the interactive group, and sometimes it has even assumed the form of a corporation that runs international production lines. Artists’ modes of production are gradually becoming like those of designers, but this does not mean that artists working in isolated independence are vanishing entirely—instead it means that making a living will get more difficult for creative artists working outside the system, and outside of organizations or communication networks. Facing the new changes in the artistic and creative environment, the exhibitions and curatorial decisions made by contemporary art museums will also be affected.
The “white box” space of traditional museums, where art pieces are placed on walls under spotlights, demands that the audience must quietly move about in the exhibition space and observe the artworks piously as if these pieces are completely out of their reach. This philosophy has been the primary basis for over a century of art and fine art museums all over the world. Fiction@Love intentionally trespasses the guidelines set by the “white box” mentality, utilizing sheer the number and volume of visual signals to trigger an emotional and visual breakthrough from its audience. In this explosive century of information and information technology, this must be the new direction of art museum development. From the waves of sound music emitted by the displayed artworks, to the flashing lights and iridescent colors of the museum environment, the exhibition seeks to overwhelm viewers with large quantities of visual and audio signs, generating an atmosphere of inescapable excitement and unpredictability. The exhibited pieces emphasize or encourage interaction between the works and the audience, so that viewers can satisfy their curiosity, and creatively become part of the museum experience by examining or even by playing with the projected images themselves, just as they would in an arcade or an amusement park.
(III.) The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix in the 21st Century
Following the development of present-day digital technology, the forms of cartoons, comics, and animated films have become much more complex, and their distribution channels much more diverse. All kinds of simplified visual forms have become visual symbols, transmitted in large quantities, and they comprise the separate systems of identity for different cultures and regions. As these continue to transmit, they take root and become bits of the code with which youth cultures from around the world communicate. No longer are they parts of the collective identity of a single era or single ethnic group. Instead, they are like the communication channels through which people seek to express and convey their thoughts or simulate and recreate what fires their imaginations.
The popularity of Animamix Art (Animation + Comics), under the influence of the rapidly self-renewing digital environment, creates fast and unique permutations in visual codes. These codes, which increase exponentially, generate a new digital image dimension that can be named the Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix. These visual codes are rapidly proliferating, and they are no longer limited to reproducing narrative text. These constantly metamorphosing visual forms are already getting very close to the visual language that pure art aims to express. Artists, designers, cartoonists, animators, and illustrators of the new generation have grown up in identical environments. Even their educational backgrounds are quite similar. Their aesthetic tastes in life are broadly influenced by popular culture. Artists of the new generation view forms such as cartoons, comics, and animations as options in a composite media environment. They have gone beyond the rigid impressions that society may once have had toward these visual forms, and they freely draw from them, reflect them in their own lives, and imbue them with a deeper layer of textual meaning.
The high-speed production of novel, unusual visual forms being put out in the digital environment not only gives rise to the new generation’s passwords to what is fresh and new but also blends into the essential formal vocabulary of popular commercial products. They become the symbolic codes or passwords for trendy, fashionable goods. This never-ending quest among today’s young people to transform popular culture and make it new through artistic creation has itself changed, from a quest for individualistic “originality” in the previous century to a kind of play with the visual codes of “ultra new vision.” Fresh sensory stimulation is more important than formal creativity. Creative artists of the new generation frequently process visual codes with interactive techniques, so that the information cross-flow between viewers and creators resembles a game full of undefined variables.
Therefore, artists no longer monopolize identity and authority of their creations. In role-playing, since everyone has opportunities to participate. Since the previous century, the numerous cute forms and characters shown in cartoons, animations, and comics, highly colorful and illustrative paintings, and fantasy have deeply impressed themselves in children’s minds. These visual symbols have become integral parts of each generation’s collective memories of the growing process. Originally the images produced by Disney or Warner Brothers in the US took the lead in mass culture. However, at the end of the 20th century, popular culture from Japan gradually caught up to their lead, and now that we have entered the 21st century, we can clearly see what an incredibly powerful force it has developed in young Asian people’s sense of identity.
A new game culture, a part of the highly colorful new aesthetic, is forming, and it is all part of the “new and unusual” being explored in “Fiction.Love—Ultra New Vision in Contemporary Art.” This exhibition affords an opportunity to display, compare, discuss and do further research on phenomena associated with the new aesthetic, using as examples the works of these contemporary Western and Eastern artists. The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix as displayed by the current exhibit will be the definitive new key word created from the Asian perspective, to characterize this new visual trend that continuously seeks change, renewal, and innovation.
The Pop artists of the 1960s seem to have anticipated the arrival of mass culture and the era of virtual reality. Through constant appropriation and copying, the comics and cartoons that they constantly “downloaded” from popular culture became sampled texts, the foundations of identity for a certain generation or a certain group.
The neo-artists representing and displaying animamix elements in the 21st century have shown in their creations that, rather than the issue of appropriation from popular culture, it is instead the works themselves that have completely blended into the characterizing aesthetics of animamix art. The emerging animamix aesthetics have appeared in all fields of art in this new century. Unlike the Pop artists of the last century who only directly appropriate the visual symbols of animamix art, these seemingly animamized styles are the archetypes of artists’ creation.
The characteristics of the ultra new vision of 21st century animamixes are displayed in four directions: first, the worship of aesthetics of youth; second, the rich narrative texts in animamix aesthetics; third, the Ultra New Vision of colored light; fourth, the aesthetics of applied arts driven by the animamix industry.
The abundant diversified animamix images in popular culture, whether human figures or animal characters, are all forms that will never glow old. For example, Disney’s Mickey Mouse is already 75 years old, yet it is still as lovely as it was at its creation and has been loved by children of different generations. However, celebrities who were famous 75 years ago, even if they are still alive, must live in different situations with totally different appearances. The Animamix Age’s collective memory of ageless images, under subtle influences, has formed the aesthetics of youth in the new age of the 21st century. The last 100 years have not only greatly influenced creation, but also deeply affected the aesthetic concept of the public.
The pursuit of an idealized beauty of youth is no longer the problem of the characterization of virtual figures in animations, cartoons or comics. Instead, it has become the psychological goal to realize the beauty of artificial ideals in real life. Although Europe and America had an early start in cosmetology, nowadays Asia, especially countries with developed animamix cultures such as Japan and Korea, has embraced the popularity of artificial cosmetology and has gone far beyond the development in Europe and America. Today, because of the irresistible trend of anti-aging, more and more people want to keep a young and ageless appearance. Man or woman, old or young, can all find a reason to walk into surgery. The pursuit of the beauty of artificial characters is, of course, made possible by science and technology and led by media images.
The aesthetics of animamix art, led by the U.S. and Japan in the last century, was full of strange and changeable narrative texts that gave the display of images themselves a strong narrative character. Think of modern art that appeared at the end of the 19th century—it developed towards the abstract style at the beginning of the last century. Even literary works that give priority to narrative language cannot avoid showing off the abstract nature of connotations and structure, which made it harder to distinguish the panoramic meaning of the words.
Yet under the digitalized environment of the 21st century, the changes to the narrative environment have become even more interesting. More and more information will be communicated and exchanged via imaged language. Therefore, sometimes even in a small image symbol, there exists all layers of textural meanings such as hypothesis, imagination, legend and metaphor. The personified characters in cartoons, animations and comics, and the exaggerated aesthetics of transformation evolved as a result of combining with narration, and thus will become the mainstream of the aesthetics of characterization in this century--just as Abstract Art lead the aesthetics of the 20th century.
In the last century, electric media acted as the media of image broadcasting. Colorful lights are released as sounds flow and abound in space. This is a means of expression that equals the way of painting with pigment on canvas. The common experience of humans in this new century is that children of different races and different nations all grow up in front of the television and the computer. The information they receive, the images they see, are usually visual experiences of colored lights formed by electricity. Such a florid aesthetics of colored lights has a very deep influence on artists’ usage of color in their works.
Electronic media of the previous century served as the carriers for the transmission of images: the release, flow, and filling-out of colored rays of light in space were an equivalent means of expression to applying pigments on canvas with a brush. In this century, the art of colored light will enhance a trend in this century. The new generations growing up in the digital environment are already familiar with the reception or retrieval of images on the screen. In the visual realm, the feeling and reaction to colored light and light dot images are naturally very different from those in response to colors and graphics synthesized by color powder and printed ink. Therefore, what is seen on the screen are fluorescent colors or contrastive color dots, which are then put together to form a splendid and dazzling color vision. Such marvelous colorful visual effects are one of the distinct features of this Ultra New Vision.
While traditional art creation can be independently finished in a small workshop, the formation of animamix art often needs professional division of labor and a team spirit, which always involves a great amount of human, material and financial resources. Therefore, cross-industry integration is a unique phenomenon of animamix culture. For example, the derivatives brought by American and Japanese animamix industries have covered almost all aspects of life, from clothes and food to accommodation and transportation. So, the value of animamix industry is not just in the animamix art itself. It is a summary of the culture in one age, reflecting regional language styles, global aesthetic tastes, historical cultural frames, human mentality, and social relationships of the collective and the individual. The production mode of the new generation’s artists is becoming more and more similar to the creation process of designers and animators. Also, the identity difference between art creators, designers and animators is blurring. The birth and realization of ideas have also transformed from personal workshop to interactive team, even taking the form of corporations to implement international production lines.
The growing public popular culture is actually embedded in the enjoyment of life, or to be more exact, in the culture of material enjoyments, such as trendy taste, essence of beauty and sublimation of different aesthetics in life styles. There hasn’t been a greater consumer population of art in the history of humankind as there is now. This kind of unprecedented consumer culture then nurtures the global trends of “pursuing the new,” “pursuing celebrity.” Today’s consumers, therefore, rave for the aesthetics that popular cultures have given to the new generation.
Such aesthetics in contemporary life styles will soon flood the world via the Internet and different media.
(IV). Conclusion
The human emotions of the 21st century, in a fictive environment, develop and mature under multiple rituals and behaviors.
The interaction between reality and virtual reality will illuminate incredible and colorful imaginations to enrich each individual’s role-playing. The aesthetics of the new century as brought by comics interacts with real emotion in the virtual world and cultivates the aesthetic taste of a new generation, from bright and colorful lights of digitalized images to fast changeable forms. With metaphors and humorous content, these spectacular visual effects, rising in Asia, are showing the position of virtual beauty in life.
Fiction @ Love, with its dazzling imagination that originated from Animamix art, is surging ahead so vigorously that it will inevitably become one of the major routes of art’s future development. Nowadays in Asia, any exhibit related to cartoon or animation always attracts thousands of viewers. Artists in the 21st Century will step out of the ivory tower of pure art and high art to act as the Creative Directors of the future and conduct cross-field reorganization of resources. The creation and marketing of art will be part of the global creative industry. Compared with public popular art, there will be no high or low art. Therefore, the ultra new vision of the neo- aesthetics as promoted by animamix industry will be a breakthrough topic of the general cultural environment in the new century.
Therefore, by means of the dialogue between Animamix art and contemporary art, the exhibit hopes to present a new aesthetic view that originated from Asia and outside Western Art, to explore the developing direction of the contemporary art at the beginning of the 21st century, and increase the number of viewers of contemporary art museums.
