The Background
"As a reponse to the special COVID-19 situation, the “Emerging Curators Project 2O2Online” (ECP 2O2Online), initiated by the Power Station of Art last year, has decided to embrace a major innovation – the edition will not host physical offline sessions, and instead, shift to never-seen-before exhibition experiences exclusive to the online world and encourage curators, artists and programmers to work together for inspiring cross-disciplinary creative endeavors." - Power Station of Art
The Idea
"Guerillas in Flatland" is an online intervention of showcasing young Chinese new media artists' work on the internet. The exhibit is a network of interconnected websites where we duplicate existing web and social media interfaces, embed artists' work into popup ads, navbars, buttons, preview thumbnails, chat boxes, and other interactive components that are native to the web. Every artist's work situates in a unique website that's individually built. Each website contains hyperlink portals camouflaged as buttons or clickable elements, which lead to other websites that house other digital artwork.
Artwork highlights
My Role
As Co-Tech Lead and Developer for "Guerillas in Flatland," I co-created an innovative virtual exhibition for the Power Station of Art's "Emerging Curators Project 202Online." I developed the technical demo site that secured open call funding in 2020, and later, alongside our curatorial team, led a two-month web development plan to bring the exhibit to life.
The exhibition comprises a network of unique, interactive microsites, each tailored to showcase an artist's work within simulated web and social media environments. These sites feature embedded artwork within web-native elements such as pop-ups, navbars, chat boxes, and clickable components, creating a fully immersive and interconnected experience. In this role, I was responsible for the end-to-end development process, from initial architecture, code development to final deployment, ensuring each artist’s microsite was both engaging and technically robust.
The Team
Curators - Wu Yue, He Jingfei
Tech Lead, Developer - Lan Zhang
Tech Lead, Developer - Peiyu Wang
Artists - Cao Shu, Chen Tianzhuo, Ge Yulu, He Shouyi, Huang Anlan, Xia Cheng’an, Yang Chuan’er, Ye Funa, Zhao Bang, Zhang Xiaotao, Zhang Xinyi, Zuo Pula
Visual Designers - Shi Xinlan, Yao Kailun, Tan Ze
Interaction Designers - Lin Zhuangxiang