Inside Shanghai's 'Codes of Tides' as Art Meets Data
The exhibition, "Codes of Tides – Shanghai," which opened on December 12, brings together artists from China and abroad, working across video, installation, performance, photography and painting.
Drawing inspiration from classical Chinese gardens and landscape aesthetics, the exhibition route is designed like a slow garden walk – guiding visitors through shifting scenes and perspectives and translating Eastern ideas of time and space into a contemporary art context.
The exhibition is being held at the Design Innovation Institute Shanghai, which also hosted the opening event.
The building itself carries a layered history. It was originally home to the Lester School and Henry Lester Institute of Technical Education, founded by British industrialist Henry Lester. With its ties to both Shanghai and London, the site adds an extra dimension to the exhibition – one where architecture, history, and contemporary art quietly converse across time and place.
The exhibition series "Codes of Tides" is part of the Our Water program, which held its inaugural chapter in June along the Thames River in London, opening up an art-led exchange between Shanghai and London.
Now the exhibition returns to the city shaped by the meeting of the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. Continuing its focus on "water" as a curatorial thread, the exhibition looks at how information flows, technology evolves, cultures shift, and environments change in a high-tech society.
Ten artists from China and the UK are taking part in the exhibition, working at the intersection of art and science.
Through a wide range of media, they respond to a world increasingly shaped by data and perception. Their works unfold through layered interactions of visuals, sound, and space, creating moments where technology and the senses resonate with one another – and where contemporary artistic language continues to take shape amid the constant surge of the digital tide.
The idea of the "tide" runs throughout the exhibition as a fluid, evolving image. In different cities, it takes on new meanings: a rush of data, cycles of technological change, echoes of urban memory, and the subtle inner movements of individual perception. In Shanghai, the city's specific spatial and cultural context gives this imagery a distinctly Eastern sense of time and awareness.
At the heart of the exhibition is Chen Junkai's large-scale light installation Shuo V3.0, which anchors the space and sets the tone for the journey. From this central "river," the exhibition path unfolds gradually, echoing the core idea of Codes of Tides.
Across different themes and dimensions, the works reflect and respond to one another, forming a multi-centered, open-ended narrative. As visitors move through the exhibition, the idea of the "tide" gradually becomes clear – not only as a force that energizes technology and art, but as something that also shapes the lives of everyone navigating the currents of the present moment.
If you go
Date: December 13, 2025 – January 31, 2026
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-6pm
Venue: Design Innovation Institute Shanghai | Shanghai Institute of Design and Innovation
Address: 1/F, 505 Dongchangzhi Rd | 东长治路505号一楼
Admission: Free
