Terra Nova: Charting New Artistic Frontiers in The Digital Age

The inaugural exhibition "Terra Nova" of X-TRA, a brand-new digital art project introduced by the China Shanghai International Arts Festival, has landed at TANK Shanghai, presenting entirely new artistic creation pathways in the digital age.

The exhibition brings together six digital artists from China and abroad: Pierre Huyghe, Refik Anadol, dmstfctn, Cao Shu, Qiu Anxiong, and Wu Ziyang.

Their works span diverse media, including artificial intelligence (AI) data painting, color ink-wash animation, real-time generative systems, game engine imagery, interactive installations, and dual-channel video.

When algorithms can see, generate, edit, and simulate, history and memory are given new life. The exhibition thus opens up an imagination about the future: when technology is no longer merely a creative tool but becomes a new medium for perceiving, thinking about, and understanding the world, what further possibilities can art create?

Refik Anadol's "Pacific Ocean B" draws on five years of Pacific wind field forecast data as raw material, using machine learning and algorithms to generate a 4K immersive AI data painting, transforming the ocean of time into a surging visual spectacle within the gallery.

Wu Ziyang's "New Silk Frequency" employs dual-sided dual-channel video to explore how digital infrastructures such as satellite television reshape people's viewing habits and daily lives.

Pierre Huyghe's "Camata" takes visitors to abandoned skeletal remains in Chile's Atacama Desert, where AI orchestrates the movements of cameras and robotic arms in real time, generating a ritual without beginning or end, like a constantly self-renewing living system.

In addition to the exhibition, a global dialogue on digital and AI art will be held at TANK Shanghai on November 12. Artists, curators, and researchers in the field of digital art will discuss topics such as artistic creation, copyright boundaries, and the current situation and future directions of AI visual art.

If you go

Dates: Through January 24; noon-6pm on Tuesday to Friday, 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday

Tickets: 60 yuan

Venue: TANK Shanghai 上海油罐艺术中心

Address: 2380 Longteng Avenue 龙腾大道2380号