China's National Art Museum Plays Host to Some Strange Games With Synthetic Times Exhibit

In celebration of the Olympic games in Beijing this summer, China's National Art Museum launched an interesting "new media" art exhibit this week that looks at an entirely different side of play.

Spanning nine exhibition halls, the Synthetic Times exhibit confronts museum goers with "an incongruous looking walking robot, prosthetic head, interactive videos and an airship that attacks visitors in dark clothing," as one local put it.

One of the more playful, if slightly creepy, installations is Beyond Body, by Chinese artist Du Zhenjun:

Beyond Body consists of a large screen to which half a table is affixed, projecting the ethos of an anatomy class. Eight doctors and one lifeless, prone body, all of identical appearance, play a game with visitors.

When a viewer approaches the screen, his or her presence is detected and he or she is invited to become an actor in the class. The doctors move in from the background and form a semi circle around the table in the foreground.

As long as the viewer remains where he or she is, the eight doctors continue to gaze at him or her in a clinically objective manner, as they did at the dead body. If the visitor moves away, the eight doctors also withdraw and return to the shadowy background of the animation.

Other works include Dutch artist Marnix de Nijs examination of a constantly evolving Beijing landscape, in which participants sit in a racing car seat mounted on a motorized arm controlled by a joystick. A large video screen in front of the player displays rotating panoramic images of the city. The goal is to synchronize the moving images with the rotation of the chair. Once this is achieved, all of the disorientation induced by the spinning seat is resolved, and the images "snap into place." The "game" has six levels that, together, constitute a truly "breath-taking" tour of Beijing. There's also a graphite pen, created by South Korean Kichul Kim, that sings as users create images with it.

The exhibition is one of several key Cultural Olympic events running until early July. It encompasses some 40 works by over 100 established and emerging new media artists from 30 countries and regions. If you happen to be in China for the Games, Synthetic Times sounds like a great way to spend a few hours away from the smog and the heat of Beijing.

[via China View]