LOW-END POPULATION
October 2021
3D Experimental video
Awards
ADC Awards 2022
Motion / Film Craft / Motion Graphics Gold Cube
The Rookies 2021
3D Animation Rank A
Project Overview
This work is the first creative work in my Public Secrets series of projects. At the same time, this whole project is also the main project of my PhD application.
I want to use 3D motion graphic expressions to create creative videos to metaphorically express representative public secrets that have happened in China in the 21st century until now, especially after 2010.
At the same time, I will also combine textual research with further analysis (e.g., interviews) of specific public secrets and the art creators involved.
The central theme is: How do people engage with the “unspeakable” political discussions in China through digital art?
Svrvey
Revolutionary Rebel Command of the Shanghai Publishing System; Revolutionary Rebel Committee of the Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. Gaoju Mao Zedong sixiang weida hongqi ba wuchan jieji wenhua dageming jinxing daodi – geming wuzui, zaofan youli. 1966-1967.
For a detailed investigation and analysis, please see my research proposal: https://kdocs.cn/l/cqCi3Q4PU0xZ.
In short, a public secret is a concept or idea that is “officially” kept secret or restricted from knowledge, but which may be widely known in practice.
Or, it refers to something that is widely known as a fact, but that no one most closely associated with it is willing to categorically admit in public.
In China, a typical case of public secrecy is the Cultural Revolution.
Moodboard
Maxim Zhestkov, Igor Sordokhonov. Distortion. 2021. https://www.behance.net/gallery/124878335/Research-Distortions.
The use of multiple layers of objects in different colors or the overlay of multiple layers of paper to form different shapes fascinated me when I first saw this series of drawings.
The multiple scenes and several different elements constitute a combination of work abstract scenes and specific event scenes
Use abstract and moving elements to express the confrontation between the struggle of the numerous masses and the oppression of the government
Use the newspaper media to show specific examples Twtwisted newspaper elements suggesting the distorted factual color change or cover may also be implied
Revenant. Marble Run. 2021. https://www.behance.net/gallery/125632003/Marble-Run.
I was very inspired by this work. I want to use abstract objects to suggest public secret events or the parties involved in the events. The motion of an object can represent many things.
For example, a hint that something was raging, or that something had been forgotten, or even that some public secret remained in the memory of the masses.
It can also imply that some key figures are always pursuing the truth or outcome of some public secret, despite the difficulties of circumstances and the obstruction of others.
Research Object
As for the research object, I will choose several public secret events in China since 2000 or since Xi Jinping took office and the corresponding visual artworks and artists as cases for analysis and research for my research object.
Criteria
The criteria for the choice are public secrets are as follows：
1. The events are public, participated in or led by the Chinese government, and have an impact within China.
2. The events have been somewhat politicized by some artists who have engaged with them through digital art.
3. None of the incidents were officially sanctioned by The Chinese government, which suppressed them through political censorship or digital means.
Events
Event 1: Low-end population events in Beijing
1. Date:
November 18,2017.
2. Incident Overview:
A major fire accident killed 19 people and 8 injured in Xinjianer Village, Daxing District, Xihongmen Town, Daxing District.After the fire, on November 20,2017, Beijing deployed a 40-day safety investigation; a large number of migrant workers were displaced or their homes were stopped supplying power and heating, so several Beijing NGOs, including the Swan Rescue Team, were involved in the public welfare operation.
3. Speech control:
Hong Kong media said that Chinese officials once banned media reports after the fire, can only use the Xinhua News Agency draft, and strictly control online words.Another netizen reported that the term “low-end population” was blocked in the instant chat software QQ and WeChat, both developed and operated by Tencent, and widely popular in Chinese mainland.As of early June 2018, information containing the term “low-end population” still could not be displayed properly in the aforementioned software.As of 2021, searching for low-end people in Beijing on platforms like Weibo has still been blocked.
4. Government suppressed public discussion:
End Media reports on https://theinitium.com/article/20171201-mainland-Beijing-uprooted/
Zhihu Discussion https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/28604922
Rare remaining Douban diary https://www.douban.com/note/646811160/
The rest of the help posts and exposure posts on Douban have been deleted：
A private WeChat diary of its nature, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LfgPni0GO_9j-isz77v_zQ
Web records but pictures have been cleared of https://blog.creaders.net/u/3843/201711/308453.html
A few surviving photos: https://info.51.ca/news/society/2017-11/602014.html
5. Works of Art:
The “Wind from Beijing —— Yang Thousand Exhibition” opened at the White Box Art Museum, which shows the artist’s latest works “Beijing Waste”, “Cinct”, “Ladder” and “Bell”, with the theme of the low-end population in Beijing.
https://news.artron.net/20201222/n978042.html
Beijing clean up low-end population documentary Chung “After the Fire”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSKzrlG7vY
Other events
The Shanghai epidemic incident
The case study represents the novel coronavirus outbreak event in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, which continued from March 1, 2022. During this period, a massive lockdown occurred throughout the city, and the vast majority of citizens were locked in their homes. Simultaneously, the Shanghai government caused nefarious events resulting from mismanagement, corruption, and bribery. This led to many Shanghai residents and students being left without food without their livelihoods not being effectively protected.
Many artists have used digital art to express their dissatisfaction with the Shanghai government and have even held art creation competitions around the theme of the Shanghai epidemic.
永远的草莓园 . “四月之声.” 【CDTV】永远的草莓园｜四月之声, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/680095.html. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.
海辛. “Steampunk Shanghai.” AI, Art, Shanghai, https://docs.qq.com/slide/DV3hGcXVIS1BTTUVp. Accessed April 29, 2022.
The Shanghai 2022 epidemic event can be described as an amalgamation of many small Chinese public secrets with a new event occurring almost every week since March.
The number of people affected by this event is large, and the duration is long. The number of metaphorical digital artworks produced during this time is significant. Therefore, this event is well worth studying.
Fengxian Chain Woman Incident
The Xuzhou Chained Woman case is one of abuse, multiple abductions of women, and a series of subsequent controversies that came to light in January 2022 in Feng County, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China. A video of a mentally abnormal and imprisoned woman who allegedly gave birth to eight children went viral, and the incident eventually sparked a massive public controversy as multiple investigators uncovered the truth. After the incident until early February, Feng County and Xuzhou City administrations issued several notices, but all failed to quell public outrage.
By creating digital art, many artists used the incident to call on the Chinese government to protect rural women and people with mental illnesses, combat trafficking and sexual abuse of women and children in rural China, and question the local government’s actions and official media in the incident.
The Fengxian Chain Girl incident is arguably one of the special public secrets in China since the 21st century. This incident refers to women’s issues such as women’s rights and trafficking of women in the countryside, which is rare in China and is an event that is very worthy of study.
撒盐少年. ” Xuzhou Chained Woman Incident.” 被狗链拴住20年的母亲, https://posts.careerengine.us/p/62010b63dc1bfe7ac11e2ffe?from=latest-posts-panel&type=title. Accessed April 29, 2022.
The blood room map incident
The Blood Room Map is an electronic map that marks the locations of forced demolitions in mainland China and is currently on Google Maps.
I will be adding more current or previously occurring public secrets for research during my phd studies.
Methodology
I express my understanding and analysis of public secret events in China by creating digital media works.
After studying digital media art in college and graduate school, I am passionate and creative about making digital media artworks. I hope to combine my mastery of artistic expression and political events through metaphorical means. At the same time, almost all of China’s public secrets after the 21st century are inextricably linked to the Internet, and expressing them through digital art is in line with the times.
So the reason why I chose to model a digital artwork to directly represent the themes of public secrecy and visual art was not only my own self-referential A detailed plan is attached to the email and the first demo is in progress. I also believe that the combination of practice and text is more powerful than textual analysis alone.
As of now, I have made a digital media art video of a low-end population event in Beijing. And this video just won the 2022 ADC award in New York, which also allows more art practitioners or others in the world to visualize the public secret events in China. This is an important reason why I chose to conduct my phd research by making a video.
In this video, I modeled newspaper, ever-changing text, urban explosions, a map of Beijing, and other elements of the scene through digital media techniques. And these elements are all important elements in the Beijing low-end population event, such as the explosion and the Beijing government’s inaccurate reporting as the most critical cause of the event.
I used these elements in the video as a metaphor for the event. With some textual descriptions, I was able to make this public secret known to non-Chinese people.
As I mentioned in 3.1.2 Specific events, I expect to produce several Chinese public secret events through digital media art and technology during my phd.
At the same time, I will use different expressions and artistic styles to express these events than the low-end demographic events in Beijing. For example, I plan to use AI art and NFT to express them, but they are both essentially digital media artworks.
Production Process
Design software that I use :
C4D modeling / AE editing, color mixing / Houdini explosion effect / Blender cloud
Exhibition format
As I mentioned in my research proposal, I plan to use a combination of text and video to present the final results. I will design short videos for several public secret events or a series of creative videos around a public secret event.
I plan for my final acceptance exam to take the form of a combination of text and video for an exhibition in an art gallery.
In my exhibition, the textual content used to introduce and analyze the public secret event is as important as the creative videos. As I demonstrated in my proposal, it is difficult for the viewer to understand the full event by only viewing the abstract and metaphorical video.
By walking into the gallery and reading the textual descriptions of the Public Secrets events and my analytical research before watching the video or documentary I created, the viewer can clearly understand them and have a unique post-viewing experience.
Final Exhibition
Event:
Low-end population event in Beijing.
Date of occurrence:
November 18, 2017
Incident overview:
Xihongmen Town daxing District xinjian second village fire accident, resulting in 19 deaths, 8 injured.
After the fire, from November 20, 2017, Beijing deployed to carry out a 40-day investigation of safety risks, cleaning up and renovation of the special action;
A large number of those working outside Beijing were displaced or their homes were cut off from electricity and heating.
Several Beijing ngos, including the Swan Rescue Team, were involved in public welfare activities.
Media control:
Hong Kong media pointed out that after the fire, The Chinese authorities banned media coverage, using only the Xinhua News Agency, and strictly controlled online speech.
Other netizens reported that the term “low-end population” had been blocked from QQ and wechat, instant messaging apps developed and operated by Tencent that are wildly popular on the
Chinese mainland.
As of early June 2018, information containing the term “low-end population” still cannot be displayed properly in the aforementioned software.
By 2021, searches for Beijing’s lower-end population on platforms such as Weibo still show them blocked.
Public discussion that persists under government repression:
Report:
https://theinitium.com/article/20171201-mainland-Beijing-uprooted/
Discussion of Zhihu:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/28604922
Rare douban Diary:
https://www.douban.com/note/646811160/
The rest of the help and exposure posts on douban have been deleted
A private wechat diary:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LfgPni0GO_9j-isz77v_zQ
Network record but the picture has been erased:
https://blog.creaders.net/u/3843/201711/308453.html
A few surviving photos:
https://info.51.ca/news/society/2017-11/602014.html
clips
A dynamically stratified and changing terrain: this is the topography of Beijing, and it also means a constant iteration of many of the city’s lower-level workers.
Newspapers: Newspapers were an important point of contact between the events of Beijing’s low-end population and the Chinese public. I was also the first to learn about this event from the newspapers. The ever-changing text in the video is the focus of a newspaper released by the Chinese government.
Changing Light and Bad Weather: The Beijing Low-End Population Incident is a long-lasting event. It is a metaphor for the constant severity and escalation of events, but also for the miserable situation of the working people at the bottom.
Particles, maps, and text morph and transform: Maps and text allow the viewer to visualize what the video is trying to tell. And the sheer number of particles has two meanings.
First, the particles symbolize the displacement of the many workers at the bottom of the low end of the population in Beijing.
Secondly, the particles are artistically well blended and shaped, adding to the spectacle of the video.
Explosions and black clouds: The fires were the direct cause of the events in Beijing’s low-end population. The explosions caused during the fire and the black smoke after the fire directly indicate the exceptional nature of the events in the video.
