Skip to main content
Information Experience Design (MA)

Wen Shi

Wen Shi is an experience designer and multimedia artist based in London and Hangzhou. 


With a background in industrial design and computer graphic design, Wen utilizes design thinking theory to explore new research directions, integrating various technologies and methodologies to investigate novel phenomena at the intersection of society, humanities, and technology. This approach brings a unique perspective to her art. Through experimentation and research on new technologies, Wen combines computer art with digital media art, exploring the convergence of game design, VR, and installation art.


As a product and experience designer, she has been involved in various projects, including the design of the Serbia China-Europe Rail Traffic, user experience design for gaming apps, and interactive design for regional transportation software, among others.


As a multimedia artist, the core of Wen's creative process lies in her interaction with the precarity of postmodern society. Living in a rapidly changing society, she experiences the impact of precarity, which generates multifaceted ideas and reflections. Her inspiration stems from observing and empathizing with social phenomena, projecting her own state into society, and receiving reflections from society. She explores the boundaries between collectivism and individualism, seeks ways to enhance perception, and aims to establish new connections with the world.


Wen aims to convey her thoughts through various forms of artistic expression, hoping to create art that resonates with a broader audience. Through her works, she engages in a dialogue with the audience, exploring the pursuit of life amidst the precarity of society.

The process of recording videos by the sea.

Why do I still perceive life as not good even when both material conditions and spiritual aspects are abundant? 


When I asked others if they considered their lives beautiful, most of them responded negatively. When I inquired about their visions of a good life, everyone had different answers, but they shared a common element: stability. In the current rapidly changing and unstable society, people aspire to a macro-level of stability in their pursuit of a good life.


Reflecting on myself and contemplating the modern human condition, I explored why people perceive life as being unsatisfactory.


In a rapidly changing society, people's lives are relatively static to some extent. In society, individuals are compelled to keep pace with its rapid progress while their own lives remain in a state of stability. With the same social circle, the same job, the same environment and circumstances, individuals inevitably experience social alienation, akin to living in a constantly rotating music box, leading to a decrease in their ability to perceive the external world. With diminished capacity to appreciate the good things around them, even though their lives haven't changed, people become dissatisfied with their current existence and feel exhausted.


Enhancing perceptiveness begins with breaking free from the current repetitive state of life. Hence, I explore ways to disrupt this stability.

'In the time and place that resonates with the world, we are non-alienated.'

——Hartmut Rosa


Part1

Do you think your life is wonderful? My friend asked me.

 I really want to say yes. 

Supportive family, healthy relationships, the freedom to do anything and explore anything. 

They asked me, living in such a great life, what else am I dissatisfied with?

But Why? Why does my inner self want to say no? 

Why am I always tired, and shame to say. 

But feeling will not deceive.


I'm accelerating.

But I am standing still.

Part2

The state of accelerated progress of individual in society.

The contrast between the relative stasis of one's own life and the unavoidable accelerated movement.


Medium: Unreal Engine5, Blender, Processing, Images

building
building
fall
fall
balls
pattern

Part3

Repetitive life, inevitable sense of social alienation. 

Decreased perceptiveness, from an initial sense of good to later feelings of meaninglessness.


Medium: Blender

puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground
puppet
puppet

Part4

Seeking perception, experiencing a shift in state after attaining resonance.


Medium: Blender

puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground
puppet on the ground

“In the time and place that resonates with the world, we are non-alienated.”

See whole project on the website:

https://wen-shi.icu

Medium:

Unreal Engine5, Blender, Processing, Photosounder

Size:

69cmx39cm

Theme Proposal

Sanhe is a talent market located in Longhua District, Shenzhen, which provides work from factories to people who don’t have high education.The word Sanhe comes from the name of the largest human resources company in the region. 

Known as Gods of Sanhe, around the Sanhe talent market, a group of young people have rebelled against the pressure of menial labor and have chosen to renounce material pursuits in exchange for the relative freedom and leisure of unemployment. 

Under the background of precarity of society, Gods of Sanhe are typical victims of social alienation who are unable to integrate into the mainstream social structure and have been marginalized by society. When they first arrived in Shenzhen, these determined and ambitious young individuals also sought to change their lives through their own labor. This ideology was instilled in them through the education system of their country - that labor is honorable, and a better life is to be created with one's own hands.

However, after experiencing exploitation by capital and realizing that their efforts alone cannot change their circumstances, they fell into a sense of powerlessness. In the field of philosophy, Simone de Beauvoir proposed that a prominent characteristic of alienation is a sense of powerlessness. When an individual becomes aware of the gap between what they want to do and what they feel capable of doing, they experience alienation in the form of 'powerlessness.' Consequently, they entered a state of meaninglessness, not knowing why they had to work in factories. However, after witnessing the prosperity of the big city, they were unwilling to return to their hometown. Instead, this group of people stayed in the Sanhe area, doing daily wage work and earning enough for three days of expenses in a single day. They had no material desires, which is why they were called as gods by the people in that area. Their fame stemmed from their "lying flat" lifestyle, and many young people envied their freedom from the shackles of capitalist structures. However, in reality, this kind of life was not the ideal life they pursued. It was a manifestation of social alienation, as they were trapped in this area and unable to integrate into the social structure.

Many young workers see no value in maintaining an ID card, which represents a legal identity and political / economic status  and sell their ID cards for less than 15 pounds. They are often limited by their limited education and access to information to make informed decisions.

After losing their identity cards, the gods of Sanhe were unable to leave the area. They lived like shadows of society, even though new identities may have emerged, those identities were no longer relevant to them. Their extreme alienation is a reflection found in various corners of the social structure.

The final way to respond was a small exhibition with multipart installation, which includes a variety of experiments we made, and the process and results were interesting.

This is the pre-research of project In-der-Welt-Sein(Being-in-the-world



projection
Projected Fantasies
id
Ghost of no identity
installation
Offering to the Post-Capitalist God

Area of Emphasis

I aim to use immersive interactive techniques that lead the audience to explore the microbial colonization of the mother and baby in the scene.

What makes us who we are? The answer for most people is DNA, which determines our genetics and how we grow from the kind of baby we are to the kind of person we become. However, in addition to DNA, exposure to microbes during infancy has a large impact on human development. There is a magical microbial transmission relationship between mother and infant, and from birth, these microorganisms are brought along at different stages as a gift from the mother and then colonize the gut. But because of a number of factors, such as different way of birth and different feeding practices, infants acquire different microbes and the colonization of these microbes will have different effects.

In this area, I will focus on exploring how these microorganisms brought by the mother influence the subsequent development of the infant, leading the audience to understand and feel the impact of microbial colonization in an immersive experience. In this immersive interactive experience, the audience will explore the relationship between maternal and infant microbial colonization, feel the impact of microbial colonization, and allow the community of current, soon-to-be, or future mothers to understand how to help their infants better access diverse microbes and ease the anxiety of new mothers.


hand
baby
screen
process
all
PART II
person
Interactive Experience
Video

Medium:

Touchdesigner, Blender, Unreal Engine5

Climate change accelerates the aberration process for non-human. As the unstoppable creating process, it will continually produce more adaptive aberration to resilient this world.

We create an aberration world through digital technology, generating an immersive experience for audiences to explore the abnormal world. All efforts aim to call for attention and action on climate change issue.

This project made by 6 designers and artists from the Royal College of Art's Information Experience Design.


all view
screen
middle
bird
show
screen