Yiyao Liu

About

Yiyao Liu (b.1999, China) possesses a background in service design and brand design. From 2020 to 2022, she enrolled in CAFA Public Art & Experience Design studio. During this period, her research primarily focused on the application of experience design as public art in urban spaces, as well as creating experiential environments for users within commercial settings.

She views experience design as a systematic approach to designing behaviors and processes. Throughout her studies at the Royal College of Art, her work revolves around exploring the relationships between children, parents, and pets. She employs a variety of mediums（installations, objects, sound, performance, food, and workshop）to investigate the the expressiveness of different media as art communication.

Education

  • 2022-2023 MA Information Experience Design, Royal College of Art (UK)
  • 2018-2022 BA Public Art & Experience Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CN)


Contact

Degree Details

Statement

I have been contemplating what art is and how it can be applied to society.

Art cannot produce bread, but it can make the bread a little sweeter.

I believe that artists possess the energy to transmit this sweetness to more people. For a long time, I have been engaged in practical projects that seem to bridge between society and art, yet I am always concerned that these projects may turn into stale bread.

I have always been interested in speculative design and human sentiment. At RCA, I devoted myself to the study of the emotions that constitute the parent-child relationship, gradually focus on the people who regard children as pets, and explored the contradictory relationship between raising children and raising pets.

Throughout the year of developing projects, there were many moments that made me feel like I was back in my childhood, peacefully painting in the afternoon, observing and experiencing life.One project can blossom into many different flowers, and those moldy bread becomes nourishment for these flowers.

Pet-Child

Description

The installation "Pet-Child" is a sociologically grounded artwork that explores the phenomenon of parenting. Drawing upon ubiquitous symbolized graphical representations found in society, the artwork generates dynamic images, seamlessly integrating the interactive behavior of the audience within its artistic process.

The installation captures the contemporary convergence of emotional tendencies between raising children and nurturing pets among a segment of the population. It critically examines the inherent contradictions within this social phenomenon, prompting viewers to contemplate the possibility of substituting the emotional aspect of raising children.

Medium: Objects, Moving images, liquid

Size: 80×30×40cm

Process 1 - What is a CHILD?

<What is a CHILD?> MU Hybrid Arthouse, Reproduction Otherwise, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (Nov, 2022)
<What is a CHILD?> It tells the story of people in the future who will treat their pets and even hobbies as children, and makes simulation documents (pregnancy test reports and X-rays) based on research.

Medium: mixed media

Process 2 - Objects baby chair

Is it possible for pets to replace children? Whose seat is this?

Medium: baby chair, toy, dog food, image

Size: 40×44×30cm

Process 3 - Airport Sound

I modified the existing airport voice announcements and imagined how the social rules would change in the future when pets became our children and had the same social status as human children.

Medium: sound

Process 4 - Workshop Red Rope

Workshop designed parent-child relationships as different games to understand the audience's views on whether pets can form a parent-child relationship with humans.
We gave the red rope multiple meanings and used it as an item of workshop in every game that metaphorical parent-child relationship.
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Process 5 - Performance

I imagined a pet as a family member eating at the same table with a child, and replaced the pet and child's food. Dog food for children and cake for pets. The act of acting is a metaphor for the convergence of pet and child rearing. Convey uncomfortable feelings to the audience and lead them to think about whether the emotions of raising a child can be replaced by raising a pet. what if the emotion of raising a child can be replaced, what is a child？

Medium: performance