Five Chinese artists question future of technology in New York Guggenheim exhibition

According to the giant tech companies, the future has already been ordained. It will consist of artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, fintech, and a sprinkling of virtual reality and augmented reality. But Guggenheim curator Xiaoyu Weng challenges this widely held viewpoint with her new exhibition “One Hand Clapping”.

“The exhibition aims to question this singular vision of the future of technology,” says Weng, the associate curator of Chinese art with the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation.

“I want to consider the possibility of different technological futures. The artwork is about challenging some of the set values and beliefs that we hold about what kind of future we will have.”

The group show that runs until October 21 at the Guggenheim in New York, features specially commissioned works by five Chinese artists, including Hongkongers Wong Ping and Samson Young Kar-fai.

Young’s work focuses on sound and music, and his Possible Music #1 (feat. Ness & Shane Aspegren) comments on the anodyne, overly processed sounds that currently populate the digital realm. Working with the University of Edinburgh’s Next Generation Sound Synthesis (Ness), Young designed the sounds of impossible instruments, such as a 20-foot trumpet that would need a dragon’s breath to play and a huge tuba. The strange synthetic instruments can be heard in a 10-speaker gallery installation.

“Young had the idea of creating instruments that didn’t exist in the real world, and then composing with them,” says Weng, who organised the exhibition with consulting curator Hou Hanru.