Go on a Hardcore Digital Detox Using VR With Miao Ying

The young Chinese artist Miao Ying’s works are all related to the Internet more specifically, the Chinese Internet. She uses humorous and ironic ways to describe the Internet and its aesthetic, questioning the impact that it can have on users. Ying’s work consists mainly of URL, websites, animated gifs and recently she created her first VR work Happily Contained commissioned by ArtNight and dslcollection.

VR or “How to Get Rid of Your Digital Addiction”

This new work is also part of the artist’s solo show at MadeIn Gallery which opened while two international art fairs were taking place in Shanghai in November. The exhibits central work is the website ‘Hardcore Digital Detox’ Commissioned by M+ for M+ Stories, 2018. Entering the virtual world of Miao Ying is all about navigating the Chinese firewall, lifestyle branding, ideology and new technologies now that your information is part of “Big Data” and everything is predetermined according to your preferences. Ying suggests you confuse your cookie, by acting bipolar online or by trading your phone with others. But she also recommends going on a hardcore digital detox. “Inspired by the “How China” program that uses virtual reality as a means to help drug addicts turn their lives around, she figured that the best way to help you get away from the virtual world is by getting into it even more— using virtual reality”. In this work Ying goes a step further, reflecting on the power of high-end technology on people’s consciousness.