EXHIBITION ONE

Yike Gao
Master of Philosophy
Photography and Media Arts

The practice-led research project iMemory is an installation art based on the blueprint
of my personal story. It is designed to investigate the influence of the Chinese media
environment on the memories of Chinese post-1980s urban youth. In iMemory, I have
selected the three most significant memory phenomena of China’s post-1980s
generation: collective nostalgia; state-controlled historical memory; and China’s
internet memory policy. I employ three different installation art forms respectively, to
express them in series. As a multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk, the project adopts
installation, video art, digital compositing, motion sensor technology, virtual reality and
augmented reality to present its theme. I also incorporate my own images,
performances, and autobiographical materials in the work. By adopting various new
media technologies and reconstructing my own memories using digital tools, the
artwork not only expresses my personal artistic responses to the aforementioned
issues, but also explores the possibilities of representing memory via new media
technology and the potentials to enhance interactive experience: in particular, the
immersion of audience in an artwork.

Born in Beijing, YIKE GAO is a post-80s Chinese film director and digital artist whose
practice explores the connection between technology and identity. She began working
in interactive installation in 2011 and the research journey not only lead her to the
creation and completion of iMemory, but also opened her up to a deeper
understanding of Chinese media, history, politics, and the recognition of personal
identity.