内容提要
前言
范迪安
中国美术馆馆长
继2008年成功举办具有里程碑意义的北京奥运文化项目“合成时代：国际新媒体艺术展”之后，中国美术馆再次推出题为“延展生命”的国际新媒体艺术展，以展示艺术与科技在新的全球化文化语境下的发展态势。新媒体艺术的“新”，不仅表现为媒体与技术在物质与工具意义层面上的发展，重要的是，借助媒体语言的能量，艺术家将思维的触角指向新的文化命题。由此，通过展览及时地展现这个领域的探索成果，并展开多边的学术讨论，是使新媒体艺术实现社会文化意义的重要方式。
在此，我代表中国美术馆高兴地宣布“媒体中国”将作为中国美术馆的延续性项目，每三年举办一次，向中国观众介绍国际新媒体艺术发展的最新成果，由此建立美术馆与新媒体艺术发展之间的有机关系。“媒体中国”既是对中国范围内新媒体艺术动态发展的关注，同时也是以当代中国文化视野对国际新媒体艺术展开的叙述与讨论，因此，展览是对新媒体艺术和本土新媒体艺术观的双重呈示，是对以“媒体”为关键词的国内外作品所作的比较式阅读与阐述。当全球化的璀璨之光不断弥散到艺术发展的每一处缝隙，艺术型态本体和有关艺术型态的叙述都需要在全球的视野中葆有本土的文化身份，如此才能在同一性与特殊性、开放与自我之间获得平衡。毫无疑问，这也是落到中国美术馆肩上的一份文化责任。在中国美术馆举办新媒体艺术三年展，将新媒体艺术纳入到国家美术馆整体的展览和研究格局中，充分利用了中国的美术馆在当代艺术发展中的地位与作用，亦合乎当代艺术处于“转思时代”（trans-times）的文化逻辑。 当来自世界各地的新媒体艺术家的相逢和最新交汇成为一种持续性的对话，“媒体中国”必将成为未来国际新媒体艺术研究和交流的重要平台 。
从上一届“合成时代”的“合”（synthetic-）到本届“延展生命”的“展”（trans-），是从宏观瞰览到微观凝视，亦是从事物现象进入关于事物本质的探究，从而引发在科技条件下对生命意涵的哲学思考。透过这个展览，观众既可以体会在预设的极端情境下环境变异给感官带来的刺激，也可以在有意思的转基因植物寂静生长中反思生命的延展，更可以在对艺术家创作动机与作品不同型态的体验中升起拯救生态危机的参与意识。在这本画册中汇集了中外学者对展览各个主题以及由此衍生的哲学和社会问题所作的深入探讨，也包括展览中精彩的作品，通过文与图的互文式呈现构成对展览及主题的平面展示，由此构成学术讨论的延伸。
从中国到世界，“延展生命”所提示的文化课题将是引人入胜的，对这个课题的讨论与交流将有助于建立新的自然观和人文理念。我要衷心感谢张尕先生为展览策划付出的辛苦劳动，他与国际新媒体艺术界广泛而密切的学术联系以及他推动中国新媒体艺术发展的热情让我们由衷敬佩，他对展览主题的思考和阐述充分体现了国际新媒体艺术的前沿命题；感谢马岩松先生为展览所作的精彩的建筑设计；感谢中国美术馆的同事们为展览实施付出的不懈努力；我也藉此画册的海外出版感谢许多国内外机构为展览提供的多方赞助和支持！
Foreword
Fan Di’An
Director, The National Art Museum of China
Following the groundbreaking international new media art exhibition “Synthetic Times: Media Art China 2008,” a cultural highlight of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the National Art Museum of China is pleased to present “Translife,” which showcases emerging trends in art and technology within the new global cultural context. The “new” in new media art not only manifests itself in the development of media technologies and their material and instrumental capacities, more importantly, it lends artists novel ways to explore emergent cultural issues. By presenting the most current research and discourse, this exhibition substantiates new media art as a significant social and cultural force.
Here, on behalf of NAMOC, I’m pleased to announce that “Media Art China” will hereafter be a triennial exhibition that introduces the latest developments in international new media art to the Chinese public, thereby establishing a cohesive relationship between NAMOC and the development of new media art. “Media Art China” not only focuses on the development of media art in China; it also extends the discourse into the global media art community through a Chinese perspective. Therefore, this exhibition can be seen as a two-fold presentation of both a localized and a global outlook for the discipline, by which the keyword “media” is intended to evoke comparative readings and interpretations of artworks both inside and outside of China. As globalization permeates into every corner of artistic practice, it is necessary that art and its expressive languages maintain their respective cultural identities within a global context, to achieve a balance between singularity and multiplicity, the open and the individual. NAMOC gladly takes up this cultural responsibility. Organizing the International Triennial of New Media Art, and incorporating media art into NAMOC’s overall programming and research agenda unifies the institution’s unique position and influence within the contemporary art world, resonating with the “trans-times” cultural logic of contemporary art. As new media artists from around the world gather and initiate a sustained dialogue, “Media Art China” will surely become an important international platform for future research and exchange in new media art.
The extension from the “synthetic” in the inaugural exhibition of “Synthetic Times” to the prefix “trans” in this edition, reflects a shift from a macroscopic bird’s eye view to a microscopic attentive gaze, an exploration from the phenomenological exterior to the essential quality of the interior, thereby evoking a philosophical contemplation on the notion of life in the context of an increasingly technologically driven society. The exhibition brings viewers visceral experiences of sensory stimulation via extreme environments and reflections on the concept of life through the muted growth of transgenic plants. Furthermore, by engaging audiences with diverse artistic positions and strategies, the exhibition advocates citizen participation in confronting the current ecological and environmental crisis. The catalogue consists of a collection of texts contributed by scholars to elaborate on the exhibition’s themes and their philosophical ramifications as an extension of the exhibition into 2D space.
“Translife” initiates an intriguing cultural discussion that helps establish new concepts about nature and the humanities. Here, I want to express my gratitude whole heartedly to curator Zhang Ga for his dedication in the preparation of this exhibition and his extensive knowledge of the international community of new media art both scholarly and professionally. We respect his passion for advancing media art practice in China. His conception and elaboration on the themes of the exhibition reflect the most current discourse of global media art theorization and production. Special thanks also to Ma Yansong for his excellent architectural design for this show, to the NAMOC staff for their unremitting efforts during its realization, and to the publisher and all relevant domestic and foreign institutes for their sponsorship and support.
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