Ever like to try out for yourself of the novel and avant-garde in arts and technology? Over forty media art installations at the National Museum of Fine Arts may come close to realizing that dream. The Synthetic Times - Media Art China 2008 highlights cutting edge artistic work of the new millennium. The works propose new sensibilities for cultural artifacts. They reflect a contemporary society drenched in technology.

These are objects not likely to be encountered in a museum of fine arts. They represent modern technology, given an artistic edge. Alternatively they represent art with technology at its core.

The exhibition is organized around four distinctive themes. The interrelated themes testify to Humanity's obsessive pursuit of the Ideal. And here it is done through artistic intervention in communication technologies.

Intimate Transactions? by Transmute

Perhaps the best example is this Australian installation. Intimate Transactions is very much a glimpse into the future - an example of what art can be, and possibly will become. The work enables two people at separate locations to interact simultaneously. Simple body movement directly influences an evolving world created by digital imagery. The installation has multi-channel sound and tactile feedback. To move is to see, to hear, to be touched and finally to communicate.

TouchMe

Intricate technologies guarantee an entertaining experience. This interactive installation is called TouchMe. It allows users to create and contribute a personal image to the otherwise impersonal public space.

The exhibits collectively bring four issues under discussion. Beyond Body is a quest to find the relationship between man and his extension, through technologically constructed space and time. The Emotive Digital examines multitudes of digital life. Here machines become responsive creatures.

The Recombinant Reality sets out to reshape our notion of existence. It incorporates the multiple tangents in which blended reality, virtual reality and acoustics reshape our notion of existence. Interconnectedness is one of the key signs of modern times. "Here,There and Everywhere,". examines the "network" and its impact on the shadowy demarcations between what is public and what is private.

The exhibition is viewed as a landmark in contemporary Chinese art. It embraces the most innovative artistic vision and theory to date. It aspires to foster new ways of thinking. It seeks novel ways for artistic engagement in a contemporary world that is dominated by technology.

The exhibition challenges the notion of what we accept as reality.

This laborious and romantic process acknowledges the conflict between man and machines. But it emphasizes the symbiotic relationship, in the perpetual struggle to replicate complex human conditions.

(CCTV June 12,2008)