Vivian Xu

China

Biology, Material Ecology, Technology

Vivian Xu, Silkworm Project, 2013 – 2019. Multimedia installation, dimensions variable. Exhibited at Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

Artist

Region
China

Category
Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Livelihoods

Topics
Biology, Material Ecology, Technology

Methodology
Installation, Non-human

Projects
Biography

Vivian Xu

"Vivian Xu explores the intersection of organic and artificial systems, her interest lying in the intrinsic relationship of electricity and life, as well as the specificity of materialities. Her research revolves around how to transfer information from technological mediums to life organisms, and how the reverse can be made possible. Xu sets up experiments to observe how lower-level organisms, such as bacteria, respond to electric stimulation patterns, which in this way could be categorised as bio art. Her aim is not to optimise these organisms, but to find “points of negotiation […] and the variations of this negotiation become the artwork itself” (Vivian Xu).

Influenced by philosophy and bioethics, Xu wants to find hybrid systems and create new forms of machine logic. Philosopher Manuel DeLanda’s theories of material fluctuation and expressivity, post-human theories of fluidity, complexity, and the cyborg, as well as physician Luigi Galvani’s experiments in the late 18th century where he animated frogs’ legs with electric charge are part of Xu’s artistic lineage. Through her work, she questions the role of the artist, but also designer, versus that of the scientist and technologist within the advanced sciences, technology, and life.

“The goal was not to create technology that modified the organism, but to create technology that was in tune with the organism.”—Vivian Xu" [1]

Projects

Silkworm Project

2012-2019

Vivian Xu, Flat Spinning Machine, 2014 -2015 (left),; Spatial Spinning Machine, 2017 (right). Exhibited at Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material, 2018. Courtesy of NTU CCA.

Vivian Xu, Silkworm Project, 2013 – 2019. Multimedia installation, dimensions variable. Exhibited at Trees of Life – Knowledge in Material, 2018. Courtesy of NTU CCA.

Format/Medium
Multimedia installation

Dimensions
Variable

Exhibited at

Trees of Life - Knowledge in Material, 2018, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore

"Vivian Xu was drawn to silkworms due to her familiarity with them and because of the aesthetic qualities of works using silk by Chinese artists Xu Bing and Liang Shaoji. She wanted to incorporate poetics into the concept of the machine. The Silkworm Project is a series of bio machines that generate self-organised silk structures. Electronic and digital systems house the silkworms creating a closed feedback loop as an autonomous ecosystem. The combination of an ancient material with the new medium of data poses questions of production and consumption.

Flat Spinning Machine, 2013–14

Teak wood, electronics, 42 x 27 x 22 cm.

This machine includes a grid where each position can be activated via electrodes, with the worms being placed on a silk screen over that matrix. Positioned on a flat plane, silkworms are unable to create three-dimensional structures and the outcome is a flat sheet of silk. In 2014, Xu began to experiment with natural coloured silk to be able to differentiate between the silk spun by two or more worms. The first attempts, through changing the worms’ diet, failed. She then discovered that genetically engineered silkworms from Japan are able to spin coloured, glow-in-the-dark silk.

Spatial Spinning Machine 2017

Teak wood, glass, electronics, 30 x 43 x 11.5 cm.

Based on the silkworms’ behaviour within a circular environment, this machine traces how the worms spin spiral-like structures and cell-like concaves of silk. The silkworms steer the machines via cameras that capture their movements. Xu is interested in how these interactions can be scaled to larger networks through magnets and Hall effect sensors, generating chaotic and complex behaviour in the worms’ weaving patterns." [2]

[1] Trees of Life - Knowledge in Material, 2018, Exhibition brochure. Courtesy of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

[2] Trees of Life - Knowledge in Material, 2018, Exhibition brochure. Courtesy of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

Topical Seminar: On Mulberry - Panel: Sericultural Practices - Liang Shaoji and Vivian Xu

Chaired by Dr Lisa Onaga (United States/Germany), Senior Research Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Assistant Professor, School of Humanities, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, NTU

Sericulture, or silk farming, is integral to both artists Liang Shaoji’s and Vivian Xu’s practices. Liang has been working for 28 years with silkworms as collaborators, using their life cycle as a medium, while Xu is a media artist and researcher whose practice focuses on the exploration and intersection of electronic and bio media. The artists will present their experimentations with silk, while Dr Lisa Onaga shares her research on Imperial Japan’s pursuit of the perfect silkworm cocoon.

Biography

Vivian Xu is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher. Her work investigates issues at the intersection of biology, technology, material ecology, and design. These works often take the form of objects, installations, wearables, and toolkits that transcend the boundaries of biological and digital media. Her creative practice is informed by emerging practices between the arts and sciences that merges approaches from the studio and the laboratory. Her process is research driven and grounded in design methodology.

Xu’s work has been exhibited at various institutions in China, the US, and Europe, including the National Art Museum of China (China), the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (China), China Design Museum (China), Power Station of Art (China), NTU Center for Contemporary Art (Singapore), the New York Science Museum (United States), Kapelica Gallery (Ljubljana), Museum of Decorative Arts Dresden (Germany). She has also been awarded research residencies at institutions such as SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia (Perth) and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin). Her work and practice have been profiled by media such as VICE Creators Project (China), Global China Television (China), Elle magazine (USA), Tagesspiegel (Berlin) and also archived in the Annual of Contemporary Art of China: 2021 Edition, Neural Magazine (Italy), and CLOT Magazine (EU). In 2022, her work The Silkworm Project was selected for the Lumen Prize for Art and Technology Hua Awards Shortlist.

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