This project is a collaboration between students in China and Taiwan under the instruction of Tom R. Chambers
at Zhaoqing University (Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China) and John Labadie at National Chengchi University (Taipei, Taiwan).
Analysis:
"According to the World Future Society [http://www.wfs.org/], the future doesn't just happen. People create it through their action ... or inaction ... today. And by studying the future, people can better anticipate what lies ahead. They can actively decide how to live in the future by making choices today and realizing the consequences of their decisions.
Opportunity as well as difficulty lies ahead, and it seems that the above students from both institutions ... Zhaoqing University and National Chengchi University ... have visually made their farsighted decisions. No one knows exactly what will happen in the future, but most of these digital considerations are an attempt to rationalize a desirable future through achievement. Within most of the works, there's a good sense of awareness of the rapidly changing world and its effect on values, attitudes and beliefs. And this fast pace of making it difficult to prepare for tomorrow is also inherent in many of the pieces.
The digital art ranges from negativism/skepticism to optimism. There seems to be more of a collective concern regarding the environment and technology with an overall serious-mindedness within the works by the Zhaoqing University art students whereas some of the works by the National Chengchi University art students border on lightheartedness and childlike approach. There is a degree of intellect that seems to be more apparent within a few of the works by the National Chengchi Univerity art students but generally, both groups of students seem to be on equal standing in terms of technical skill and application."
Comment by Laurence Gartel, Pioneer of Digital Art, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.:
"Good Project. Its always interesting to see who has vision and who doesn't. Most follow as you know. When I started making digital images in 1975 there weren't any personal computers. People didn't understand what the word CYBERNETIC meant and more over the word DIGITAL was not a vocabulary word. The future can now be fairly predictable: technology will be part of their future. The future has actually been set. But what will be interesting is if these students predict what global warming will do, what natural disasters will do, and how it will effect the economy. In any case, these students are getting a real privilege having Chambers there and getting his artistic insights and cultural experience."
Review by Shankar Barua, Digital Artist and Director, CeC/CaC, India:
"What a lovely collection of images, and how startling that they should be so distinctly different from one university to the next."
Tom R. Chambers
Visiting Lecturer, Digital/New Media Art
Fine Arts Department
Zhaoqing University
Zhaoqing, China
Classroom I activities and Classroom II activities
