Mind Art得到了世界著名杂志《WIRED连线》专访。
First—where did you get the idea for this project? What inspired you?
Mind Art was inspired by the commonly accepted Big Bang theory and the old Chinese Wisdom of interaction between heaven and man. We believe everything around us, every move we took, every choice we made are not random at all. They actually reflect the information from the universe. I can’t help think about the connection between the great universe and tiny human beings. I want to see if I can visualize the metal power.
China has world’s greatest population of 83 million handicapped people. They suffer from physical defects and discriminations.
The world’s leading acrylic paint supplier, Winsor & Newton wanted to show the capacity of the human spirit is unlimited, even though it may be trapped within a disabled body. And with that, raise awareness that the disabled deserves recognition and respect, too.
How does this technically work? Can you walk me through how the headgear works?
Although remote control through brain wave is fairly common nowadays, for instance, the brain wave remote control toys made by NeuroSky. But to reach the final design we still need to apply it to the detonator and it requires a lot of efforts. Finally we invited an engineer from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and solved all the technical issues.
Inside each cabinet we used to create the drawing, we filled balloons with pigments and attached tiny detonators to them. The balloons were surrounded by 4 pieces of 1.5-meter-wide, 2-meter-high canvases. By concentrating their minds, electronic signals from brains of the handicapped creators were captured and sent to a processing unit to trigger off the tiny detonators inside the balloon. And then all the chosen pigments exploded to form different pieces of painting on the canvases.
Exactly how much control did each participant or artist have over their painting?
Every participants can choose the color they like and how much pigment they want to use. They also get to choose the color of the canvas. The whole process depends on their personal will. But what’s unpredictable is the result after the explosion. What we see on the canvas is just unimaginable. This is the charm of “Mind Art”.
How did you choose the participants? I read through social media, but could you share more details about what channel, and what you considered when choosing them?
We started the “Mind Art” audition in Weibo and Wechat, which are the two most used social network services in china. We got a lot of help from handicapped people and their families, also a lot of handicapped communities. We collect over 300 photos and choose 16 out of them to complete this project.
What were some of the challenges you met while putting this project together?
Find the exhibition place that has the influence. With proper place location we can help “Mind Art” to raise its social influence and speak to a bigger crowd and increase the sales of our works, in order to help raise more money for the handicapped. Fortunate enough, with the help of Shanghai Government the work first get to showcase at Shanghai Fashion Center. Recently it was showcased at the main place of 2014 Shanghai Design Week( Shanghai Exhibition Center).
What were some of the reactions you got from the participants?
The participants are really happy about the project and they actually retrieve their confidence from being a part of it. One of the 16 participants, 58 Year-old Cui Chang Jiang, who was accidentally shocked by high voltage electricity and lost his arms was really into oil painting in his childhood. Mind Art let his artistic mind finally go free. Together through the work they claim to the world, that even though their body might be handicapped, their minds are not.
Is there anything else I should know?
I recently got invited by Discovery Channel in Canada to broadcast Mind Art on their “Daily Planet”. I hope this could be spread to more people around world through different media to call awareness for handicapped people.
And besides, much thanks to my boss Graham Fink and my partner Rocky Hao who contribute greatly in the execution.
Thanks!
