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Archipelago

source: novajiang

Archipelago addresses social isolation caused by flawed urban design. I feel that the image of desert islands floating down city streets was an appropriate answer to people’s daily struggle against geography and space. The islands act as vehicles that carry communication instead of people or goods. They have no predefined destination. Instead their mobility initiate chance encounters and encourage people to leave the “desert island” of their daily routine. Each island stores empty bottles, paper and pen. Those who come across them are invited to imagine themselves as castaways and write a message in a bottle addressed to the world or someone in it. Each island therefore becomes a node in a network of empathy. 250 messages were collected over four days and published on the project website.
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source: 01sjorg

Sustainable locomotion is not just about lowering energy consumption and reducing pollution, it is also an opportunity to redefine the social paradigm of transportation. In a car-based culture, we have sacrificed sociability in the way we travel for an ideal of “individual convenience” which ironically impedes rather than promotes mobility in our congested cities.

For this project and workshop, a collection of mobile “desert islands” will be constructed with help from the public. Each island will carry empty bottles and writing materials and circulate throughout the city. A participant can create an anonymous “message in a bottle” which asks for help, whether for romantic advice or philosophical guidance. The author can later log onto the project website to see what solutions people have offered.

Archipelago (2010) seeks to address issues of urban isolation exacerbated by car culture. The islands act as “vehicles” which carry communication instead of people or goods. They are nodes in an experimental “social network” created around empathy. Archipelago has no predefined destination. Its mobility is a strategy to initiate chance encounters and encourage people to leave the “desert island” of their normal routine.

Commissioned by ZER01 for the 3rd 01SJ Biennial, and presented with the support of the James Irvine Foundation.
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source: eyebeamorg

Nova’s work seeks to engage people through a process of tactile and creative participation. She emphasizes the autonomy of each participant in order to encourage open-ended involvement. Many of her projects are committed to a participatory model of creation. She believes in sharing the tools for artistic production as well as methodologies for creative thinking. Nova’s work engages with the evolving definition of public space. Concerned with fostering a sense of community, she often creates situations that allow people to relate in unexpected ways. She wants to inspire people’s curiosity about each other as well as their everyday surroundings through play. Nova was born in China and grew up in New Zealand. She earned her MFA from the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts in 2009. She is currently working on an interactive installation that incorporates images of gallery visitors into an algorithmically generated comic book.
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source: novajiang

Nova Jiang (b. 1985, China) creates work that encourages the tactile and creative participation of the audience, resulting in structurally open systems in which joy, disorder and improvisation can thrive. She holds a MFA in media art from UCLA. She has had recent exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; ICC, Tokyo; Ars Electronica, Linz; Media City Seoul Biennial, Seoul; 01SJ Biennial, San Jose; Sundance New Frontier, Park City among other venues. She is the recipient of Fellowships from Skowhegan, Eyebeam and Wave Hill. She grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and currently lives in Los Angeles.