Vitality of Variables

Data, algorithm, AI, biotechnology and the like, collectively, have pushed the myth of science and technology, which is driven by rational conceit, further to the status of a religion. Within the hypothetical discourses that are too overwhelming to question, life is being abstracted in the form of data and algorithm, and free will becomes somethings this is far-fetched and unrealistic. In the face of a future that is rapidly approaching, existing notions fall apart, universal values are valid no more, firm faith as well as the once community are nowhere to be found. People hand their choices over to the various existing and to-be-existing machines and algorithms. Given that, materialism-based historical determinism has undergone iterative upgrades within the contemporary context, casting light on the tension between soft life and hard orders.

Indeed, the new perspectives carved out by AI and biotechnology help the contemporary people realize that future is already coming, surpassing most people's lag-behind cognition and imagination. Within such an atmosphere, more and more concepts are constantly being refreshed. Previous narratives of the meaning of life are increasingly disintegrated, notions such as equality and freedom are under severe impact, communities are getting diminished and fragile, and "ego" is vanishing without our noticing… In the realm of visual arts, as newly-emerging aesthetic trends resort to data and algorithms to generate all kinds of bizarrely incredible geometric sense of beauty and mathematical landscape, many endeavor to follow and imitate these trends in a manual way to prevent becoming outdated.

It takes a more open mind to help us realize that dwelling in a tiny spot in the massive universe, human beings are actually very much negligible. However, the sudden emergence of some abnormal reality would crack down the whole man-made system instantly, and it often happens when man's self-conceit reaches a peak. The current situation is exactly an example of that. The COVID-19 pandemic, once again, forces the myth of rationality back to square one.
Rationality, logic, data, algorithm, program, fashion and trend… can all be considered as "order" produced by people's pursuit for certainty. Those who have produced such "order" hope that the chaotic world can be precisely calculated and controlled. To some extent and within a certain range, they are approaching such a goal. Nevertheless, the infinite complexities of the world constantly fail the desires to build order and take control. The infinite complexities, epitomized in the form of "variables" hard to be measured, are constantly blocked and even deleted by the order. But every now and then people would find that some of them are just impossible to be deleted. Between order and individuals, it is quite apparent that variables are seen as uncontainable impulses of life and the fathomless hand of destiny.

In the current context which is dominated by data and algorithm and overwhelmed by the myth of technology and religion of fashion, fundamental emotions, instincts, faith, courage, spirituality, rebelliousness, wildness and vision, as variables of heterogeneity, have all been blocked by order and denounced as inappropriate. Essentially speaking, however, these are at the core of life, intimately connected with man's primitive instinct and longing for freedom, mirroring the vast infinity and uncertainty, driving continuously the emergence of surprises and miracles, and maintaining the warmth of humanity.

These variables are inherently artistic. Needless to say, refreshing on the aesthetic level plays a significant role in art. However, the variables contained in aesthetics and dynamism radiated by these variables are where the in-depth charisma of art lies. In an era where order is almost all-pervasive, to respect and truly feel the variables, cultivate their vitality, enhance one's faith to stick to oneself, tackle vanity with vision, uncover the surface with courage, unleash the nature through wildness, counteract with rebelliousness, empathize with fashion via fundamental emotions and transcend logic through spirituality – only in this way, would dignity and beauty be sensed from within the integration of the "insight" of art and the "intriguingness" of aesthetics.