New media art is making waves in China's contemporary art circle. Our reporter Yang Yan went to a solo exhibition of Zheng Da at Beijing's Today Art Museum, focusing on art that relies heavily on technology and interactive installations.

YANG YAN Beijing "Zheng Da has had a consistent interest in machine consciousness and artificial intelligence. Through his low-tech experiments and game simulations, he explores how humans relate to science and technology. Inside the space, you can interact with the installations, enjoying a very hands-on experience."

ZHENG DA Artist "The Unfettered Language of Machines is a large Interactive Light Installation. The most interesting part is that it is closely connected with human touch. When you touch the installation, it receives the heartbeat and transmits it visually. When people stand in front of such a giant machine, except for feeling a sense of danger, you can digitally connect with each other. I felt this is a reflection of true life nowadays."

Zheng Da, based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, is one of China's top new media artists.

His installations focus on linking viewers and machines through unsophisticated technologies, expressing a tender feelings of humans.

He set up the "Low-tech Lab" ten years ago. It blends different academic subjects. His team includes hardware engineers, software engineers, vocal artists. He also coordinates with scientists in other areas, depending on the art programs. Zheng Da is trying to push the boundaries of art and advance innovation.

ZHENG DA Artist "My artistic pieces have a sci-fi quality, with a sense of the future. Artificial Intelligence, as I see today, is far from Strong AI. If there is such a possibility, AI would not be an extension of human beings. It should have its own language and logic. When the whole city was on lockdown in Wuhan, I thought a lot about these works, their themes, and their formations. The name of this exhibition is Unknown Unknowns, reflecting the situation or mood at that time: losing control or uncontrollable."

YAN YAN, Vice Director Today Art Museum "Unknown Unknowns, the theme of the exhibition on one hand predicts what we will be like in the future, also includes a rethinking of environment and social development. On the other hand, this kind of exhibitions, featuring artistic interaction and shaping of machine awareness, reflects another type of art form. In the future, what the art will be like? The cooperation cross fields and the cooperation between artists, scientists and engineers are all interesting to expect. "

The exhibition, presents Zheng Da's major works since 2016, inspiring people to think over the relationship between humans and technology.

It runs until April 5.

Yang Yan, CGTN, Beijing.