We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Snow Yunxue Fu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Snow Yunxue below.
Snow Yunxue, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Veraverses is a multifaceted artwork that seamlessly merges the physical and digital realms, offering an immersive experience divided into two captivating parts. This unique collaboration showcases the visionary works of digital art pioneer Véra Molnar and work by contemporary artist Snow Yunxue Fu – artist and starring her digital human character DaughterICE in the Metaverse sculpture park. Veraverses serves as an ode to the past, a celebration of the present, and a glimpse into boundless future possibilities. The Veraverses project is a commissioned project for the Exhibition “A la recherche de Vera Molnar” dives into the practice of Vera Molnar, one of the pioneers of computer art, combined with the works of contemporary artists who have been inspired by her work. At the initiative of Josef Broich, in collaboration with stiftungkunstbonn and the BROICH Digital Art Foundation, this exhibition shows a combination of iconic works of Vera Molnar and 16 hommages by contemporary artists.
As one of the main character in the Veraverse project, Daughter ICE (International Conceptual E-human) is as an ongoing and evolving digital art project designed by new media artist, Snow Yunxue Fu. This project harnesses cutting-edge 3D imaging techniques, spanning from modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation to motion capture. Fu employs a repertoire that encompasses post-photo simulation software, game engines, motion captures, virtual production, and AI tools, all coalescing to bring to life a virtual progeny – a digital human conceived by the artist.
Daughter ICE, in her physical attributes and the depths of her personality, bears a striking resemblance to the artist herself and her mother, who are both artists and educators. Notably, Fu’s identity as an individual, artist, and educator has been profoundly shaped by her mother’s influential presence. In an age profoundly impacted by the global pandemic, which has separated numerous international families, Fu’s project assumes a poignant significance. It serves as an exploration of the dynamic interplay between individuals, their digital and physical selves, and the ever-evolving realm of technology.
Employing cutting-edge 3D imaging techniques, this project breathes life into a virtual human, one that seamlessly embodies the artist’s rich lineage of identity, artistic multi-generational family background, and heritage. By crafting sub-projects such as immersive VR experiences, multi-dimensional installations, and interactive metaverse spaces, as well as online engagements through social media and platforms via “Daughter ICE”, the project becomes a conduit for Fu to explore the profound familial connections that transcend geographic confines. It bridges generational, familial, cultural, and continental chasms within the expansive realm of the virtual. Through this artistic odyssey, Fu intends to delve into the intricate implications of our digital personas, and their instrumental role in fostering intimacy across the multifaceted tapestry of human existence.
Snow Yunxue, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Snow Yunxue Fu is a New York based New Media Artist, Curator, and Assistant Arts Professor at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, Institute of Emerging Media. Working with imaging technologies, such as 3D Simulation, AR, XR, Metaverse, and Virtual Production, she creates computer-rendered images, moving images, interactive projects, installations, etc, and merges sociological, anthropological, philosophical, and interdisciplinary explorations into the universal aesthetic and definitive nature of the techno sublime. Her practice is rooted in a post-photographic framework, researching societal relationships with imaging and VR experiences within a web 2.0 and now 3.0 context. Her practice also echoes the investigations of historical Chinese and Western painters who peered into the implications of our capacity to experience the sublime in nature. With a background in traditional Chinese and Western abstract painting, Fu saw her transition a decade ago into new media as a natural extension of her technical and conceptual research. As a female Chinese American immigrant, she lives an international dialogue and a felt betweenness, through which she investigates our shared humanity through the lens of technology.
Fu’s work has been exhibited globally in the Venice Architecture Biennale, Ludwig Museum, Times Square ZAZ Billboard, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Pioneer Works, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago Game Space, Saatchi Art, Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale, Duende Art Museum, the NADA Art Fair, etc, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Pearl River Delta Art News. She has presented her work and research at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art; Harvard University; Duke University; Pace University; University of Chicago; the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; School of Visual Art; Parsons School of Designs; China Academy of Art; Tsinghua University; SIGGRAPH; SIGGRAPH Asia; International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA); Chinese American Art Faculty Symposium; and The Center of Chinese Art, Veritas Forum, Elmhurst Art Museum, Ox-bow School of Art and Artist’s Residency. In recent years, she has built and curated exhibitions and events in the VR WSPark – Metaverse Exhibition Project, co-hosted by the DSLCollection. Her work has been collected by the Duende Art Museum in Guangdong, China; the Ellen and Richard Sandor Family Collection; the Current Museum of Art; multiple NFT collections, and, at the age of five, by the National Art Museum of China.
Fu has been teaching full-time at NYU Tisch School of the Arts since 2019. She formerly taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the China Academy of Art (CAA), etc. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts Degree (2014) from the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation department at SAIC, a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) Degree (2012) in Studio Art from SAIC, another BFA (2011) in Painting from Southeast Missouri State University, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (2011) in Studio Art from Sichuan Normal University in China.
Working primarily with 3D software in a post-photographic framework, Fu creates scenes of experimental abstraction that translate the concept of liminality into the digital experience. The word liminal is often used to discuss the sublime within digital space and the VR experience, conjuring up notions of time, space, and perception, and echoing the experience of the sublime in nature. The term is borrowed from the field of anthropology, as anthropologist Victor Turner described as “the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage,” which “serves not only to identify the importance of in-between periods, but also to understand the human reactions to liminal experiences.” Fu’s work draws parallels between the physical, virtual, metaphysical, and multi-dimensional, setting the viewer in a liminal space at the threshold of each in what Turner called “a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms.” Digital space and the VR experience is what Turner would later make a distinction for as a liminoid experience, differing from the liminal in that the liminal engages in an experience out of our control, while the liminoid is a choice, often relating to play. Liminoid, then, is a simulation of the liminal, as the techno sublime experienced through digital space is a simulation of the sublime in nature. Within a digital space, we are offered an encounter to reflect on our response to the simultaneously beautiful and overwhelming artifice of the techno-sublime.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Working primarily with 3D software in a post-photographic framework, Fu creates scenes of experimental abstraction that translate the concept of liminality into the digital experience. The word liminal is often used to discuss the sublime within digital space and the VR experience, conjuring up notions of time, space, and perception, and echoing the experience of the sublime in nature. The term is borrowed from the field of anthropology, as anthropologist Victor Turner described as “the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of a rite of passage,” which “serves not only to identify the importance of in-between periods, but also to understand the human reactions to liminal experiences.” Fu’s work draws parallels between the physical, virtual, metaphysical, and multi-dimensional, setting the viewer in a liminal space at the threshold of each in what Turner called “a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms.” Digital space and the VR experience is what Turner would later make a distinction for as a liminoid experience, differing from the liminal in that the liminal engages in an experience out of our control, while the liminoid is a choice, often relating to play. Liminoid, then, is a simulation of the liminal, as the techno sublime experienced through digital space is a simulation of the sublime in nature. Within a digital space, we are offered an encounter to reflect on our response to the simultaneously beautiful and overwhelming artifice of the techno-sublime.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
One of the courses that profoundly changed the direction of my artistic mediums is “Intro to Experimental 3D”, taught by the one and only Prof. Claudia Hart at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I studied for my master’s degree in studio art. I fell in love with 3D simulation in her energetic ways of approaching this newish art medium and learned a lot from her both in the course and her practices as a professional digital art artist. I went on taking many other 3D imaging courses afterward, and I am not teaching this medium and setting up a new curriculum and expanding it into Virtual Production within NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where I am a professor now, besides continuing working within this medium in my own artist practice. Other artists like her who are also actively engaging in their digital artwork making and teaching inspire me every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://snowyunxuefu.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snowyunxuefu/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snowyunxuefu
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snow-yunxue-fu/
Image Credits
Snow Yunxue Fu