jihui Digital Salon
in cooperation with The Project Room@Chelsea Art Museum
presents BabyLove
by Shu Lea Chang

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 - 2:30-3:30 PM
Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Free with museum admission.

http://agent.netart-init.org
http://www.chelseaartmuseum.org

Shu Lea Cheang will discuss "BabyLove," the second installment of her "Locker Baby Project," in the context of her work. "BabyLove," currently on view at the Chelsea Art Museum, is a mobile wifi installation that consists of 6 large size teacups -- auto-mobile units modeled after teacup rides found on old-time playgrounds -- with 6 "clone babies." The clone babies, inspired by Ryu Murakami's novel Coin Locker Babies, are each adorned with a locker key, an LED display with a random locker number and wifi connection. Love songs uploaded by the public via the Web are coded as "memory and emotion" (ME) data for the clone babies and can be retrieved and jumbled by museum visitors who take a teacup ride with the baby clones. Navigating the teacup, visitors shuffle and rearrange the love songs in the baby engine through their choice of direction and the variation of speed. Mixing nostalgia for a seemingly simpler age with network technologies, "BabyLove" explores the Internet's impact on cultural practices.
http://babylove.biz

Shu Lea Cheang works in the field of net-based installation, social interface and film production. Her net art / installation works have been commissioned and permanently collected by the Walker Art Center, MN ("Bowling Alley," 1995); NTT[ICC], Tokyo ("Buy One Get One," 1997); and the Guggenheim Museum ("Brandon," 1998-1999). Since 2001, she has been engaged in the three-part Locker Baby project - "BabyPlay" (NTT[ICC], 2001), "BabyLove" (TMOA, Taiwan, 2005), "BabyWork" (to be realized). Her web-based public performances include "Garlic=Rich Air" (Creative Time, New York 2002), "Drive by Dining" (Browserday, Amsterdam 2003), "Fluid" (Detox, Norway 2004), and "Milk" (56K bastard TV, 2005). She is currently working on "MobiOpera," to be presented in January 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival, and LOVEME2030London (commissioned by Iniva, London), which is slated as opening solo show for Iniva's Rivington Place launch in 2008. (http://www.iniva.org/season/atlasII/project_12)

Links:
http://brandon.guggenheim.org
http://www.take2030.net
http://kop.kein.org
http://www.i-k-u.com
http://www.mobiopera.mobi

jihui (the meeting point), a self-regulated digital salon, invites all interested people to send ideas for discussion/performance/etc.
jihui is where your voice is heard and your vision shared.
jihui is a joint public program by NETART INITIATIVE and INTELLIGENT AGENT
http://www.netart-init.org | http://www.intelligentagent.com
THE PROJECT ROOM is a special projects and education program that brings together international artists, curators, cultural, educational and corporate organizations.
Producer / Curator: Nina Colosi