ZZYW (Yang Wang & Zhenzhen Qi) is a New York-based art and research duo who examines the cultural, political, and educational imprints of computation. Their work ThingThingThing (2019)—which is presented as part of the ongoing exhibition “World on a Wire”, copresented by Rhizome and Hyundai Motor Company—is a computational system made for collaborative worlding, resulting in a live simulation in which entities generated by users interact in an ever-evolving three-dimensional world.

In this hands-on online workshop, ZZYW will introduce participants to ideas from systems theory that can be applied to computational, social, and biological phenomena, from Tulip Mania to the human body. Drawing on these principles, participants will take part in a collective worlding project, designing their own algorithmic entities (or Things) to help populate ThingThingThing. Participants can change parameters and custom behaviors of their algorithmic Thing through a custom made interface, collaborate with each other, and speculate on the collective outcome of the newborn world. The resulting simulation will be accessible online for everyone.In this 90-minute, 3-part workshop, participants will design “Things” and inject them into an AI system.

In the first part, the artists will guide the participants through a quick overview of systems, including examples of biological and social systems such as the human body, Tulip Mania, and Exquisite Corpse. In the second part, participants will undertake collective drawing on a shared whiteboard, culminating in individual designs of Things. In the last part, participants will port their Things into a collectively made virtual world. The final simulation outcome will be accessible online for everyone. 

RSVP here.

Read ZZYW's writing on ThingThingThing here.

This workshop will be conducted in English. A later workshop will be hosted in Mandarin.

This event is presented in conjunction with “World on a Wire,” the first exhibition in a new partnership between Hyundai Motor Company and Rhizome of the New Museum to showcase leading digital art globally. ThingThingThing is currently on view at Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, and online at https://worldonawire.net.