Elektra Virtual Museum

Encourage and promote research and contemporary creation

Visit the Elektra Virtual Museum by downloading the exhibition

Français

Random Access

Zike HE

Random Access Zike HE

5TH VH AWARD - FINALIST ZIKE HE [CN]

Random Access is one of the modes to read and write datum (as in random access memory, RAM), by which any arbitrary address can be visited in equal time no matter where it is located. It also refers to how we process memory, especially in the time interwoven deeply with digital technology.

As a speculative hypothesis of the experience in the Cloud world, the film is, however, set in real locations of the so-called Chinese data capital, Guiyang, a mountainous and cloudy city, where many big data infrastructures locate, including the first iCloud data center in Asia and the host of FAST telescope.

The story is constructed based on a fictional narrative that happens on the second day after the city's central data center unexpectedly crashes and reboots. The server keeper meets the cloud system in a disordered digital world where they become a passenger and a woman who is a retired taxi driver. They drive through the city, get lost, and try to navigate. They also recall the ocean that covered this continent hundreds of millions of years ago, with a shell fossil that can track ancient memories and a pulsar star that guides the direction in the depths of the universe, as if they're traveling and entering fragments of memories stored in the Cloud. Finally, they reach the end of the road and find themselves in another memory of a stone beach that is going to sink under the water soon after the hydropower station dam is built. Gradually, they also recall each other's forgotten memories, like they were not really strangers.

YEAR 2023
CATEGORY Video
DIMENSIONS Variable dimensions
DURATION 14'20
CREDIT 5th VH AWARD Hyundai Motor Group
EXHIBITION METAMORPHOSIS-METAVERSE Pavilion 2 EVM
URL https://vhaward.com/the-5th-award/
Artist page