Escaping from Anthropocentrism: "Synthetic Ecology" That Has Past but Points to the Future

On 28th October, the first Beijing Art & Technology Biennale (abbr. BATA) kicked off at 798 CUBE. Taking “Synthetic Ecology” as the title, the Biennale features three exhibition chapters “Radical Nature”, “Entangled Life” and “Interwoven Evolution”, presenting the tension between nature and technology, discussing the condition of the post-human era, and forecasting the possibility of the evolution of life in the future. By doing so, the exhibition intends to escape from the scope of anthropocentrism so as to respond to the increasingly obvious crisis in this era, such as resource exhaustion, global warming, climate crisis, the limits to growth, etc. Therefore, “Synthetic Ecology” is searching for a new consensus and possibility in the era of accelerationism with the continuous development of technology and expansion of self-awareness.

The first BATA is co-organized by the 798 Art District and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, with Song Xiewei, the Dean of the School of Design at CAFA, as the Chief Director. Hera Lee, the Executive Director of 798 CUBE, serves as the Exhibition Director, and Professor Chen Xiaowen and Wang Naiyi serve as the co-curators. As the Chief Director Song Xiewei has mentioned, BATA gathers global participants in art, technology, ecology, and key decision fields, discussing profound issues regarding humans, technology, and the future through emerging media such as digital technology. While examining the urgent issues of the moment together, the participants in BATA explore how art plus technology can effectively participate in and promote ecological restoration and climate governance in various ways. 

In the 1970s, English scientist James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system. The hypothesis believes that the Earth is not just a place where people live but a “living” system with a complete dynamic balance, which provides a theoretical vision beyond the dualistic thinking structure for solving the current crisis of sharp contradictions.