Hosted by DOSSIER and co-organized by the Beijing Drama Carnival, this project explores the diverse possibilities of shanzhai culture through performance art, the creative market “Prototype Electricity Conference,” internet gaming, workshops, site-specific exhibitions, and forums. It focuses on artistic creation, digital technology, cultural production, and sustainable living—blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual, the experimental and the everyday.
As the project’s art manager, I oversee an immersive game experience that invites participants to ask: What happens when you take over someone else’s body?
Set in a fictional coastal town, this interactive experience offers players a chance to rediscover excitement and connection in life. In a time where the future feels eerily present, technological innovation races ahead of human cognition. As AI continues to “evolve,” we witness a parallel degeneration of the human mind—manifesting in rising psychological issues among youth, social disconnection in middle age, and the elderly’s sense of chaos and alienation.
Through the “False City, True Feelings” AI Game Club, we seek to return agency to the individual via super tools and creative interfaces. One of the core works is ARKALA (2023) by game designer Guan Xinyu (Benjamin Guan)—a layered exploration of production tools and collective psychology. Set in a real offline scenario, ARKALA invites both players and audiences to re-examine the self, confront fragmentation, and imagine new forms of life and connection in the metaverse.
