Artist Feature: "You Make Me Shy" by Yiru Chen

Interviewed and Translated by Shallen Chen
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist

Yiru Chen is a Toronto-based artist whose art practice focuses on interactive art. Her artwork aims to be “alive” by giving it the ability to collect data and produce a response. She has been drawing on research around interactive art that explores the term “viewer-participants:” the history of interactive art and the relationship between audience engagement and experience design. Through her artistic process, she questions how to make interactive artworks by borrowing the unique characteristic of interactive installation which can effectively talk to our senses thus allowing audiences to actively adjust their senses to get immersed in the environment that she creates.

Can you share with me how you started making interactive art?

My dream to become an artist was not well supported by my family when I lived in China. But I was lucky enough that my family encouraged me to study abroad after seeing my passion. I studied for six years at the University of Windsor, which gave me a chance to swim in the ocean of art. To me, art was about lines, colours, compositions and visuals until I learned so much more about different art forms, artists, histories, technologies and cultures in Canada. I was very familiar with my pencils and brushes but I felt ready to move on; to start expressing my feelings towards the world with a more modern and socially reactive art form. I am pleasantly surprised that I create interactive art.

我在中國讀書的時候我父母都不是特別支持我喜歡畫畫的理想。但是好在我高中念了國際學校，所以一讀了大學我還是做了自己喜歡做的事。在溫莎大學的六年時間裡我學到了很多，不管是從藝術形式，藝術史，藝術家和藝術文化，我接觸到了藝術的方方面面。藝術對於我來說不再是線條和顏色了。鉛筆和刷子陪伴了我很多很多年，我覺得我應該去接觸一些新的東西，尤其是在現在這種快節奏的時代裡，我覺得一個更新的東西更能夠被大眾所接受。我也是一個一直很願意去接受新事物的人，我願意把一些新的想法納入到我的互動藝術作品中。

  You mentioned “a more modern and socially reactive art form,” is this your definition of interactive art?

Not exactly, but I do think interactive art is modern and socially reactive. This art form has existed in the past, but with our current technology and social network, this art form is now more accessible. While I don’t have a firm definition for interactive arts, but I constantly ask myself when I am making art: how do I engage an audience in such a manner that they become participants, performers or activators in my work through interacting with it?

My audiences are participants because they view the artwork. They are performers because it is interactive art, and they are a part of the artwork. They are activators because a lot of my interactive arts use light and motion sensors. I need the audience to appear physically in front of the artwork to activate the work. I believe interactive arts should require movements from the audience in a physical space. In fact, as the artist, I view myself as the architect: I want to produce a space for my audiences that they feel connected to.

新和能被大眾接受其實不是我對互動藝術的全部理解，雖然我承認互動藝術確實比較新，也確實能吸引大眾的眼光，但我對互動藝術沒有確定的定義。每當我在想到一件作品的時候我都會試圖去讓我的觀眾能參與到作品中–我如何使觀眾成為參與者，畢竟觀眾對藝術品的參與度的互動經歷是很值得被注意的。觀眾是參與者和創造者，因為互動藝術中觀眾就是藝術的一部分；啟動裝置，因為在我的作品中我運用了很多傳感器，所以沒有觀眾這些作品就沒有靈魂，動不起來。我一直覺得互動藝術要把觀眾帶到一個現場，而我作為藝術家，就是讓觀眾能在現場體驗到超越現場的空間感。

  What is this space illustrating or introducing? Do you have one theme for your artwork, or do you “let the ideas flow” when you start making an art piece?

I went in many directions when I first started making interactive art. Endlessly, I explored websites from other artists, I watched tutorial videos on YouTube, or I pulled up Instagram and so much more. I did make some pieces, which were really fancy and techy, but then I felt that they were just superficial. They earned me likes on social media, but that was it. I grew tired of it, and that was when I realized that I had to stop living in these windows that I was so familiar with.

Today’s world is formed by a lot of these little windows; people appear in these windows with different identities. These windows are the mediums that most people use to communicate with the world and to express themselves because they are so accessible and convenient. We don’t see a lot of human interaction nowadays compared to the pre-smartphone era. I’m not saying that technology is bad, but our relationship to it could be dangerous.

During the pandemic, we all communicate with each other through technology. I enjoy working on my computer, smartphone and wearing my Apple watch. It’s not about technology being inherently “bad”; it’s about our relationship with technology and our relationship with ourselves. The space I’m trying to illustrate, hopefully, triggers a conversation between the audiences and the inner-self – the person separates from their online identity, the person who doesn’t belong to any digital network.

在我最初開始做互動藝術的時候，我其實嘗試過很多方向。我是一個非常喜歡找靈感的人，我看了很多藝術家的網站，YouTube的視頻，甚至Instagram。在學生時代裡做了一些很酷很有技術感的作品，很多人給我點讚之類的，但是一旦我靈感沒了，我只能再重複之前的動作，不停地去尋找一些讓我能做出讓人眼前一亮的作品。久而久之我發現這樣非常累，那個時候我就覺得我不能依賴不停地在網上找靈感來支撐我的創作了。

現在這個世界是由很多窗戶組成的，我們每天通過這些窗戶去和世界對話，去展現我們自己，我們在這些窗口裡擁有很多資源和個性。但是這只是因為這些窗口給我們帶來了方便。而且人和人之間的交流和之前沒有智能手機的時代相比，也確實減少了。我們也變得很依賴這些便捷。我不是說現代科技不好，但如何處理我們和這些科技間的關係是很關鍵的。

科技是必要的。現在在疫情隔離期間，我們就是通過各種app交流，工作，生活的。我很需要我的電腦，我的手機，我的智能手錶。我不是要去探討科技，而是要去探討我們和科技之間的關係，或者是說我們和自己的關係。我想要帶觀眾進入的空間，最好能夠引起觀眾和真實的自我產生對話–-這個真實的自我，讓我們可以離開琳瑯滿目的網絡空間，不屬於任何一個網絡族群。

“Today’s world is formed by a lot of these little windows; people appear in these windows with different identities. These windows are the mediums that most people use to communicate with the world and to express themselves because they are so accessible and convenient.”

— Yiru Chen

  Could you please introduce me to one of your interactive art about your “off-line” identities?

Sure. I made You Make Me Shy in 2017. While building better audience engagement, I started this series. It is also the first piece that talks about the whole “off-line identities” idea we just talked about. For this piece, I created an installation with 9 boxes, presented videos in a 3x 3 arrangement of faces on the wall. For the middle one in the arrangement, I gave this face a personality by personifying shyness in the interactive installation. If the work is left alone, the person’s internal character, illustrated by the middle box is revealed. You can see this person dancing, laughing, and being really active. However, if someone comes close to the wall and interrupts this personal comfort zone, the dancing person will retract into shyness and fade out to its surrounding video wall. Then all 9 boxes appear, and the same faces look shy.

我在2017年創作了【You Make Me Shy】，當時在研究如果促進觀眾參與度時做的第一部作品，也是我開始探討線下自我意識的第一部作品。這個作品是由9個3X3的方塊組成的，投影在一面內部。每個窗口裡一個人，主要關注點在人的臉上。中間那個方塊是中心，裡面的人是這個作品的互動中心。如果這個作品周圍沒有人，或者觀眾離得比較遠，中間窗口裡會出現一個人在跳舞，笑，或者做一些很放鬆的動作。但是如果一旦有人靠近了這個作品，在中間跳舞的人就會漸漸消失，最後中間這個窗口變成和周圍一摸一樣，都是看起來非常不自然和害羞的樣子。

You may have guessed that dancing character is my online social identity, and the surrounding shy, nervous character is my off-line identity. When audiences come close, they activate my off-line identity, but when they move further away from the wall, my outgoing online identity comes out. I’m not suggesting that one identity is better than the other, but I ask audiences to also consider the different characteristics co-existing within online and off-line identities, and to start the conversation with these “selves” and how we think.

你應該已經猜到了，中間那個跳舞的人是我在網絡中的自我，而周圍安靜的是我的線下自我意識。當觀眾靠近時，他們打破了我在網絡世界裡給自己打造出的安全距離，所以我的線下自我意識出現了；當觀眾遠離時，我的網絡自我意識因為又再次出現。這個作品的重點並非意在討論其中一個自我意識更好，而是希望觀眾在體驗了我的作品之後也能體會到兩個自我意識的共同存在，從而激發觀眾與自我間的對話。

About the writer, Shallen Chen

Shallen Chen is a Chinese Canadian artist based in Toronto. She received her Masters degree in Visual Arts from University of Windsor. Her works mainly focus on cultural ambivalence that resonant with people in Canada with a Chinese cultural background. Shallen Chen emphasizes the perspective of seeing a hybridized society through her own personal history. Shallen is now working as the Academic Manager at international academy in Ontario; her job is to ensure that the college offers quality education and to advise international students from all over the world.