[ISEA2011] Artist Statement: Christina Nguyen Hung — Mapping the Empire

Artist Statement

In Mapping the Empire v.1, four HD video cameras are strapped to my wrists and ankles as I traverse a rock formation. A “map” of the terrain emerges from the process that suggests a mode of perception that is distributed, and polyvalent. This work is inspired in part by Umberto Eco’s essay, “On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1” The “map” I create nonsensical — more accurate as a record of motion defined by the logic of living flesh, rather than a systematic grid-like construction of space and time. [source: Vimeo].

Video: Mapping the Empire (excerpt)

  • Christina Nguyen Hung is an interdisciplinary artist who works with electronic and biological media. Her work has been presented internationally at numerous venues including the exhibition “A Knock at the Door” in New York; the “Wats:on? Interdisciplinary Festival” at Carnegie Mellon University; ISEA2008 and ISEA2011 and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) in Taichung, Taiwan. in the late 90’s Christina co-founded subRosa, a cyberfeminist art and research collective. As a member of subRosa she created “participatory Information Theater” artworks such as “Sex and Gender in the Biotech Century” a sex-ed class designed to help people learn about their options for retooling in the biotech century, and “Expo Emmagenics,” a biotech trade show designed to help “familiarize women with new Advanced Reproductive Technologies or ART.” Hung is currently at Clemson University where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and the Ph.D program for Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design (RCID)