On December 27, 2021, the Baidu AI Developer Conference was held in the Xi'an APP. At this conference, Feng Tang, as a special guest, told the story of himself and the meta-universe art, and released his first meta-universe art work - "Yuan Cube".
From VR to metaverse
When it comes to Feng Tang, many people can say several of his masterpieces, and have seen movies and TV series adapted from these novels, such as "Everything Grows", "Beijing, Beijing" and so on. Those who know a little more also know that in addition to writing over the years, they have also studied art: calligraphy and painting are important parts of his artistic career.
In addition to his well-known status as a writer, Feng Tang has had a full-time job with no relationship with literature and art for the past two decades - professional managers. From McKinsey to China Resources to CITIC Capital, he has worked an average of 80-100 hours a week in the past two decades, far exceeding the time and energy he has spent on literary and artistic creation.
Feng Tang
However, it is this job that makes Feng Tang have a keen insight into the emerging cutting-edge science and technology, and has a long-term concern for the development of VR and AR technology. In 2015, he wrote about the application of brain-computer interface technology to "sex simulation" in the novel "Goddess One"; in 2017, he gave a speech in Shanghai with the theme of "The future has come, seize the time, use the flesh well".
Last year, he began to combine VR technology with art, and in collaboration with Baidu's Greek team, he held an art exhibition called "Color Space", which put the entire exhibition into the virtual space, "in today's terms, it is put into the 'metaverse'".
"It's the result of a combination of my investor consciousness and artist mentality. I am an investor, and one of the core elements of investment, which is the 'trend', is the future. At the same time, I am a novelist, an artist, and I have imagination to do the support. ”
For Feng Tang, who has long been concerned about the development of science and technology, the encounter with the meta-universe is an accident and inevitability. After the "Color Void" exhibition, Feng Tang realized that VR technology can allow the audience to perceive art in a completely different way. At that time, we didn't know what "metaverse" was, and "metaverse" was not popular at all. ”
Immediately after, the concept of "metaverse" and "metaverse" began to spread around the world and became well known to passers-by. At the end of 2021, Xi Lang approached Feng Tang and hoped that he could make a keynote speech at the Baidu Developer Conference at the end of the year, and at the same time create a special artwork for the meta-universe.
Feng Tang readily agreed.
The birth of the "MetaCube"
The speech was not too difficult for Feng Tang, but creating a work of art for the metaverse bothered him a little: creation has always been the will of the Immortal Heaven, and it is impossible to find it.
After taking on this task, Feng Tang would lose sleep from time to time. One day, while taking a bath and drinking champagne, he fell asleep and had a strange dream.
"Chinese characters" flew into Feng Tang's dream, they are no longer flat, two-dimensional characters, but a group of three-dimensional Chinese characters. Before he wakes up, these Chinese characters form a cube.
"That's it, Meta Cube." Feng Tang, who woke up from the dream, was very excited, and he finally found the prototype of the meta-universe artwork. "For artistic creation, there is a starting point, and it is a wild stride. The most difficult thing is that starting point. From 0 to 1, the most difficult, from 1 to infinity, persistence and perfection, relatively not difficult. ”
From this origin, Feng Tang constructed a cube suspended in the void in the metaverse, with a simple brush character on each side: O, one, none, yuan, universe, and universe. It is an expansive cube that can be as small as a dice or as large as a city.
"In the Yuan Cube, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body may be lost or strengthened. The three dimensions of the metacube can be extended to four dimensions or even fourteen dimensions. You can meditate, drink tea, play gua, open your eyes, and the six sides of the yuan cube may show different inkblots, colors, clouds, and poetry. ”
On January 25, 2022, the "Yuan Cube" art installation will also be officially exhibited at the Beijing China World Mall. This is the first and only physical installation in the world of Feng Tang's first meta-universe artwork "Metacube 0.1".
Crafted from metal, the installation will be three-dimensional with a very oriental calligraphy and present a cyberpunk style. The bottom bracket gear design represents time, the cube represents space, and the whole device symbolizes the folding, overlapping and collision of time and space in the future world.
For the future of meta-universe art, Feng Tang is obviously very optimistic.
"The metacosm is not only the future, it is the present. There is a word in Buddhism called "pre-flow", and only by walking into the river can we cultivate the right results. It is better to wait and see than to act. The imagination space of the meta-universe is very large, it is still in the pioneering period, and the white expanse of the earth is just suitable for thousands of troops and horses to go in and spread wilderness. ”
Q&A with 冯唐
Q: Last year's "Color Space" exhibition combined VR technology with calligraphy art, is there anything different about the creative process than in the past?
A: The traditional exhibition is to frame the works, hang them on the wall, and wait for you to see. In the past two years, the popular immersive exhibition, walking into the museum, sound and photoelectric technology has been booming, crackling, very oppressive. The "immersion" I envision is that a man is quiet, the pavilion is unique to him, all the works are open to him, and the world is his alone. This idea, Baidu Xi'an team helped me realize.
Say more. In life, everywhere I go, I must go to local museums and art galleries. Generally speaking, the exhibition experience is not good, mainly because there are many people, sometimes you have to queue up, you have to endure noise, and you can't really enjoy the art and appreciate the beauty in real tranquility. Beauty is there, people are here, quietly, looking at each other tirelessly, how good. VR technology can do this. Now, with VR eyes on, you can see Feng Tang's calligraphy; tomorrow, with VR eyes on, you can see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
Q: In the process of making metacubes, did you have any new views on the metacosm?
A: Buddhism says that there are three thousand worlds. But in reality, we are just in one world and are limited by this world. The time has come to break the world and create it. The future is here, How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world. This is what Shakespeare said in the play The Tempest.
Q: You mentioned "being limited by the world", so what are the advantages of meta-cosmic art compared to traditional art?
A: For now, the metacosm cancels out many of the distances between art, between the eyes/flesh of the artwork and the viewer, and between the artwork and the consumer. At the same time, it gives a new form to the work of art, which is no longer a painting, a Bottle of the Song Dynasty, no longer a solid, but a digital code that can change in a thousand ways (I want to emphasize that the code is not virtual, the code is the entity), and it breaks all the boundaries of art. The possibilities of the metacosm are infinite, and this infinity requires all of us to invest in creating it together.
Interview & Written by: Ah Xu
Images courtesy of respondents