Gengu: The Immutable
Keny Chan, Niels Gercama 2024
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‘The Immutable’ is an interactive installation exploring the liminal space between time’s linear progression and its impact on collective consciousness in the Anthropocene.
It employs the information age as the intermedium, recognizing information as pivotal in our era. By amplifying and reimagining contemporary content, the installation creates a surreal tableau of temporal dissolution, with imagery spanning eras cyclically converging within one space.
A camera sensitive to hand gestures invites viewers to disrupt temporal cycles, simulating the human impulse to manipulate time. AI generated content within curated media adds another layer, showcasing modern technology’s role in asserting agency over temporal anxieties.
Time, Condensed
Keny Chan 2023
In thermodynamics, time is perceived as an illusion, arising from the process of increasing entropy. This suggests that everything that has ever existed or occurred will persist in a different form until the heat death of the universe. I like to envision this concept romantically as all things converging into one space, where time loses its flow, and all memories become 'frozen' in eternal timelessness. To emulate the warmth of this imagined elternalty, I experimented with high-speed photography to capture underwater-like movements. Through layers of decaying agar jelly, dried plants, and resin, I attempt to condense the multi-dimensional nature of time into a still space with flowing movements. 'Time, Condensed,' is the first attempt of my new art series which delves into the intricate relationship between humanity and the ever-elusive concept of time.
Life And Death of Hans Maximilian
Federico Zurani,
Lora Bourova,
Keny Chan, Niels Gercama 2023
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LIFE AND DEATH OF HANS MAXIMILIAN is a modern interpretation of the famous Tamagotchi game (a handheld digital pet simulation toy, 1996). The project is based on Chomsky’s grammar hierarchy theory and Panini’s Sanskrit grammar documentation “Aṣṭādhyāyī”. The game is based on a language model within the Tamagotchi context, based on opposing normative concepts: void/fullness, up/down, material/soul, noun/verb/adjective, in order to construct a normative form of communication. The generated word meanings are classified in a node tree, forming “meaning classes” which then build 3-word sentences. The user is required to read and understand the needs of Generative Tamagotchi, which are communicated in normative phrases and body language, and then respond to them by typing a suitable response with a controller within a specific time frame.
