Laboratories
The fundamental problem bothering scientists for hundreds of years is the way of observing and documenting. To me, the foundation stone of my practice is the approach of seeing I choose. Rather than being a participant, I would like to be a spectator keeping certain distance from my subject. By saying to be a spectator, I incline to compare my creation process with scientific experiments process. Scientific experiments process requires a series of precise operations within rigidly structured environments: depositing particles on silicon slice, gathering signal reflection from sample’s surface, and analyzing data through computer program. As a scientist, one needs to gather every group of information in order to draw a proper conclusion. As an artist, I choose to document every detail so as to unfold the panorama. On this level, I become a spectator as both scientist and artist.
In most cases, science is based on collecting images or data from experiments and uses them to conclude or demonstrate theory, which means a process from concrete to abstract. In the realm of art, photography is concerned as the most realistic way to capture concrete views. But consider the way it cuts out a fragment from real life, eliminates all other information from environments, that is a way of abstracting. They both devote themselves to reveal the real entities of an unintelligible world, behind phenomena. When I am using a camera to see the world, it is always like the way a scientist uses microscope observes his samples. Quoting Nabokov’s words, “by minifying the huge and magnifying the tiny, we get to the equilibrium point between knowledge and imagination. And that is where art lives.” Photography gives me this ability to dissect what appears in front of my eyes and reconstruct the connections under my own understanding. It is not a looking at or a looking through but a looking with.
实验室
困扰科学家数百年的问题一直在于如何观察与纪录。对我来说，创作的根本同样是我所选择的观察方式。相较于作为一个参与者，我更愿意做一个保持距离的旁观者。所谓作为一个旁观者，我想将我的创作过程和科学实验做一个比较。科学实验总是要求在严格控制的环境中进行每一步精确地操作：在硅片上沉积粒子，收集从样品反射出的信号，使用软件分析数据。作为一个科学家需要收集所有的数据来进行合理的推论，而作为一个艺术家，我选作展现每一个细节来呈现这幅全景图。在这样的过程中，科学家和艺术家的身份融合在了一起。
在多数情况下，科学是基于收集图像和数据并在此基础上得出结论或者论证命题，这也是一个从具象到抽象的过程。在艺术领域中，摄影通常被认为是具有复制现实能力的手段。不过考虑摄影截取时间的片段，去除所有环境的信息，这也是抽象的过程。它们同样致力于揭示现实背后所隐藏的本质。当我使用相机观察世界时，总像是科学家在显微镜下观察他们实验样品的方式。纳博科夫曾说：“在世界的大小比例之中，似乎在想象和知识之间有着某个微妙的汇合点，这一个汇合点是通过缩小大的事物和放大小的达到的，这在本质上具有艺术性。”通过摄影我可以剖析眼前的现实，然后以我自己的方式重新建构。摄影不是观看的物体或者观看的手段，而更像是观看的方式。