Miao Ying

Miao Ying holds an MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, Alfred, New York, and a BFA in New Media Arts from the China Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou. With deep knowledge of fast-changing technology, Miao constantly expands the field of artistic expression in the digital sphere. Her work often takes form in a hybrid of virtual and physical worlds, allowing each viewer to discover different paths in their interaction with the work. While the key ideology of Miao’s work resides in the virtual world of the website, the artist equates the physical part of the work with a space of experience, ‘like an Apple Store’ where consumers can experience the material aspect of the product in person.

Miao’s ongoing series Hardcore Digital Detox (2018–) is a multipart, multidimensional work with the namesake website at its core. Created for Hong Kong’s M+ for its inaugural series of digital commissions, the work inverts the popular idea of digital detox—a temporary suspension of the use of various electronic platforms such as smartphones and social media apps. Hardcore Digital Detox provides a spa-like online environment where people can visit and follow meditative instructions interspersed with sage advice and proverbs from ancient China.

For HT22 Miao presents an updated version of Hardcore Digital Detox that specifically references Hawai‘i and its ubiquitous image as a vacation destination. On the surface, the hash-tagged texts seem to innocently guide us toward the attainment of happiness; however, upon deeper reading and actual physical exercise in following the instructions, the participant realizes that our perceived contentment is controlled by algorithms. For example, a soothing voice tells us, ‘You don’t need a better product, you need a better self, therefore, a better life.’ The moment of enlightenment comes with the realization that truisms like these are the rhetoric of post-materialist, late-capitalist lifestyle branding. Another clue to the sinister nature of this digital environment is found in the fact that the path to blissful yet predetermined satisfaction is led by a unicorn, implying both the idea of fantasy as well as the term used in the financial and technology sectors for massively successful tech start-ups. By doubling down on the clickbait of digital detox, Miao’s Hardcore Digital Detox playfully co-opts the viewer as a covert participant, exposing the technological system of control that is omnipresent in our everyday world.