{"id":54304,"date":"2017-07-13T13:48:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T11:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=54304"},"modified":"2017-07-13T13:48:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T11:48:34","slug":"lin-ke-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/lin-ke-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Chinese Creative Turning Digital Procrastination into Works of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lin Lin Ke, Like Me<\/em> (installation view)<\/p>\n

Dragging around folders, zooming in on random objects and double-clicking around in open space. With computers omnipresent in both work and private lives, idle fiddling via digital interface has become the equivalent of doodling in notebooks. Enter Chinese artist Lin Ke \u2013 pronounced similar to “link” \u2013 the master of digital procrastination.
\nGuided by music that ranges from meditational ambient to 8-bit dubstep, the BMW Art Journey nominee carries out operations whose aesthetic value is only strengthened by their ultimate fruitlessness. Whether moving around a hard drive icon atop a desert island background image in an imitation of Robinson Crusoe, or using the Photoshop polygon tool to draw stellar constellations into the night sky, Ke\u2019s onscreen actions are mesmerising. Yet despite his obvious talent, the 33-year-old never really planned to become a digital artist. When he enrolled at the China Academy of Art, he did so with the objective of becoming a painter.
\nHowever, he soon found himself amidst what he describes as a \u201ctechnological revolution\u201d, whereby students were often taught in computer rooms rather than studios. Unable to afford a working space of his own, he naturally decided to make his computer his atelier \u2013 and his visual interface his canvas.<\/p>\n

\"Lin Lin Ke,\u00a0Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 11.46.20<\/em>, 2016<\/p>\n

\n

“[the internet] can be a creativity killer” \u2013 Lin Ke<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What started out as a practical compromise evolved into an an ongoing learning process when he discovered the option to record his activities on his desktop. \u201cI try to grow along with the software, constantly testing its boundaries and possibilities,\u201d he explains. By offering viewers these insights into his practice, Ke is taking a step away from the smooth-edged functionality users expect from their devices. Through this experimental approach, the artist discovered the option to include himself in his screen recordings by using a webcam. In \u201cLightning 01\u201d he adds a bolt of natural electric discharge to a photo of a cloudy sky with the help of his cam’s flash function, and in \u201cPu\u201d, he creates the illusion of spitting folders onto his digital workspace every time the webcam shows him blowing into the camera.<\/p>\n

\"Lin Lin Ke, Maria<\/em>, 2016-2017<\/p>\n

Over time, Ke\u2019s presence in his works has increased. Lately, his role has changed from a comedic addition to screen icons, to a relatable character with a personal relationship to his computer. In his 2016 video \u201cOnce\u201d, for example, he is shown sitting in front of his screen and listening to lounge music on a breezy summer day. His face is a vague, sunlight-induced reflection on a kitschy image of cherry blossom trees and lightly flowing water. For Ke, who says he rarely ever visits galleries and mostly looks at artworks online, his PC is a window to the outside world, a working tool and an oasis of relaxation all at once. \u201cMy relationship to my computer is a very interactive and personal one,\u201d he affirms. \u201cIt is like my personal assistant helping me discover different kinds of possibilities, while also being a sort of guide, since its limits become my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lin Lin Ke, Like Me<\/em>, 2016<\/p>\n

Despite this close bond, he also acknowledges that technology and the internet \u201ccan be a creativity killer\u201d. Ke addresses this issue in \u201cLike Me\u201d, which was presented at his Bank Gallery solo booth at this year \u2019s Art Basel Hong Kong. In it, he becomes the star of his own music video, rapping a quote from a Sixties Star Trek episode over beats he found online. \u201cWhen dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating,\u201d he raps.\u201cYou just sit, living and re-living other lives left behind in the thought wreck”. Using the words of a fifty-year-old TV show, Ke describes the oversaturation-induced apathy that has left an entire generation of internet users unenthusiastically switching between tabs for hours on end. Played on a flat screen attached to the ceiling and floor with massive chains, the video is a stark contrast to the screensaver-aesthetic photos and surrounding it.<\/p>\n

\"Lin Lin Ke, Love<\/em>, 2012<\/p>\n

Ironically, if Ke wins the BMW Art Journey prize, he will be given the opportunity to travel anywhere on earth to make art. Previous winner Samson Young used the opportunity to record the sounds of church bells in different cities around the world and later weave them into his sound-related artworks. Ke, on the other hand, needs only his computer to create. So where would he go? \u201cMaybe I\u2019d travel to the lonely island on my desktop background that appeared in my Robinson Crusoe video,\u201d he smirks. \u201cI spend so much time looking at it each day, it would be nice to see it in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese artist using his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139,3980],"tags":[4516,9001,9002,9003,8111],"class_list":["post-54304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","category-tech","tag-bmw-art-journey","tag-laptop","tag-like-me","tag-lin-ke","tag-tech-art"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/lin-ke-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/lin-ke-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. This creativity manifests itself in SLEEK\u2019s quarterly print publication, digital and social media channels.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/\",\"name\":\"The Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68\"},\"description\":\"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet the Chinese Creative Turning Digital Procrastination into Works of Art\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68\",\"name\":\"sleek\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sleek\"},\"description\":\"She\u2019s currently writing her thesis on immersive installation and has a soft spot for techno, existential art memes and nineties sunglasses.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art","description":"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/lin-ke-art\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art","og_description":"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/lin-ke-art\/","og_site_name":"Sleek Magazine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/","article_published_time":"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sleekmag","twitter_site":"@sleekmag","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"sleek","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"4\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/","name":"Schlankes Magazin","description":"Sleek ist Deutschlands f\u00fchrendes unabh\u00e4ngiges Medienhaus\/Marke f\u00fcr Kreativit\u00e4t und Innovation mit Sitz in Berlin, der kreativen Hauptstadt der Welt. Diese Kreativit\u00e4t manifestiert sich in der viertelj\u00e4hrlich erscheinenden Print-Publikation, den digitalen und Social-Media-Kan\u00e4len von SLEEK.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/","name":"The Chinese Artist Turning Digital Procrastination into Art","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-13T11:48:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68"},"description":"Lin Ke uses his MacBook screen to probe the depths of the modern technological condition","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/article\/lin-ke-art\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet the Chinese Creative Turning Digital Procrastination into Works of Art"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fd4c1b41c96eff389e4781115613a68","name":"schlank","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28a91a7b03694a9860c1590004521e06b91644c079476028047b1a7f5e3eb6e9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sleek"},"description":"Zurzeit schreibt sie ihre Doktorarbeit \u00fcber immersive Installationen und hat ein Faible f\u00fcr Techno, existentielle Kunstmemes und Sonnenbrillen aus den Neunzigern.","url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/author\/sleek\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}