Artist Statement

The question, "What does it mean to be a gay Chinese game media artist?" is central to my art practice.

In my game media art, I aim to explore what is considered unconventional, seeking to alter the aura of the quotidian. I look for volatile elements to incorporate into my art.

My art reflects my excitement, expressed through vibrant colors. My works' visual forms depart from and return to the basic shapes of computer graphics: lines, circles, triangles, and rectangles. My virtual works rely on screens and projectors, which emit light. I consider these creations as works of light. Occasionally, my virtual pieces assume sculptural forms through the use of 3D printers.

My game media art practice has evolved through two phases. From 2017 to 2022, I explored queer themes through my Chinese subjectivity, without a direct engagement with the gay Chinese tradition. Since 2022, my focus shifted to gay Chinese cultural heritage, combining game design and generative art with premodern / pre-1911 gay Chinese literature and culture.

Technology is central, serving as a tool, medium, material, and method, integrated with conceptual, aesthetic, and philosophical aspects. The agency of technology, randomness, and emergent behaviors shape my art philosophy, resulting in art embodying endless parallel universes. I also critically investigate AI's internal mechanisms through art.

Bio

TC Zhou is a game media artist of Asian descent. He combines generative art with gay literature written in classical Chinese. Blending programming and natural languages (in both Chinese and English), he creates generative art that is immersive and interactive. His work is driven by machine intelligence, producing parallel universes. In addition, TC Zhou creates experimental queer games that explore queer lives. TC Zhou's games draw on his own experiences and have covered topics such as queer temporality, sex education, gay liberation, destigmatization, and the human sexuality spectrum. TC Zhou received an Master of Fine Arts in media arts from UCLA and an undergraduate degree from NYU. His work was supported by Points Center (Suzhou), shown at V2_ lab (Rotterdam), SIGGRAPH DAC (Digital Arts Community), SIGGRAPH Art Paper (Denver 2024), Top Art Space (Guangzhou), The Broad Art Center at UCLA, UCLA Queer Graduate Research Conference (2022 & 2023), Spectra Studio (LA) and Art Machines 2 (CityU Hong Kong).

ffMaer@Gmail.com