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    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
    From the series "Yichu 1.0" | DER GREIF
    From the series "Yichu 1.0"
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    YICHU 1.0

    Artist Feature of Yichu Li

    In a world where human consciousness transcends the limits of flesh, “YICHU 1.0” explores the raw emotional journey of transformation, self-reconstruction, and collective evolution. As a three-chapter experimental moving image work, the project traverses protopian futures, digital embodiment, and AI-mediated identity. Through a blend of machine-generated visuals, layered soundscapes, and speculative narration, it examines how memory and selfhood mutate in an age of algorithmic life, inviting viewers into a dreamlike, digital rite of passage.

    “NAVIGATING” is the second chapter of this series, investigating the friction between free will and programmed destiny, the fragile space where human agency meets algorithmic determinism. The work began with a series of questions: What happens when you upload your soul into a system that doesn’t believe you have one? Would anything of ‘you’ remain once memories are processed, archived, and rendered as code? What becomes of desire, protection, or will when identity is disembodied?

    As an artist working daily with digital tools, I often find myself in a state of confrontation and negotiation with artificial intelligence. The experience resembles a high-speed chess match: uncertain, recursive, and inexorably shaped by unseen rules. “NAVIGATING” translates this tension into a symbolic performance of sixteen mirror duels that together form the thirty-two pieces of a chessboard. Each figure moves autonomously, yet all are contained within the same architecture of control.

    Ultimately, these images depict neither victory nor defeat, but the raw act of navigating itself, an oscillation between the physical self and its digital counterpart. In my practice, technology is never neutral; it emerges as a mirror, an opponent, and a witness. Through its friction, I encounter not an escape from reality, but a sharper recognition of who we are becoming.

    Yichu Li is part of Issue 18 by Guest Editor Hank Willis Thomas.

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    Yichu Li

    Yichu Li is an award-winning artist whose practice integrates moving image, image making, and live performance to explore the intersections of identity, technology, and digital culture. An Artist Fellow of the National Arts Club, a Female Photography Foundation grantee, winner of the Best AI Film at the Asian Art Film Festival and Light Year Award, Yichu was a finalist for the Lumen Prize, Arte Laguna, and Next Thing Moving Image Prizes. Her work is exhibited globally at leading institutions.