Yiou Wang
Batopia, for which Yiou Wang received a CAF grant, is a first-person VR game that lets the player see the world through a bat in conceptual, technological, and imaginative lenses—to immerse themselves in the sensory umwelt (subjective experienced world) of another animal whose sensory apparatuses are very different from ours.
Trans-Sensory Mapping, integrating scientific research with the interactive medium of game, simulates a bat’s phenomenal world amidst a wide range of cognitive, social, sexual, and esthetic contexts, mapping bats’ complex musical sensibility and sonic meaning-making to the player’s immersive artistic experience, with slowed-down field recordings of Great Sac-Winged Bats. The game connects people with nonhuman animals by opening people up to their sensory umwelt, deepening interspecies connections and serving the culture of a larger, more-than-human web of life.
Yiou Wang is a nomadic Chinese artist in the field of media arts, encompassing video, immersive and interactive arts, game, installation and XR, with a prior training in architectural design. She graduated with an M.Arch from Harvard Graduate School of Design, receiving the Mind Brain Behavior Interdisciplinary Award. She has exhibited, spoken and received awards worldwide at exhibitions and festivals, including SXSW, SIGGRAPH, the Red Dot Award, Muse Award, and Asian Media Arts Festival. She was a global shortlisted finalist for S+T+ARTS Prize in 2022.
Yiou’s multidisciplinary and immersive exploration of bats’ umwelt relates to Gal Nissim’s practice, which sheds light on the complex lives of synanthropic animals through the intersection of technology, science, and art.
Batopia will be on show at :iidrr Gallery at the end of July 2024, and you can watch the game’s trailer here.