Under the Cyber Eyes
This curatorial project is based on RAAD researcher Dr Shiyu Gao’s Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship research project about the intersection of surveillance and expanded media art in contemporary China. Shiyu reflects on the project here.
Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of curating Under the Cyber Eyes, an exhibition that explores how contemporary artists engage with digital identity, surveillance, and the increasingly blurred boundaries between virtual and physical realities. Presented both online and in person at the Institute of Wales Science and Art, the exhibition marks the first public outcome of my postdoctoral research, supported by the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship hosted by CCVA at Birmingham School of Art.
The photo shows visitors interacting with avatars inside the virtual gallery space during the opening of Under the Cyber Eyes. In the physical gallery, in-person audiences used a controller to navigate the virtual environment, creating an interactive experience that blurred the boundary between digital and physical presence.
The idea for this exhibition emerged from my longstanding interest in how art engages with digital technologies to reshape the way we construct subjectivities and identities. As trained in both artistic practice and academic research, I see curation not only as a way of presenting work but as a method of research itself—a means of generating critical dialogue. My academic work, which includes the development of the concept expanded media art in my doctoral thesis, Beyond the Binary Body, challenges rigid dichotomies—between human and non-human, digital and analogue, or East and West—and to rethink how identity and subjectivity are mediated in technologically saturated environments. Under the Cyber Eyes brings these inquiries into public view.
Installation view of Under the Cyber Eyes, 2024
The exhibition features thought-provoking multimedia works by Yizhi Chen, Zhiyi Kwong (Kwong4Ever), LODTALAD, Shangyang Yu, and Meng Zhao. Their practices speak to a generation of artists who are responding to algorithmic control, virtual representation, and digital resistance. From glitch aesthetics and avatar embodiments to hyperreal drawings and intimate explorations of loss, the exhibition inspires the viewer to rethink how the self is mediated through digital technologies and question the politics of visibility in the digital age.
What makes the exhibition particularly distinctive is its immersive and interactive format. Visitors to the in-person gallery could use a controller to navigate a virtual exhibition space, connecting physically with digital environments in real-time. Online visitors entered the space as avatars, exploring artworks and environments from multiple vantage points. These curatorial strategies not only enhanced accessibility but also created a powerful sense of co-presence—blurring the divide between audience, artwork, and environment.
Installation view, Under the Cyber Eyes exhibition, 2024
The opening with a curatorial speech and tour received inspiring and generous responses from a diverse international audience. Guests joined both in person and virtually from the UK, USA, China, and beyond—including colleagues from the Royal College of Art London, the University of Edinburgh, Lanzhou University, the Deputy Dean of the Wales College, and representatives from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and China Academy of Art. The feedback was incredibly affirming. One participant described the exhibition as ‘a powerful critical space that invites reflection on our digitally mediated selves,’ while another said it was ‘an innovative curatorial experiment that renders the invisible architectures of surveillance both visible and emotionally resonant.’
This project has opened new pathways for interdisciplinary dialogue. Working with CCVA and Birmingham City University has provided a vibrant platform for research-led practice, international collaboration, and knowledge exchange. The exhibition serves as a springboard for future collaborations—workshops, symposia, and artist commissions—that will unfold across the UK and internationally.
Under the Cyber Eyes is not the conclusion of a research project—it’s the beginning of an ongoing inquiry into the politics of vision, technology, digital resistance, and subjectivity in our algorithmic age.