On the second day after the unexpected crash and reboot of the city’s central data centre, the server keeper meets the cloud system in a disordered digital world where they become a passenger and a woman who is a retired taxi driver. Together, they embark on a journey through the city, navigating its streets and trying to locate their sense of direction. Along the way, they reminisce about the ancient memories of this continent, once covered by the ocean, with the assistance of a shell fossil that traces the past and a pulsar star that guides them through the depths of the universe. It feels as if they are traveling through fragments of memories stored in the Cloud, or an expanded version of themselves. Eventually, their journey leads them to a stone beach within one of these memories. This place will soon sink into water after the construction of a hydropower station dam. In computer science, random access is one of the modes to read and write datum, by which any arbitrary address can be visited in equal time no matter where it is located. It also refers to how we process memory, especially in the time interwoven deeply with digital technology. While the film presents a speculative hypothesis experience in the Cloud world, it is not merely a futuristic imagination. Instead, it takes a realistic approach to the locations and facts in Guiyang, a mountainous and cloudy city constructed on the Karst landscape, which is often referred to as the Chinese data capital. Guiyang houses numerous significant data infrastructures, including the first iCloud data centre in Asia and the renowned FAST telescope servers. These rapid developments have profoundly impacted the lives of people who are living here over the past decade.
Biography
HE Zike (b.1990, Guiyang, China) is an artist who works with mediums including video, writing, performance, prints, and computer program. By incorporating personal memories into her research and fieldwork, HE Zike’s practice illuminates the interplay between time, mundane lives and the technological environment. She weaves the disorder beneath the surface of contemporary life through a narrative approach. She is the finalists of the 5th VH Award of Hyundai Motor Group, and was selected in the residency program of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council in 2023. From 2021, She co-initiated the interdisciplinary project “Under the Cloud” which visits and studies the technological infrastructure in Southwest China. Her works have been exhibited in Cosmos Cinema, the 14th Shanghai Biennale (2023), Ars Electronica Linz (2023) and Beijing Biennale (2022) among others. HE Zike received master degree from the Department of Future Media Art, China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2018, and studied media art at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany, in 2017. In 2012, she graduated from the Communication University of China with bachelor degree in Digital Film Making.