Digital Transformation: A Review of Sun Xun's 'Maniac Universe'

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Sun Xun's 'Maniac Universe' exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The review examines the artist's innovative use of digital technologies, including UV-A light and phosphorescent elements, to create a unique and immersive experience. The report explores the thematic concerns and aesthetic qualities of the artwork, emphasizing the artist's use of animation, charcoal drawings, and woodcuts to explore culture, history, and politics. The analysis also discusses the audience's experience and the role of digital media in the production, distribution, and reception of the work, drawing connections to key concepts from the provided readings on digital art and new media aesthetics. The report highlights the artist's ability to create a parallel world and encourage viewers to contemplate the intersection of art and technology, ultimately arguing that Sun Xun's work exemplifies the evolving landscape of contemporary art in the digital age.

Running Head: ART & ARCHITECTURE 1
Maniac Universe 2018
Author's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction

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Sun Xun is seen as one of the most promising and upcoming young artists from China.
Born in 1980 (MCA, 2018). He is best known for his animations based on charcoal drawings,
woodcuts, of ink paintings. His artworks based on images, sounds and texts explore the
dynamics of culture, history, and politics. He highlights the marginalized narratives and accounts
from ordinary people’s experiences and personal recollections. Sun Xun’s first solo exhibition in
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia has been curated by Anna Davis. The exhibition
showcases his most essential artworks (MCA, 2018). The Museum of Contemporary Art
Australia showcases the paintings, woodcuts, drawings, installations, and animated videos done
by Sun Xun in the last decade (Fang, 2018). Every brushstroke and element creates a symbolic
visual language that speculates on the current world within an imaginative space created by the
artist. The paper analyzes Sun Xun’s “Maniac Universe” and discusses the application of digital
technologies in art.
“Maniac Universe,” 2018, Sun Xun
Maniac Universe is a cosmic spectacle where the artist has used UV-A light to color the
walls with a midnight blue shade (Fang, 2018). Large scroll-like works showing various familiar
animals are installed across the walls in a linear procession. 'Maniac Universe is a new painting
which is about 40-meter long. It is done on a mulberry bark paper which is handmade and
specially prepared for the artwork (Neutze, 2018). The painting fills the first-floor gallery of the
MCA and immediately draws attention because of its size and luminous blue look.

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Maniac Universe will take you into another universe and an alternative world that
distances you from the reality. This is a universe where one looks at familiar objects and yet feels
strange. The artist makes us think more in-depth about the ordinary things and exercise our
imagination. The complexity of Sun’s work addresses the broadest possible audience and makes
several points of universal relevance. The fragile material is painted with phosphorescent
elements with glowing purple, white and ultraviolet lights (Neutze, 2018). The long painting is
filled with oversized paintings of animals that look unusual when placed together. You find a
horse, a chicken, bat, lobster and grasshopper that look very strange when pit together as stated
by Neutze (2018). Those animals remind one of the Chinese zodiacs. Sun’s artworks are based
on digital media are meticulously crafted and created.
The phosphorescent elements of the oversized paintings of animals glow white and
purple and ultraviolet lights. It is unusual to see those familiar animals together in a single
artwork and done with such details and intricacies. Whether it is a horse, chicken, bat, lobster or
the grasshopper, each of those creatures is done in large size and glare back at you from within
their darkened bodies that contrast against the phosphorescent blue of the background. Whether
it is the rooster feathers or the hairy antennae of the cockroach, one can find fluorescent lines
give the detailed and intricate outlines. The rest of the space is taken by spherical blobs that look
more like bubbles or planets in space.
On closer inspection, the viewer realizes that he is now in an unfamiliar world and a
darker alternative to the universe (Fang, 2018). The creatures on the walls replace the traditional
Chinese zodiac animals and force the spectator on a journey with a new discovery and insight.
Sun Xun wants his viewers to enter a parallel world and thinking about a parallel universe when
they enter his solo exhibition in Australia (Maunder, 2018). He wants to create art for the future

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and not for the present. He uses a different element’s to put together a functional work of art that
motivates people to gain perspective. The crazy bright work is filled with animals, planets and
other objects that are all put together. The artwork leaves you intrigued because of the
strangeness behind.
The use of digital media
As asserted by Hansen (2012), although the world is three dimensional, throughout most
of history, the humans have expressed it in two dimensions. Virtual reality creates a complete
simulation of perceptual reality by projecting the images in three dimensions. The use of digital
media is finning an increased expression in deferent sectors, and art is one of them. Traditional
manual production in art needs to make way for the optional use of media and encourage image
production and communication with the use of digital media. Digital media in art no only
contributes a change but makes the whole process of art a lot more interactive and
communicative (Örtegren, 2012). Maniac Universe is a good example of how the artist uses
digital technology to create new experiences.
Digital apparatuses abstract the visible, sensory and mental information. It makes a
concrete abstraction of text, image, and sound to bring them together as a perceptual range. The
digitally-fed interfaces enable complex telecommunications within the social environment of
digital culture (Broeckmann, 2007). The ultimate aim of digital media is to create sensory
experiences and transmit them directly from one consciousness to another. Today, the masses are
well aware of the media displayed in public media spaces as billboard-sized screens. The digital
media is challenging the status of older electronic and print media (Bolter & Grusin, 2000). The
objective of digital media in art is to achieve immediacy through the act of mediation. The icons

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and graphics in multimedia applications play a dual role of expressions of the integration of text
and image.
Sun Xun always carried interest in film making and storytelling but could not afford a
camera for a long time. He used woodblock prints to create labor-intensive animations to narrate
his stories. In an interview, he comments how he looks for innovative materials and new ways to
create his art (Maunder, 2018). In a short video, Sun Xun comments how it is essential to ask
who you are and where you are from. Those questions relate to history, and then he goes on to
explain the labor-intensive process of how he makes his animation. Every single frame is
handmade, and there can be up to 10 frames for one sec (Piguet, 2016).
The new digital media oscillates between transparency and opacity and tries to create a
more immediate experience. The viewer is aware of the art as well as the medium of its
expression (Bolter & Grusin, 2000). For example, the Maniac Universe forces the viewers to
enjoy the art as well as marvel as the digital side of its creation. The use of digital media here
remediates the existing art to create a new display. The microcomputing revolution and massive
increases in processing speeds allow a more expansive and fluid interpenetration of physical and
virtual spaces (Hansen, 2012). The media artists are moving towards more sophisticated
representations of three-dimensional simulations.
Hansen (2012) locks at the virtual reality as the desire for an unmediated union with the
natural world. The mixed reality opens up the possibilities of the third realm of a functionalist
“fantasy” through use of multiple senses. The digital media art and its apparatuses have
perforated the aesthetic experiences. It is essential to understand how the digital aesthetics pivots
on the technical facets of artistic production (Broeckmann, 2007). The concepts of contemporary
and media art practice, in general, have evolved with time, taking on new roles, definitions, and

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functionalities. Maniac Universe animation is like an enormous painting that acts as a metaphor
or analogy of a parallel world. The artworks make one feel that there is always more than one
thing happening and more than one opinion in circulation (Maunder, 2018).
It is interesting to see how the digital new media has remediated the analog media forms
such as books, photography, music, television, film, video and more. One can experience those
forms via the new media of the digital world. People prefer digital consumption as it allows them
to enjoy more choices, greater interaction, and entertainment (Kaul, 2012). Artists like Sun Xun
create a new way of looking at the world and creates a parallel world with the technology.

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References
Broeckmann, A. (2007). Image, Process, Performance, Machine. Aspects of a Machinic
Aesthetics, The MIT Press, 37(4), 193-205.
Bolter, J.D & Grusin, R. (2000). Introduction: the double logic of remediation. The MIT Press,
1(1), 21–50.
Fang, W. (2018). Sun Xun: Solo Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the
artling Retrieved from https://theartling.com/en/artzine/2018/7/11/sun-xun/
Hansen, M.B.N. (2012). Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media. Routledge, 1(1), 1–340.
Kaul, V. (2012).Changing Paradigms of Media Landscape in the Digital Age. Journal of Mass
Communication & Journalism, 1(1), 1–9.
Maunder, T. (2018). Sun Xun in Conversation, Ocula Retrieved from
https://ocula.com/magazine/conversations/sun-xun-(1)/
MCA. (2018). Sun Xun, The Museum of Contemporary Art Retrieved from
https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/exhibitions/sun-xun/
Neutze, B. (2018). The MCA has unveiled Sun Xun's 40-metre painting, timeout Retrieved from
https://www.timeout.com/sydney/news/the-mca-has-unveiled-sun-xuns-40-metre-
painting-071418
Örtegren, H., (2012).The scope of digital image media in art education. Computers & Education,
59(2), 793-805.

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Piguet, A. (2016). Art Basel Miami 2016 - "Reconstruction of the Universe" Behind the Scenes -
Audemars Piguet, YouTube Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=srKrzgY2rIE