On December, 10^th, 2017, the launch ceremony of “The New Media Art Collective in China” was jointly held by Beijing Today Art Museum, the world-famous Internet Company “APUS Group” (commonly termed APUS) and non-profit Science & Art Research Center (commonly called AS), at the 2^nd floor, building No.1 of TAM.

The Collective signifies the strategic cooperation relationship among related organizations. It hopes to invite professional cross-media research institutions and media platforms to work together and promote the development of Chinese New Media Art, with academic support and multi-layer resources support, to make this Collective the best platform for studying, innovating, promoting and publicizing New Media Art in China.

 Meanwhile, on the other side, at 9 pm in New York time, the exhibition “.ZIP Future Release @NYC” was held by TAM together with Three-legged Dog Art and Technology Center. It was the first stop during the global exhibition tour of “The 2nd Future of Today: Imaginary Future”, a group immersive New Media exhibition tour. These two events occurred at the same time with different significance. In New York, new media artists in the world gathered together for the first time while in China, Chinese New Media is gradually going abroad.

2017 marks “The Year of New Media Art” in TAM. A series of elite New Media Art Exhibitions came into view. In July, during the The 2nd Future of Today: Imaginary Future Exhibition, black technology surprised the audience with “. ZIP” as the theme, which brought about impressive visual impact and immersive experience. It was regarded as the most attractive exhibition this summer. This series was discussing the most avant-guard display space in the future to build a discovery platform for future art.

 In September, “Arrested Time –New Media Art from Germany” came into China. Today Art Museum selected New Media Art as the subject to present. It displayed the classis works of six most famous and media artists from Germany to highlight the characteristics of the New Media Art, reflecting the social and culture connotation in Germany after the war.  In October, TAM worked with Lumen Prize for Digital Art from UK and presented “Matrix” (a mathematical term), which built up a world combining high-tech and artificial intelligence as well as human civilization to inquire into art from a new angle. With greater attention from art and media field on New Media Art, the professional new media art institutions are united by TAM to build this pioneering New Media Art Collective in China.

The purpose is to launch a communication platform for new media art in the world and meanwhile, to promote Chinese new media artists in the international arena, which will further expand Chinese new media art’s influence. Multi types of cross-media artworks will be gathered and discussed to diversify audiences’ immersive experience in physical space and virtual dimensions when watching the displays. The Collective will become a giant laboratory for artistic ideas in the future.

APUS Group is an emerging technology and internet company targeted at foreign market. It launched more that 1 billion users globally within 3 years. The APUS User System sets up a communication channel between China and other countries. APUS joined the Collective this time, with the intention of supporting the development of Chinese New Media Art. Meanwhile, the online APUS museum “APUS ARTS” has been officially announced open to global users. APUS ARTS is an open platform for global artists to introduce and communicate with each other through artworks. APUS hopes to take advantage of this website and its media influence to promote Chinese new media art in the world.

As a globally influential company, APUS regards the idea of promoting Chinese culture and art not only as its vision but also its mission and social responsibility. The decision of joining the Collective and helping enhance the culture and art communication between China and foreign countries, again reflects its sense of social responsibility

 AS is a non-profit institution, with the core belief  “crossover makes change”, devoted to building the first research platform between science and art fields in China, which intends to stimulate the cooperation across fields. AS generates and publicizes artworks to achieve public education. As the co-founder of the Collective, AS hopes to strengthen crossover cooperation by exploring the possibility of interdisciplinary innovation, and seek better resources and communication platforms for the development of both new media art and technology.

The Collective, jointly launched by TAM, APUS and AS, in the following three years, will unite professional new media art institutions, research institutions and omnimedia platforms to provide assistance for the study, education and research on Chinese new media art from all areas. 

 TAM, as the academic unit which initiated the Collective, will be in charge of inviting more professional institutions and regularly holding academic new media art exhibitions for communication, by virtue of its museum resources including its display places.

More than 1 billon global users from 200 countries equipped APUS with the advantage in foreign markets to help promote new media artworks and exhibitions worldwide. Its online museum APUS ARTS, which has already been officially launched, aims to push the limit of offline exhibition space and traditional display method and present new media art in a diversified and creative way. APUS ARTS, a kind of mobile museum, builds an open online place for global artists to display and discuss their artworks with each other anytime. In the future, to enhance the cross-border communication, APUS will unite world-famous art institutions and regularly organize exhibition tours offline.

 AS will gather scientists and artists, investigate their lifestyle, thinking mode, creation process and artwork connotation to publish their interview record and launch other crossover products. It will support new media art as an influential derivative platform from art field.

With joint power from different parties, the Collective will combine strong resources in new media art area and become a comprehensive platform for global communication. It will make efforts to promote the development and discourse power of Chinese New Media Art in the world.

 The principle objective of the Collective is to build a pioneer new media art union based in China, integrate new media art resources, enhance the communication and cooperation among artistic institutions at home and abroad and further promote the overall development of Chinese new media art. The co-founders will unite members to hold academic exhibitions, forums and salons regularly, sponsor awards in new media art field, discover influential new media artists, and support them to stay and have exhibitions abroad. Meanwhile, it will actively contribute to the cooperation among institutions concerned and global communication on new media art to build a global omnimedia platform.

 The Collective has the following current members: Lumen Prize for Digital Art，Design and Research Center of Literature and Creation College of Graduate School of Chinese National Academy of Arts, Center for Visual Studies CVS,PKU, new media art research center of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art of Beijing Film Academy, etc. Members will think together about how to make better use of media resources to build a trans-boundary cooperation platform of high quality. We believe more institutions and people will join this career and promote the overall development of Chinese new media art.

The launch ceremony of the Collective in Beijing also interacted with the exhibition “.ZIP Future Release @NYC” in New York. Alex Gao, the director of Today Art Museum sent congratulations from New York to the successful establishment of the Collective and expressed his wish to attract more people’s attention on the development of new media art in China. Representatives of the initiator – Li Tao, the founder and CEO of APUS Group and Cai Xiao, the president of AS – made their speeches on the ceremony to acknowledge the consensus on establishing the Collective. Artist Liu Jiayu, Gan Jian and Liang Yan also shared their views about new media art and the Collective. All parties show great confidence on the development of the Collective and look forward to its flourish in the future.