Sinofuturism as worlding Imagining futures in sinophone digital art

“Sinofuturism as Worlding: Imagining Futures in Sinophone Digital Art” responds to the prevalence with which politicians, journalists, and opinion makers imagine futures of the Sinophone sphere in either techno-utopian or techno-orientalist terms and as determined by either China or “the West.” It studies Sinophone digital art that has gained prominence and that produces nuanced imaginations of the relation between digital technologies and futures that go beyond reductive geopolitical binaries. The study asks: How does Sinophone digital art imagine technology-infused futures in response to techno-utopian and techno-orientalist imaginations of those futures? To answer this question, it adopts a theoretical framework that consists of three concepts: Sinophone, worlding, and Sinofuturism. These concepts are mobilized to analyze how future-oriented Sinophone digital art brings into being technology-infused futures of Sinophone words. The chapters focus on four themes that are prevalent in imaginations of such futures: connectedness, embodiment, self-care, and artificial intelligence. Case studies include artworks by artists such as LuYang, Lawrence Lek, aaajiao, Miao Ying, Li Yi-Fan, Ye Funa, Betty Apple, and Fei Yining, as well as exhibitions and other materials from art institutes such as Chronus Art Center (Shanghai), M WOODS (Beijing), and Digital Art Center (Taipei). By adopting a method of cultural analysis grounded in art historical and ethnographic methods, a more comprehensive understanding is produced of the multifaceted futures that are being imagined and brought into being across the Sinophone sphere.