Visual Activism in the Digital Space.
Meta Paper Meta Lifestyle Magazine｜ Meta Citizens
Creative Director of e-ternity official
Artist at OUTPUT, China
Guest Lecturer & Alumni Mentor at Royal College of Art
Guest Lecturer at Istituto Marangoni
Guest Lecturer & Visiting Tutor at London College of Fashion
Jiang is a visual artist based in London. With a background in Graphic and Digital Fashion design, his design philosophy has always been true to sculpting a narrative. He observes the collisions between aspects of daily life, focusing on social and environmental issues. His work centers around creating digital characters, which often take strange and comedic forms. These characters are placed in virtually crafted spaces to solidify the narrative he creates to share the concepts he is portraying.
Jiang considers himself an earthling and his practice to be visual activism. Focusing on issues such as mental health, animal rights and the environment Jiang endeavors to offer an alternative digital representation of the dilemmas within these areas, to open and continue the conversation of how we can improve the way we all live on this planet as earthlings.
Design Identity
Journey & Achievements
Next
Stage
Design Identity
Visual Activism/ Visual Artist
Dilemmas for Earthlings
Dilemmas for Earthlings presents a digital campaign within a virtual world exploring different issues that are faced on our planet. The piece includes three layers that focus on social issues, animal rights and environmental issues. Through the use of digital characters and spaces the work acts as visual activism to offer an alternative representation of these dilemmas, proffering the hope of change whilst looking to open a conversation about how we can improve the way we all live on this planet as earthlings.
Layer 3
Social Dilemma
https://www.zongbojiang.com/del-x6f-50-2000000000
DEL>x6F//50<2000000000> presents three digital characters in a virtual landscape exploring the human impact of social media. The work is heavily influenced by the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’, visualising specific data based around control, truth and digital cleaning; to provoke an awareness and conversation about the darker truths of social media companies.
Connected/Manipulated highlights the influence and control a small group of people from these companies have over billions of people, particularly a younger audience and how their attention is fed back into the companies through advertising, rapidly growing them without concern of the effects on these users.
True/Fake looks further into the concept of control with the information that is shared and presented to users on these platforms. Truth becomes lost with certain information only being shown to specific groups of people and the speed of fake news spreading faster than fact and how this has been used to manipulate people’s decisions, specifically with elections.
Ignore/Delete considers how when exploring the way that we are shown information it is important to consider the things that we don’t see. ‘The Cleaners’ are the underpaid and unseen workers for social media companies who monitor and delete offensive, pornographic and subversive posts on social media sites.
Layer 2
Animal Dilemma
https://www.zongbojiang.com/gulp-rip-buzz-woohoo-wha-psh
Gulp, Rip, Buzz, Woohoo, Wha-psh are a collection of five videos including digital characters which explore the concept of animal welfare. The work is inspired by PETA’s ethos; ‘animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for our entertainment or abuse in any other way’. As a form of 'visual activism’ the collection reflects data and research to share the issues in an alternative form, to open a conversation about how we can improve the way animals are treated by us and within these industries.
Rip looks at how animals are treated when obtaining materials for fashion. Referencing not only how animals are slaughtered to meet the demands of the leather industry, but how they are also abused, tortured and sometimes killed for materials such as feathers and wool.
Wha-psh is based on the abuse of animals focusing on the coconut industry in Thailand where there have been reports of monkey labour. The monkey’s are chained and forcibly trained to pick coconuts. They are removed from their habitat, beaten and tortured and made to work for hours to collect coconuts.
Buzz looks at the mistreatment and use of animals in experiments, of which there are more than 9 million animals are experimented on in Europe every year. From cosmetic testing to medical experiments the animals are confined to cages and suffer severe injuries as a result of the tests. The tests range from ‘poison’ tests for chemicals to electrocution.
Woohoo is based on the mistreatment of animals as entertainment, focusing on the ‘tradition’ of bullfighting. The bulls are often isolated in darkness for 48 hours prior to the ‘fight’ to increase their confusion and anguish when they are released into the light of the arena. The bulls are typically physically and mentally drained before they are finally killed.
Gulp references the often unseen or overlooked happenings within the meat and dairy industry. The character references how the animals are overfed to ‘fatten up’ and fast track growth before being killed for meat. Also how dairy cows are refined to tiny spaces, unable to move and turned into milk producing machines. Also referencing how the combination of these problems not only have an effect on the animals, but contributes to the destruction of the environment too.
Layer 1
Environmental Dilemma
https://www.zongbojiang.com/altered-states
https://www.zongbojiang.com/discomfort
Environmental Dilemma presents two digital characters which explore the effects of global warming. The work is inspired by the documentary ‘Our Planet’ and events such as the Australian fires in 2020. The characters offer an alternative representation of this issue, looking to connect with a wider audience about how the actions in our daily lives can impact the planet on a larger scale.
Plastic Sea
This character explores environmental issues, focusing on the use of plastics and the pollution of the sea. This blend of the unnatural and natural offers an insight into how our lifestyle is changing the planet and having an effect on other earthlings who we share it with.
Heating Up
The inspiration for this character is based around the effects of global warming, specifically referencing the Australian fires from 2020. Furthermore, highlighting how the human impact on our planet is literally causing it to heat up, resulting in events such as these. Referencing these topics, the work asks the viewer to consider the cause and how we can reverse these effects.
Journey & Achievements
Shared Planet
2022
Shared Planet captures a glimpse of the moment in time when the world came to a standstill for humans during lockdown and the environment and wildlife began to thrive. Influenced by the documentary ‘The Year Earth Changed’ the work explores nature’s response to the low human activity during the global lockdown. Looking at wildlife, noise pollution, air and water quality the work acts as ‘visual activism’ to explore global warming, reflecting data and research to share the issues in an alternative form. Furthermore, seeking to open a conversation about how we can identify more harmonious ways for humans and wildlife to co-exist and how this can have a profound impact on nature and give us hope for the future of our planet.
2022 Solo Exhibition 'Shared Planet' at the Bomb Factory, London.
Collaborate with @nicole_vernon
Victor Wong official SS22, London Fashion Week
Achievements
2021 Exhibited Circa x Dazed Class of 2021 in the London’s Piccadilly Circus, K-Pop Square in Seoul,
and Shinjuku in Tokyo.
2022 Exhibited Expo2020Dubai, UK pavilion
2021 “SHOWstudio” FASHION DESIGN UK Shortlisted
2022 Featured in It's Nice That
2022 Featured in NYLON CHINA
2021 Featured in I-D article
2022 Shared Planet x MMMAD Festival, Madrid
Decentraland
Rarible street (-44，70)
24-27 March 2022
2022 ITS
Digital Fashion Winner
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FASHION’S NEW WORLD
VOGUE CHINA META-OCEAN
For VOGUE China’s interpretation of Fashion’s New World, our VOGUE+ team are building a virtual "meta ocean" world - the “birthplace’ of VOGUE+’s new avatar. The world is not only a digital showcase in celebration of virtual art (think 3D sculptures of all forms, suspended in the water as a kind of fashion Atlantis), but also has its driving narrative centred around ocean conservation.
Collaborate with @nicole_vernon
Meta Paper
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Magazine
Meta Lifestyle Magazine｜ Meta Citizens
Community • Identity • Possibility
My ambition is to build this community where people can explore different identities through experiencing digital characters and fashion and work towards releasing the first issue of the magazine.
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<MP01>
The first Meta Citizen is “MP01”, who loves and cares for other species.
<MP02>
The second Meta Citizen is "MP02",
who is always changing on their journey of self discovery.
<MP03>
The third Meta Citizen is "MP03", who like to enjoy life and relax.
<MP04>
The Fourth Meta Citizen is "MP04", who is fluid in body and mind.
<MP05>
The Fifth Meta Citizen is "MP05", who is a technophile breaking stereotypes.
<MP06>
The Sixth Meta Citizen is "MP06", who is plant being and looks to a green future.