./local_memory

(For) You, Optimized at Gray Area last month .✦ ݁ A larger-than-life feed of algorithmically generated self-help text, built from the most highlighted passages in bestselling Kindle books on productivity, success, and personal transformation. These excerpts have already been picked out and saved by thousands of readers each, so they’re like condensed little pieces of aspiration, whole books reduced to quick, motivational takeaways. The Markov chain then remixes that material into an endless stream of synthetic advice that sounds convincing at first, but starts to slip between making sense and total emptiness. Traces of the original source texts remain beneath the feed, surfacing the collective habits, desires, and interactions of the people who highlighted them. I was interested in optimization as a cultural logic, how it shows up in self-help and AI through these constant promises of transformation, productivity, and improvement. There’s also a stat that people spend < 30s looking at an artwork in a museum. So I was thinking a lot about whether familiar dark patterns–like infinite scroll, soft gradients, and the smooth, addictive logic of social media–can be redeployed for a different purpose… if these are the same mechanics that keep us scrolling on our phones, could they also hold us in front of an artwork for longer? Long enough to confront the ways these technologies shape our attention, behavior, and identities? Huge thank you to the curators of @local.memory @hwkns.art @exteeng @_t__sy and @habitualtruant @grayareaorg staff for the space and support!!! Video documentation by Jun (@ilovemytransfriends ) ⋆˙⟡ ⋆ ₊⟡ ⋆ #generativeart #artexhibit #newmediaartist #socialmedia #selfhelp

𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒓𝒐/𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒐/𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄 🫧🕯️💿 an eight-channel screen sculpture and interactive altar installation for ./ʟᴏᴄᴀʟ_ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀʏ: ꜱᴏꜰᴛ ꜱʏꜱᴛᴇᴍꜱ, a group exhibition on ritual, memory + the digital self, april 17–19, 2026 @grayareaorg The eight computational poems featured in 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒓𝒐/𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒐/𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄 were hand-coded by Helen Shewolfe Tseng, each one within 2048 bytes of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, originally for publication by Taper, a browser-based literary journal for tiny computational pieces. The works draw from the ba gua, the phases of the moon, shapeshifting nine-tailed foxes, star charts, wheels of fortune, incense offerings, mourning rituals, wind phones, the minor arcana, zodiacal calendars, lyric games, instructional performances, naturalist field observations, ambient soundscapes, mythical bestiaries, and the archetype of the trickster, engaging computational logic to express durational, divinatory, and devotional experience. Arranged on a sculpture of monitors and adapted to loop at varying frequencies for exhibition, the poems map out the artist’s personal cosmology of space and time, land and sky, mythology and ecology, and across living and spirit realms. 🔗 the poems of 𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒓𝒐/𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒐/𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄 can be viewed here: puter/microcosmologic (desktop recommended) @local.memory @grayareaorg curated by @hwkns.art @exteeng @_t__sy gallery walkthrough artist talks with @habitualtruant photos by @kristinlinphotography @hwkns.art @vicwomg and myself blessed by the mythical beast @future_falkor huge thanks especially to @hwkns.art for so much technical installation assistance and @exteeng for seeing the screen sculpture vision early on! such a special show, organized by the most generous thoughtful crew, a wild honor to have been part of it ☁️

ecdysis oracle x @grayareaorg , @local.memory a temple. a bowl of water at the center. three walls of visuals surrounding you. two fabric sculptures holding the space. participants submerged their hands into water to activate their reading — one of fifteen possible outcomes, each unfolding as its own atmospheric world. projection, sound, and touch as a unified environment. integrated with @exteeng ’s haptic garden — a touch-responsive sound and visual installation of moss, flora, and bioplastic sculptures. each object responds to touch, generating tones and shifting a live 3D projection. positioned at the threshold, it became an entry point into the space: interaction as composition. a living, user-generated soundscape surrounding everything. sounds shaped with care by @postfemale <3 this iteration of the oracle was honestly bit chaotic behind the scenes and i didn’t get to sit with everyone the way i wanted to, but this one felt especially meaningful anyway. so many loved ones showed up. so much community. even my lola showed up. that meant everything. reading through everyone’s reflections is one of my favorite parts. sharing some here — unfortunately some parts got cut off in the scanner :/ photo creds: @kristinlinphotography @lizz.rachel (slide 9 & 12) video creds: @mmmmilkshapes many many thanks to the curators @hwkns.art , @exteeng , @_t__sy , and @habitualtruant

On Earth Day, we recognize the invisible labor that sustains ecosystem. 🐝 A single Bombus vosnesenskii visits ~720 flowers per hour. ~4,320 per day. A colony: 50–400 workers. Total daily pollination capacity: extensive. Mostly invisible. On Earth Day, we recognize the labor that sustains ecosystems beyond human systems of value. - [DSS: Pollination Unit] On view through 5/9 @grayarea The Department of Species Services (DSS) imagines a near future where AI coordinates ecological systems, and human labor is reassigned in response to environmental need. Within the Pollination Unit, humans are temporarily recruited to replicate the work of bees during moments of collapse, maintaining continuity across species. Current human capacity: insufficient. Additional technicians required. - Collaborators: @shihan.design Director & Design Futurist @mingyong_art Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego @hanzhangpqqo Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego @clclem.liu Visual Artist Jiaye Leng AI Engineer & Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong @abigail.moves Dancer & Choreographer Neal Williams Consulting Pollination Ecologist, UC Davis Curators: @hwkns.art @exteeng @habitualtruant - #EarthDay #Ecology #MoreThanHuman #SpeculativeDesign #environmentalart

thank you to @grayareaorg and @local.memory for the opportunity to show my work! 💜you can view a walkthrough on my youtube - link in bio. also here: https://youtu.be/gl9mkY0tPbw?si=AkwpKtz4NqWqzcAO #newmedia #interactiveart #spatialpoem #creativetechnology #3d

./local_memory: soft systems closing reception tomorrow 4/19 6 PM: exhibition walkthrough by @tiat.place + live performance OPEN HOURS today: 4-10 PM sunday: 12-8 PM soft systems is the first exhibition from @local.memory , a new artist-led series platforming emerging voices from the bay area. across installations, objects, and media works, soft systems resists optimization and spectacle, and instead centers memory, ritual, and belief as core structures of the digital self. from intimate gestures to shared acts of care, these works map how such systems take shape within our collective experience. featuring works by: alexa ann bonomo (@mosscorpus ) helen shewolfe tseng (@wolfchirp ) jordan metz (@jor__art ) irish tee-sy (@_t__sy ) angeline meitzler (@angelinefromspace ) claudia miranda (@ghostmeat ) chris giang (@exteeng ) nele ponce (@ecdysis.exp ) dora siafla (@dorasiafla ) mahshid moghadasi (@varyahvision ) anna zhang (@anna.zhang ) isabelle pleno (@isabelle_pleno ) eileen ahn (@leanahnleen ) mirko febbo (@mirko.febbo ) anne lee steele (@anneleesteele ) casper go (@postfemale )� DSS: shihan zhang (@shihan.design )�mingyong cheng (@mingyong_art ) han zhang (@hanzhangpqqo ) ziwei liu (@clclem.liu ) jiaye leng� curated by: jeff hawkins (@hwkns.art ), irish tee-sy, and chris giang flyer: @exteeng

./local_memory: soft systems is now open for gallery hours over the weekend! come see installations reimagining the digital self through ritual, memory, and care. [april 17-19] sat 4/18 · 4–10pm sun 4/19 · 12–8pm <- 6-8pm will be special evening gallery hours and a guided walkthrough of the exhibit from our friends at @tiat.place 🫶🏼 gray area/grand theater ticket link in bio ** tiat members can visit the show for free all weekend — featuring works by: alexa ann bonomo (@mosscorpus ) helen shewolfe tseng (@wolfchirp ) jordan metz (@jor__art ) irish tee-sy (@_t__sy ) angeline meitzler (@angelinefromspace ) claudia miranda (@ghostmeat ) chris giang (@exteeng ) nele ponce (@ecdysis.exp ) dora siafla (@dorasiafla ) mahshid moghadasi (@varyahvision ) anna zhang (@anna.zhang ) isabelle pleno (@isabelle_pleno ) eileen ahn (@leanahnleen ) mirko febbo (@mirko.febbo ) anne lee steele (@anneleesteele ) casper go (@postfemale ) DSS: shihan zhang (@shihan.design ) mingyong cheng (@mingyong_art ) han zhang (@hanzhangpqqo ) ziwei liu (@clclem.liu ) jiaye leng curated by: jeff hawkins (@hwkns.art ), irish tee-sy, and chris giang

Please take yourself over to @grayareaorg this weekend and visit the show my friend @hwkns.art curated to expand your mind. Thanks to @local.memory my ideas about technology as an extension of human creativity are finally getting an upgrade and I am thankful for artists who are doing the work of creating environments for us to widen our understanding of what the existential implications of technology are in terms of being cyborgs in the birth of the technology age. I hope you know how sincere I am when I say it is an incredible exhibit, totally thrilling, unique, and so carefully executed. 🤌

./local_memory: soft systems opens today!! 6-10 PM check out some previews + BTS of our show 🤍 soft systems is the first exhibition from @local.memory , a new artist-led series platforming emerging voices from the bay area. across installations, objects, and media works, soft systems resists optimization and spectacle, and instead centers memory, ritual, and belief as core structures of the digital self. from intimate gestures to shared acts of care, these works map how such systems take shape within our collective experience. [april 17-19] gray area/grand theater ticket link in bio featuring works by: alexa ann bonomo (@mosscorpus ) helen shewolfe tseng (@wolfchirp ) jordan metz (@jor__art ) irish tee-sy (@_t__sy ) angeline meitzler (@angelinefromspace ) claudia miranda (@ghostmeat ) chris giang (@exteeng ) nele ponce (@ecdysis.exp ) dora siafla (@dorasiafla ) mahshid moghadasi (@varyahvision ) anna zhang (@anna.zhang ) isabelle pleno (@isabelle_pleno ) eileen ahn (@leanahnleen ) mirko febbo (@mirko.febbo ) anne lee steele (@anneleesteele ) casper go (@postfemale )
 DSS: shihan zhang (@shihan.design )
mingyong cheng (@mingyong_art ) han zhang (@hanzhangpqqo ) ziwei liu (@clclem.liu ) jiaye leng
 curated by: jeff hawkins (@hwkns.art ), irish tee-sy, and chris giang flyer: @exteeng

Apply for a job that is published by AI? The DSS system interface distributes ecological roles based on environmental need— positioning labor not as productivity, but as response. ‍ Opening April 17 @grayareaorg Collaborators: @shihan.design Director & Design Futurist @mingyong_art Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego @hanzhangpqqo Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego @clclem.liu Visual Artist Jiaye Leng AI Engineer & Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong @abigail.moves Dancer & Choreographer Neal Williams Consulting Pollination Ecologist, UC Davis Curators: @hwkns.art @exteeng @habitualtruant #SpeculativeDesign #MediaArt #FutureEcologies #AI #FutureOfWork

A site for ecological coordination. The Pollination Unit is designed as an active intervention zone— where human actions are guided, observed, and integrated into a larger system. Somewhere between installation, interface, and field. Department of Species Services (DSS) Opening April 17 Gray Area Collaborators: @shihan.design Director & Design Futurist @mingyong_art Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego @hanzhangpqqo Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego @clclem.liu Visual Artist Jiaye Leng AI Engineer & Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong @abigail.moves Dancer & Choreographer Neal Williams Consulting Pollination Ecologist, UC Davis Curators: @hwkns.art @exteeng @habitualtruant #InstallationArt #SpeculativeDesign #MediaArt #morethanhuman #ClimateFutures

A uniform for ecological labor. 🥼 Within the Department of Species Services (DSS), roles are assigned in response to disruptions across species and ecosystems. What was once invisible—distributed across non-human systems—becomes structured, observed, and carried out by human participants. The pollination worker suit marks a subtle shift: from observer to participant, from individual to system operator. Care becomes visible. And structured. And accountable. Department of Species Services (DSS) Opening April 17 📍 Gray Area Collaborators: @shihan.design — Director & Design Futurist @mingyong_art — Creative Technologist & New Media Artist, UC San Diego @hanzhangpqqo — Interactive Engineer & Computer Musician, UC San Diego @clclem.liu — Visual Artist Jiaye Leng — AI Engineer & Researcher, CityU of Hong Kong @abigail.moves — Dancer & Choreographer Neal Williams — Consulting Pollination Ecologist, UC Davis Curators: @hwkns.art @exteeng @habitualtruant #SpeculativeDesign #FutureOfWork #MediaArt #DesignResearch #morethanhuman