10 Questions with REGEN

REGEN is a digital artist and VJ, currently living in Sichuan, China. She graduated from the University of Sydney. She is always fascinated and inspired by how digital visual art can be influenced and created by the rhythm data of the different types of music. She has created content in the form of digital animations, live audiovisual concerts, and installations.

www.manamana.net | @regentsai

Infinity | Project Description

‘Infinity’ is a new media digital artwork generated by computer algorithms, with visual variations generated in real-time through the analysis of music beats. It describes an imagination of a high-dimension extraterrestrial civilization in an abstract way. The artwork 'Infinity' indicates faith in the continuous spiral escalation of matter and consciousness, time and space.

INTERVIEW

Let's talk about yourself first. Why are you an artist, and how did you become one?

Hello to the dear Al-Tiba9 and readers. I am REGEN, a cross-disciplinary digital artist and VJ from China, currently 29 years old. My main focus is on creating digital generative audiovisual art using music. I am delighted to accept this interview and share my experiences and insights as an artist. I graduated with a Master's degree in Business Analysis from the University of Sydney Business School. I have always been passionate about diverse music styles such as Techno, Psytrance, Experimental music, Post-Punk, and Trip-Hop, and I have been engaged in photography for the past ten years. I started self-learning digital art in 2021 and have since continuously created personal digital audiovisual artworks. For me, digital art started out as a hobby, as it combined several skills that I possess, such as programming, mathematics, photography, color grading, and film scoring. Digital art seemed like a serendipitous experiment for me. Currently, I am fully devoted to my career in digital art and have exhibited my works in influential exhibitions across China, Korea, and the UK, receiving recognition from industry professionals.
I believe that the most important aspect of being an artist is maintaining an expressive and stylized approach that is not influenced by others. So far, I have been experimenting with various techniques in computer-generated art. Regardless of the novelty of these techniques, they must ultimately serve as better tools for personal emotion and experience. My artwork may also attempt to incorporate new styles, but only to accurately convey my personal abstract emotional experiences.
I think an artist's work nowadays can cater to the demands of both the art market and the commercial market without compromising the original intent of the creation. This is something I have always upheld, and I welcome collaborative opportunities that align with my vision. Since last year, I have participated in various competitions, exhibitions in China's new media industry, and official artist promotion activity on the mainstream social media 'Chinese Tiktok' DOUYIN platform--DOUYIN Young Artist Program(Female Season) Selected Artist with several independently created digital art pieces, which have gained a good reputation and influence. This has gradually helped people in the industry become familiar with my name. This year, I am setting my sights on the international stage and hope to receive guidance from international art experts and artists and bring more opportunities to the commercial sector.

You work with different mediums and techniques and are both an artist and VJ. What does being an artist mean to you?

Initially, I positioned myself as a VJ, hoping to collaborate on visual effects for the music industry that I love. Thus, I began studying digital visual creation. Later on, I precisely defined myself as an independent digital artist, which fundamentally makes a big difference. Becoming a visual artist means "control". I can imbue my own subjective intentions and control over the overall theme and message of the artwork. I am no longer passively accepting various imaginings conveyed by music and musicians, nor am I just an irrelevant background panel for live music performances. The type of VJ I aspire to be is a leader in visuals. My work emphasizes the importance of visual senses, and I am the producer of visuals, making music and visuals a unified experience that conveys a holistic sensory experience to the audience.

In your work, you mix visual art, music-related data, and rhythm. How did you come up with this idea?

In terms of technical background, there are a variety of interactive categories and techniques in new media digital art, such as motion sensing and temperature sensing interactions. Sound is also commonly used as an input data source for interactions. Personally, in my over ten years as a music enthusiast, I've discovered that I have a certain "synesthesia" when it comes to music. When I hear music of different styles, I have corresponding stylized visualizations in my mind. As a result, I have experimented with music and visual art collaborations in the past, creating experimental short film MVs, composing music for friends' short films, and editing clips for movies.
Later on, after self-teaching and exploring digital art, I found that when I spend a lot of time creating visual effects, I draw while listening to various electronic music. The emotional changes in the music influence the color and imagery I produce. Why not express these subjective experiences in my artwork? As a result, more and more of my passion, emotions, and fantastic imagination stem from my subjective and abstract feelings, and digital art has become a way for me to communicate with the objective world and express my subjective spiritual world. Even without words, I can express myself and all that I love more precisely, and that brings me joy.

What messages are you trying to communicate with your art? And what do you think differentiates your approach from others?

Based on the background of digital technology and the synesthesia of music mentioned above, and as a science fiction enthusiast, my creations aim to convey avant-garde aesthetics and abstract expressions of personal subjective experiences. The themes are often related to science fiction, water, and fantasy, with physical concepts and laws often incorporated into the titles of my works. However, physical concepts can be transcended in artistic works, such as weightlessness, multi-dimensional worlds, parallel universes, entropy, time, texture, and so on. In previous works, I have used slices of reality images as material for digital transformation to express my world and memories, as well as compressed pixels to obtain changes in the color spectrum. My goal is to convey my worldview and subjective perspective on beauty and the world.

Can you guide us through your creative process? How do you choose the data you work with and translate them into visual pieces?

My creative process often involves listening to music while using TouchDesigner software to experiment and create the desired basic forms. I analyze the music through Audio Analysis to extract parameters such as bass or rhythm data, which I use as variables for possible effects and rules. I design a complete system that transforms sound into images. Once the system design is complete, I can switch the audio input source to any new songs, and the images will also respond, dance and grow in real time as if they have a life of their own. However, whether the new tracks are suitable for this visual theme requires my personal subjective judgment as to whether they fit the visual theme.

How does your work as an artist differentiate from that of a VJ?

In my personal understanding, digital artists are to VJs what music producers are to DJs, fundamentally different in dimension. As far as I know, most traditional VJs aim to enhance the atmosphere of music performances with ready-made visual materials, where the images are auxiliary features that change according to the audio, are limited to image and filter switching, and only adjust two-dimensional plane changes. This belongs to the work of visual playback that complements the music. However, digital artists must create original visual effects, and in addition to conveying personal spiritual themes, the changes in the images will generate real-time composition, form, and color changes based on the music rhythm. Of course, these are images generated randomly under the programming of the digital artist. Compared with traditional VJs, this work is more like a magician creating illusions, where I have control and creativity over the works I generate. I can be both a digital artist and a VJ, and I am very receptive to music performances that match seamlessly, as long as the atmosphere we want to convey is consistent so that we can create works that are mutually satisfying.

How has your art evolved over the years? And what inspired you to experiment?

Techniques can be mastered through practice, but inspiration needs to be discovered. After practicing over a hundred demos for a year and a half, I developed my own stylized materials and stylized cinematography. Of course, at the beginning of the creative process, I was very passive because I knew that some things technically might not be expressed. After accumulating a lot of technical trials, I know which techniques and color grading to use when expressing a certain mood. Therefore, it's important to experiment and accumulate your own tool kit.

Your work relies heavily on new technologies. How do you keep yourself up to date on recent trends and technologies? And is there anything you would like to experiment with?

The creation of digital art requires continuous exploration of techniques and functionalities. Many images are the result of unexpected effects produced by mathematical formulas and algorithms, such as deformations, growth patterns, and water flow movements in a simulated gravity environment. Many functional images may first come from inspiration and then be rendered subjectively while designing audio change rules. As long as experimentation continues, inspiration can be a never-ending source. At the same time, there is a demand for independent and continuous learning of case studies and techniques on official technical forums.
Furthermore, many experimental technological applications have been developed for personal works, such as AR real-time interaction, Holographic Glass-free 3D interactive devices (no need for any portable devices), and other related technologies. These mainly focus on the expansion of live music performance scenarios to achieve a better musical experience. A demo prototype was completed and released last year, and it is hoped that it can be put into practical use in large-scale live music performances.
Recently, AI painting has been rapidly developing, causing some impact on traditional painting genres. However, I see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge for new media digital art. As I mentioned earlier, techniques are merely tools for expression, and the focus will increasingly shift to the expression of feelings and perceptions. Digital artists can use AI scripts as auxiliary tools to achieve their desired effects more quickly, but the ideas still rely on the artist's subjective emotions and understanding. Therefore, in the short term, the application of AI painting and AI scripts may also become a direction for my digital audio-visual interactive creation and research in the future.

What are you working on now? Any new series or project you want to share with our readers?

A theme that I have been exploring since last year until now is the Liquid Worldview. I have constantly been trying new techniques and subjects, ranging from the various forms of water - from the microcosmic bubbles in the water to the imaginative interstellar waterfalls. I love the diversity of water, and I also want my artwork to be diverse, serving as a medium for beauty as well as philosophical self-reflection.

And lastly, what are your plans for the future? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or publications?

I will continue my creative work, constantly improving my mindset and technical skills. As I absorb new influences at different stages, my output will become even more profound. In the second half of the year, I will establish my new studio in Shenzhen, China - a city that values the development of new media art and digital artists, providing me with even more inspiration and opportunities. There will be several art exhibitions in the second half of the year, with advertising collaborations in top-tier cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. For specific dates and event information, please stay tuned to my website homepage mentioned in this article. I hope that you will meet my artwork unexpectedly on the streets. Additionally, I will actively join in domestic and international digital art exchange activities and welcome renowned galleries, art institutions, music producers, and event organizers to provide platforms for artistic exchange and cooperation.

Many thanks for the interview with Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain. It was a great opportunity for people to get to know me, and I am very interested in participating in live performances at electronic music festivals held locally in Spain, as well as art exhibitions. In addition to showcasing my personal artistic expression, I hope to promote new media digital art as a medium for international artistic and cultural exchange.