Contemporary Art and New Media in China
Professor Defne Ayas and Francesca Tarocco
05/05/2011 Blog Entry
Yena Lee

Transexperience: Contextual Placement

Although the concept of 'transexperience' seem distant and rare initally, after Chen Zhen's further explanation on the essence of the experience, I came to realize, that I too, is a student of a 'transexperience'. Especially brought to the context of art, 'transexperience' seem like a highly more personally relevant occurrence to me. As art no is longer a pristine field where only an exclusive group of people of extreme artiness and originality tread on, it is gradually becoming a more and more common visitation with minimal barriers to entry. The idea that is the most relatable for me is defining or treating an object outside of its very own context. Often times, the context is considered to be such an essential part of an object's identity. However, identity in a way is what you designate it to be. Whatever we choose to embody a value, can embody such value and whatever we choose to be symbolized by, we can be symbolized by. The true essence of things is malleable or perhaps it is nonexistent to begin with. It all depends on designation and human perception. As everything is dependent upon human perceptions, the reality seems to have less and less importance. Reality taken out of its very own context, infused with human perception seems to be redefined as what we as humans designate it to be. It is often so easy to compare and contrast an object with its contemporaries rather than others from a different period of time. Rarely do we pull things out of its chronological framework to come up with a definition as we consider time to be an important factor of one's defining qualities. However, sometimes the rare vacuum of time in defining an object is both necessary and desirable as it provides us with new insight and perception to see both the object itself and the world.