About
Digital artist, currently working and living in Hangzhou.
2013-2017 Bachelor's degree at Art Engineering and Technology Studio, China Academy of Art
2017-2020 Master's degree at Art Engineering and Technology Studio, China Academy of Art
2020-2024, worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Art Engineering and Technology, China Academy of Art
2024 - present PhD student in Public Art Research and Creation at China Academy of Art
Chen Zhihao's personal creative practice revolves around the perception and cognition of the world and life in the digital age. He often employs non-solid media such as water, scents, and air flow, together with new media techniques to create sensorial scenes or contexts that transcend everyday life experiences.
His creative works transcend traditional exhibition spaces and venture into natural and cultural public areas, exploring his own artistic perceptions through these encounters.His work includes forms of public art, installation art, new media art, sculpture, painting, etc.
Chen Zhihao
| Work Introduction
Ichikawa Star Hanging
Chen Zhihao and Zhou Zhenru | 2024
Projection and digital printing
© Image from artist
The the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang were excavated on the 1.6km long cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain. They were built during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period, passed through the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the Northern Dynasties, and reached an unprecedented spectacle during the period of returning to the Yijun in the early Song Dynasty of the Five Dynasties. This work simulates the possible scenario of numerous caves in the Mogao Grottoes being illuminated by lights during festive nights. The bottom map of the Mogao Grottoes cliff is based on watercolor renderings drawn by the Russian Odenburg Central Asian Expedition Team in 1914-1915, presenting the cliff's condition before modern protection and maintenance. The work uses digital art techniques to lead the audience through time and space by projecting onto a watercolor base on paper, dynamically presenting the situation where the grottoes are illuminated by moving light sources. The title of the work comes from the description of the magnificent night scenery of the Mogao Grottoes in the Dunhuang document "Record of the Merit of the Li Family's Mogao Grottoes in Longxi, Tang Dynasty" (P. 3608 V):
Cutting lightⅣ
2024
White laser, stainless steel blades, smoke, linear motion guide
© Image from artist
Can We "Cleave" a Beam of Light?
This work originates from a conceptual proposition as paradoxical as attempting to split flowing water with a blade—an act rooted in "unreality." It emerges from deeper contemplations about the interplay between technological advancement and everyday cognition. Through iterative experimentation, the work achieves what appears impossible: using a solid, material blade—an object rooted in tactile logic—to "cleave" intangible light.
Yet this is not merely a physical severing of form and hue, but a conceptual incision into humanity’s fundamental understanding of light itself.
Drowning FireⅠ
2023
Fireworks, water
Underwater photography
© Image from artist
When ignited fireworks are sunk deep underwater, the gunpowder produces oxygen while burning, allowing the submerged fireworks to continue combusting. The drowned fire does not go out either.
BULU
30°N,118°E Qiandao Lake | 2022
Silent air pump, solenoid valve, underwater color lamp, nylon cavity, PCL control system
© Image from artist
"Bu Lu" is a work attached to the floating bridge at the Moonlight Island Scenic Area in Qiandao Lake. Rings of bubbles rise from the depths below, and I attempt to awaken the spirit of the clear waters of Thousand Island through the interaction of air and water, letting it slowly tell the endless stories beneath this stretch of emerald waves.
Work Title: The Missing Pixel
2023
Machine vision AI algorithm, camera, Raspberry Pi, 3D-printed helmet
© Image from artist
The absence of photoreceptor cells in the "optic disc" at the center of the human retina creates a physiological blind spot in our visual field. Yet, much like how we unconsciously ignore our nose within our line of sight, the brain automatically fills in these physiological visual gaps. I designed a wearable device that employs an AI algorithm to track the user’s eye movements, capturing and digitally removing imagery corresponding to the eye’s blind spot. This simulates the raw, unprocessed visual data unedited by the brain—what our eyes truly "see."
Wearing this device, I wandered through familiar streets, stations, and markets. Though the digital lens reconstructed the world before me, my gaze ultimately sought memories within the missing pixels.As digital technology increasingly becomes a prosthetic extension of our bodies, it compels us to re-examine age-old philosophical questions: the objectivity of the world versus human subjective perception, and how we construct meaning through cognition.
