In the virtual studio: Interview with Lin Ke

After graduating from the New Media Department at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou in 2008, Lin Ke—his real name, which also happens to sound like the word “link”—discovered virtual user interfaces as his medium of choice. Since then, electronic devices and the Internet have become his workspaces, where he manipulates various programs and stock images, and, more recently, develops augmented reality art. However, the artist is no computer engineer—technology merely serves as a tool for his often performative projects, such as his electronic-music-backed videos documenting his daily activities on his computer. Such footage, created with the help of software that records on-screen movements, raises questions about the post-digital era—what happens when cursors are our prosthetic limbs and our relationships with ourselves and those around us are constantly mediated through screens?

• China