I travelled through Guizhou, Gansu and Qinghai
To find the fallen rocket debris
I sent one part of my body to the outer space
I caught a satellite with a tool made from a broom
I launched the Space Exploration Initiative in MIT
I’m actually really curious that
Whether such a great narrative as space exploration is related to ordinary people or not
How can every one of us get involved
I’m an artist and an engineer
I was born in Karamay, Xinjiang
It’s an intimate small city
Both of my parents are doctors
We lived in the same building with my parents’ colleagues, so we were familiar with our neighbors
I think I had much less academic pressure than the children nowadays
I loved reading the encyclopedia
And I read it repeatedly for a dozen times
I was really interested in the world outside my hometown
I was enrolled by Department of Pression Instrument, Tsinghua University in 2009
I went to Rhode Island School of Design after graduating from Tsinghua
I wanted to get employed by a big company after graduation
But in the second year of my post-graduate project
I had impulses of creating
My works are often like telling a story
About my education background, including mechanics, biomaterial and computer
They naturally become my “languages”
In 2017 I joined MIT’s Media Lab
And I launched the Space Exploration Initiative as one of the founders
It seems like human can go to the space right away
However, currently
There’s not much discussion about human life in the space
Such as culture, architecture, history, and basic necessities of life
They all need to be designed and addressed
I raise money and look for launching opportunities with my partner
We hope to gather people with diverse scientific backgrounds
And apply their experience gained on earth to the outer space
As for the work Living Distance
I launched one of my wisdom teeth into the space
It did a 5-minute zero-gravity performance and returned back to the earth
From designing, processing, and launching
The whole preparation took around one year and a half
The teeth was kinda like a substitution of me
It’s a romantic imagination to me
One of my friends said he saw a yearning for hometown in it
I hadn’t recognized
The influence of space on me and its attraction to me
Might actually come from the place where I grew up
The vast desert and unlimited views
I think they’re gorgeous
They improve my sensual capability to feel great things
Sojourner2020
The project is the world’s first art open call
That took a trip to International Space Station
It’s like a small house
And the whole thing is like a global village
The works discuss ecological issues
Transgender issues and aboriginal cultures
One work of mine was also among them
And it’s about a simple question
If we are going to grow some food in the space
Should we choose the potatoes of best GM breed
Or should we believe in the diversity of potato
We cooperate with local communities
Lots of children grow the potatoes with us
“Why do you think the potatoes go to the space”
The history of potato actually also reflects the history of human and colonization
And the thoughts on human’s migration to the space
We make some abstract and elite topics more down-to-earth
Trying to make more people want to express themselves
When speaking of space exploration
Now there’re lots of open-source online projects
It really becomes something that everyone can have a try
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic
I and my husband made an antenna with one broom and one clothes hanger
To catch satellite signals
It was quite popular on the internet last year
Many people learned to assemble the tool at home
I work and create as an artist most of the time
And I spend 1/3 of my time doing scientific research
I often chat with my old classmates
For example, when some of my Tsinghua fellow students are doing brain-computer interface
They can share with me their ideas of designing rockets
So I keep being inspired by them
I often attend international lectures
And almost all of the attendees are white male scholars over 50 years old
And me
I felt somewhat uncomfortable in the beginning
Now I think it's a beneficial declaration
In the context of space exploration, and even scientific development
There're an increasing number of female workers from various countries with different skin colors
To present diverse perspectives and possibilities