The world’s pursuit of technology today is undoubtedly a proof of the Technological Determinism as proposed by the economist Thorstein Veblen nearly a century ago. For example, we have spanned the times of travelling across mountains and oceans from riding a bike and then driving a car to flying a plane. As humans are pushed forward by their own creativity, they are changing the way to measure the world. 

It is fair to say that toolbox is a representative of modern technological creativity. It integrates many tools that remould things while developing towards professionalism, making it one of the cells supporting a technology deterministic society. Some people use it to smash walls and some build skyscrapers. What will be the effect when an artist takes up a toolbox?

Art often changes as technology does. However, it seems that neither clay sculpture technology nor pigment blending technology changes as drastically as the technology supporting society. While it is not Pandora’s box, an artist’s toolbox may help to generate continuous changes in our future life. We have no choice but to stay objective and alerted and open a corner of the box to observe the new ambience created after the mixing of artists’ whimsies and life technologies. 

This exhibition is the first solo exhibition of TASKO, a five-year old Japanese media art collective. Over the past five years, relying on their toolbox, TASKO has been playing an active role in Japan’s public art field, gaining the fame for addressing challenges in artistic creation through a diversity of technological approaches.

TASKO will be coming to China with their works over the past five years on July 8, 2017. The concepts and technologies of those works have mostly evolved into mature public art installations and been introduced by a number of large Japanese commercial organizations, such as Toyota, Shiseido and Daimaru. Technology interacts with art and then integrates with society for closer contact with all people. The many attempts of TASKO might provide a good picture for us to have a glimpse of one direction of contemporary media art.

This exhibition is sponsored jointly by Longgang Innovation Institute of Shenzhen University, C Future Lab and Xinggou Media Art Center, coordinated and executed by Shenzhen Xinggou Art Communication Co., Ltd., co-sponsored by Shenzhen Silu Feiyang Innovation Management Co., Ltd., with generous support from a number of professional institutions such as Cross-Media Studio of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and UFO Medial Lab, as well as government authorities, such as the Office of Cultural Industry Development of Longgang District and the Software Town of Universiade.