Danyang Liu

Danyang's work is an exploration of death and ritual in the digital age. Technology is changing our experiences of bereavement, mourning and how we share and communicate these events with others. Projects have examined the phenomenon of digital offerings where mouse clicks and taps of screens replace the traditional ritual of burning of joss paper for deceased loved ones and more recently explored the idea of a digital cemetery constructed of research into physical cemeteries in London and the ghost-like social media profiles of the bodies who can be found there.  

Danyang’s work primarily uses digital mediums such as programming and 3D animation, but due to her background training in contemporary jewellery where she gained extensive experiences in the exploration and application of materials, these elements are often combined in interactive installations that stimulate the audience’s visual, auditory, tactile and other senses. The influence of Kendall Walton's Make-believe theory brings questions of fact and fabrication to the work, promoting the audience to both questions what they experience and to stimulate imaginative responses. Her work emphasises the importance of bodily “presence” in communication in the dematerialised network era. She will continue this research in the future.