Overview of the Project Fracture:
In AI-generated images, bugs or glitches are very common. The project follows fractures on AI-generated images and incorporates this phenomenon in the exploration of time.

Series I: "Second-hand Time - Shadows of Time"
This work uses the principle of persistence of vision. A fast-spinning motor connected to a clock maintains the hands’ steady rotation. When the sensor of the device is not triggered, the flashlight remains off, and the rapidly spinning hands become almost imperceptible to the human eye. Once the sensor is triggered, the flashlight starts to flicker. When a visitor approaches the clock, his/her different proximity leads to a different flicker frequency of the flashing light, as well as varied visions of the hands: in turn, forward rotation, persistence of vision, and backward rotation.

"Second-hand Time – The Increase of Entropy"
This series comprises pinhole photography works. Inspired by his own experience of keeping folded photos in the pocket, which become wrinkled as time goes by, the artist tries to capture pinhole shots on wrinkled photographic paper. After undergoing development and fixing, they are enlarged and re-developed, processed into positives, with wrinkles looking like cracks on the dial – as if on the brink of collapse. This transition from stability to chaos and disorder is called increase of entropy, seemingly revealing the essence of the passage of time, that is, going from stability to chaos.

Series II: "Parrot"
In the progressing of artificial intelligence (AI), people often use "parrot" and "crow" as metaphors for intelligence. This short film revolves around a parrot skilled in clock repairing. The story unfolds as the parrot ventures into a clock. The film is a human-AI co-creation, where AI generated 3-second video clips guided by the artist's textual prompting, which were later compiled and edited into a single film.

Series III: "Fracture"
This series is based on portraits generated by Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The subjects are fictional figures, and the generated images sometimes have bugs (glitches) that show as cracks, becoming reasonable “scars” on the portraits human face. The artist tries to enlarge these scars, while exploring more creative possibilities through various media, including photography, collage, and installation.
 

Qi Wenlong
Qi Wenlong was admitted to the Department of Art Education, China Academy of Art to major in Public Art in 2020. Now in the third year of his undergraduate studies, Qi is receiving professional training in the Social Aesthetic Education Studio. Qi has participated in many project-based arts practices and on-campus presentations, trying to promote among the public arts aesthetics and the shaping of the sense of aesthetics through artistic practices. Qi emphasises the connection between artistic media and the self, the society, and the nature – particularly conducting in-depth, continuous social research with a focus on the visual forms co-existing with us in natural ecology.