Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing opens Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain, an exhibition that philosophically investigates a new timeframe in the data space based on the concept of blockchain, curated by Xin Bi, one of the two awardees of the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech 2022.

Since its establishment in 2017 by Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech has been a prominent platform for recognizing and supporting emerging Chinese curators. By proposing annual themes, it fosters innovative and critical exploration of the major contemporary issues. The theme of the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech 2022 is “Disruptive Futures” to ignite collective discussion on how to build a more diverse and sustainable future for humanity in the age of disruptive technology and drastic changes. 

Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain engages with the theme through a critical and philosophical examination of the notion of time in the digital world. The artworks featured in this exhibition explore continued cyber time and discrete block time from the intersection of computer science, distributed technology, social relationship structures, and literature, exploring how the probabilistic nature of block time offers new opportunities for us to reconsider the possibilities of time and how discrete blocks of time create a myriad of pathways towards innumerable futures.

“Through the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech, we hope to provide a global platform to inspire emerging curators to reflect on the futures we wish to create for humanity,” said DooEun Choi, Hyundai Motor’s Art Director. “The exhibition curated by Xin Bi prompts us to engage in a dialogue regarding various aspects of time and forms of technology in order to ensure a more equitable, healthy, and resilient future.”

The curatorial practice of Xin Bi is centered on the intersection of art, distributed technology, and contemporary socio- and sub-cultures. Xin Bi intends to reconsider the ethical relationship between technological development and ecological balance, as well as the infrastructure and sustainable technologies in the Web 3.0 era, through writing, experimentation, and prototype development.

Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain focuses on the temporal, social, and political order, the construction of consensus mechanisms, the circulation of energy and emotion, and the temporal slippages in technology time in search of the forks of time and the poetry of technology by constructing three parallel networks of time: Chimera Time, Energy Time, and Spime. Chimera Time (Algorithm-Time) explores the probabilistic nature of time through blockchain technology. Energy Time (Ecology-Time) critically discusses the conflicts and interdependencies between technological development and ecological balance. Spime (Social Connection-Time) merges time and space into one, inspecting the path of political, emotional, and community connections as well as the interpenetration of the digital and physical worlds.

Time After Time: The Polychronicity in Blockchain will continue until March 31, 2023. During the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to pause and envision our shared future at a time of rapid and unexpected changes and engage with the public programs to participate in the discourse.

The call for proposals for the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech 2023 is currently ongoing, and five curators have been shortlisted under the theme of “Decentralized Reworlding”. Hyundai Motor Company will announce the two awardees and their respective proposals in December.

Artists: César Escudero Andaluz, Martín Nadal, Simon Denny in collaboration with Guile Twardowski and Cosmographia, eeefff, Cheng Guo, Helen Knowles, Lee Tzu-tung, Chuang Liu, Nascent (Paul Seidler & Max Hampshire) in cooperation with Amy Ireland, Yuri Pattison, Ruini Shi.