Karst 1 is inspired by Snow Yunxue Fu’s personal childhood experiences of visiting the caves in her hometown in Southwest China. The memories and the impact of those experiences are still quite vivid, where the space feels both claustrophobic and expansive. In recent years, according to more research done on the conditions of the Karst caves, some of them are being utilized by the Chinese government to host the ever growing big data hardware due to its controlled environment and many other safety factors. While more and more personal data is being stored by national scaled arrangements right inside of the mountains of Fu’s hometown, she felt that it is time to recreate her strong childhood memories of the caves. She recreated the cave in a digital VR space for more people to explore and to bring attention to the multi-layered digital nature of our contemporary human life. The spacial sound placed in the digital cave echoes in between the nature like sounds in the cave as well as the hypothetical machine’s operating noises. 1

Refresh 1 is an entangled database of improvisation, resistance, and unexpected glitches collected through mindful and detailed explorations. It collects intentional and rebellious gazes, movements that embody the cave, genuine surprises, and unfulfilled desires to touch while navigating through time travels, surveillance and counter surveillance, body scans, and dense symbolisms. 

Once an individual’s biodata is collected through the usage of software, who can access this data? How is it organized, and where is it stored? Whether it is in a digital “cloud” or a physical cave – what is the temperature, shape and weight of this data? 

Is pure data neutral? When does data collection become problematic?

1 Snow Yunxue Fu, “Artist Statement”, ACM Siggraph Art Show Archives Snow Yunxue Fu: Karst, https://digitalartarchive.siggraph.org/artwork/snow-yunxue-fu-karst/