XINYAN
Xinyan XU is a visual artist and spatial designer based in Ningbo and Shanghai. She is currently a research resident at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Media Arts LowRes.

Her artistic focus is on supermodernity, contemporary culture, and metropolitan experiences. She uses spaces, places, and computational techniques to create visuals, spatial experiences, soundwalks, and art installations.
创作者及设计师，现居于宁波和上海。目前是纽约大学帝势艺术学院互动媒体艺术的驻留研究者。她通过空间、地点及数媒来体现城市超现代化下的人际关系、都市体验和网络文化。


Spatial works at naynix_dot_com
Contact xinyan at xuxinyan_at_yahoo_dot_com
THE WALKS ｜ 遛弯儿


Algorithmic
Sonic Experience
Walking Exploration

(ONGOING)
(WEBSITE)

 THE WALKS is a series of soundwalks that take listeners on an audio experience in non-places.

SOUNDWALK in THE WALKS is interpreted as a solo experience directed by an invisible friend through earphones. The sound guides listeners on a walking exploration of non-places.

NON-PLACES is a term introduced by French anthropologist Marc Augé. In these places, people remain anonymous, engage minimally, and focus on efficiency rather than meaningful experiences or personal connections. Airports, subways, supermarkets, and parking lots are all examples of non-places. 

I personally love being in non-places alone. I find a strange comfort in staying anonymous, enjoying moments of solitude, and being free from the expectation to engage with others. This gives me the same feeling as sitting in a dark theater like an audience. Watching and observing people in different non-places is like an immersive play depicting mundane city life. I find fun, relaxation, and sometimes inspiration within non-places. In some sense, non-places are not non-places anymore. They are places for me.


HOW CAN I CREATE A GATEWAY FOR OTHERS TO FEEL THE SAME?
HOW CAN I MAYBE TRANSFORM NON-PLACES INTO PLACES FOR OTHERS?


Soundwalks came to mind because of their immense immersiveness and the directional quality that guides the way. In THE WALKS, the soundwalk audio experiences intentionally mimic the tone of a podcast. The audio is filled with personal memories, calls to action, intriguing questions to direct observation, and soundscapes to make the whole experience engaging and fun to listen to. The series consists of three durations: 60, 16, and 6 minutes.







SoundWalk 60 is location-specific and city-based. It’s 60 minutes long and will only trigger at that specific geo-location. The audio experience discusses how historical remains, non-places, and human activities shape the unique city landscape and lifestyle of that specific city.

SoundWalk 16 is no longer location-specific but site-specific, meaning the audio experience can be enjoyed anywhere. To trigger the soundwalk, listeners need to upload a picture of their surroundings. The image classification system will identify the type of non-place and play the corresponding audio.

SoundWalk 06 is more customizable and shorter. It uses AI-synthesized text and text-to-speech technology to generate the entire audio experience. Listeners can specify preferred content and non-places, or take a chance and let the AI guide the next 6-minute journey.


THE WALKS Soundwalk Samples









Show at West Bund Future Lab Expo, Shanghai




Show at NYU Shanghai


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