meta meta

After data is visualised, does its relationship to truth grow closer — or further away?

meta meta is a series of audiovisual works that circle this question — existing simultaneously as live performance, video installation, and standalone video. Real-time generated polygon meshes grow, shatter, and coalesce in dark space: sometimes organic, drifting softly; sometimes crystalline, erupting in sharp bursts. They are the visual residue of data — after computation, rendering, and re-computation, the original information is no longer recognisable. Only structure remains.

If language in 1984 is continuously simplified and corroded, then data visualisation may be the same corrosion applied to sight: each translation loses something, each layer of rendering moves further from the source. What is ultimately left is not information, but the shape of information after it has disappeared.

In collaboration with aaajiao. Music: nara.

---
layout: work.njk
title_zh: meta meta
title_ja: meta meta
title_en: meta meta
year: 2013
cover: /images/2013-meta-meta/cover.jpg
materials: 现场表演 · 影像装置 · 影像作品 — LCD · PCB · 12'30"
materials_ja: ライブパフォーマンス · 映像装置 · 映像作品 — LCD · PCB · 12'30"
materials_en: Live performance · video installation · video work — LCD · PCB · 12'30"
description: "An audiovisual series exploring data as visual substance — polygon meshes and crystalline structures emerge, fragment, and decay, questioning whether visualised data brings us closer to truth or further from it."
workTags:
  - installation
  - performance
---

<div class="gallery">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s1.jpg" alt="meta meta — 有机多边形云">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s2.png" alt="meta meta — 线框碎片">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s3.jpg" alt="meta meta — 结晶体特写">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s4.jpg" alt="meta meta — 多簇结晶悬浮">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s5.png" alt="meta meta — 结晶爆发">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s6.jpg" alt="meta meta — 现场表演">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s7.png" alt="meta meta — 蓝色金属结晶">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/s8.png" alt="meta meta — 彩色多边形碎裂">
  <img loading="lazy" src="/images/2013-meta-meta/cover.jpg" alt="meta meta — 有机线框形态">
</div>

<div lang="zh">

数据被可视化之后，它和真实之间的关系是变近了，还是更远了？

《meta meta》是一组围绕这个问题展开的视听作品——同时作为现场表演、影像装置和独立影像存在。实时生成的多边形网格在黑色空间中生长、碎裂、聚合：有时像有机体，柔软地漂浮；有时像结晶，尖锐地爆发。它们是数据的视觉残留物——经过运算、渲染、再运算之后，原始信息已经不可辨认，只剩下结构本身。

如果说《1984》中语言在不断被简化和腐蚀，那么数据可视化也许是视觉的同一种腐蚀过程：每一次转译都在丢失什么，每一层渲染都在远离源头。最终留下的，不是信息，而是信息消失之后的形态。

与 [aaajiao](https://eventstructure.com/aaajiao) 共同完成，音乐：nara。

</div>

<div lang="ja">

データは可視化されたあと、真実との距離は縮まるのか、それとも遠ざかるのか。

《meta meta》はこの問いをめぐる一連のオーディオビジュアル作品——ライブパフォーマンス、映像インスタレーション、独立した映像作品として同時に存在する。リアルタイムに生成されるポリゴンメッシュが暗闇の中で成長し、砕け、凝集する。あるときは有機体のように柔らかく漂い、あるときは結晶のように鋭く爆発する。それらはデータの視覚的残留物——演算、レンダリング、再演算を経て、元の情報はもはや判別不能となり、構造だけが残る。

『1984年』において言語が絶えず簡略化・腐食されていくように、データの可視化もまた視覚の同じ腐食プロセスかもしれない。翻訳のたびに何かが失われ、レンダリングの層を重ねるごとに源から遠ざかる。最終的に残るのは情報ではなく、情報が消えたあとの形態だ。

[aaajiao](https://eventstructure.com/aaajiao) との共同制作、音楽：nara。

</div>

<div lang="en">

After data is visualised, does its relationship to truth grow closer — or further away?

meta meta is a series of audiovisual works that circle this question — existing simultaneously as live performance, video installation, and standalone video. Real-time generated polygon meshes grow, shatter, and coalesce in dark space: sometimes organic, drifting softly; sometimes crystalline, erupting in sharp bursts. They are the visual residue of data — after computation, rendering, and re-computation, the original information is no longer recognisable. Only structure remains.

If language in *1984* is continuously simplified and corroded, then data visualisation may be the same corrosion applied to sight: each translation loses something, each layer of rendering moves further from the source. What is ultimately left is not information, but the shape of information after it has disappeared.

In collaboration with [aaajiao](https://eventstructure.com/aaajiao). Music: nara.

</div>