Today we’d like to introduce you to Nero Chenxuan He.
Hi Nero Chenxuan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in Beijing and now work as an educator, architectural designer, and multimedia artist in the States. I have studied architecture and design in the United States and Denmark. I lead my own creative practice, HeXagōn {分集研究所}, and our work has been exhibited in music videos, storefronts, galleries, digital billboards, and museums in various countries. I am an assistant professor at Texas Tech Huckabee College of Architecture and have been invited to initiate and teach the public digital art program at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). Before my current role at Texas Tech, I held the visiting professor position at Virginia Tech School of Architecture. As a former collaborator of Testa & Weiser, I have also taught studios and seminars at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).
I have been developing design workflows in phygital constructions and automavisions, which use digital means to explore material fabrication and displacement. I am interested in creating quasi-autonomous procedures to synergize human and non-human design agencies. By treating my computer as a design collaborator, my work is the byproduct of a non-rectilinear process, which has no finite result. Both my research and practice are exploring how designers are positioning ourselves to respond to technological advancements such as artificial intelligence that have exceeded our comprehension. My work intends to bridge the divide between technology and human input, emphasizing the vital need for conscious collaboration and conversation between human expertise and intelligent machines.
Besides outputting art and architecture projects from my unique perspective in design, I am currently editing a volume with a group of contributors on the top of “Quasi-Autonomous Design: Collaboration between Human Agency and Non-human Agency”.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My current practice, as well as my teaching and research directions, is a continuous study derived from my graduate thesis at SCI-Arc. The Covid lockdown in 2020 made me reflect on my relationship with the only accessible design tool, for the time being, my computer. It was a big struggle only working with intangible design methods. Do I want my computer to predetermine everything for me, make all calculations in advance, and be the smartest AI in the cloud that tells me what I want to see every moment in the world? Or do I just want my computer to output something playful, random, and unexpected—something special? The latter interests me more. My computer is no longer a design tool to me but my collaborator. I adapted to a new and more suitable role in design during this critical time. I started to intentionally break up the direct connection between myself with what would be created. The collaboration between my computer and I maximized what each of us could do: while the computer was putting out optimized, automated, limitless possibilities, I set up the logic and restriction to the computer’s freedom and curated the final result. It’s this constant push and pull between me and my computer that makes my workflow very similar to scientific research.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
When I outsource partial design work for the computer to figure out, my attention is no longer locked to the final result. I realized my work has a physical impact even when it is still in process and in digital format. My work files often take up a chunk of my drive space and require multiple computers to render for days nonstop for a short animation or simulation. When it has been rendered, my apartment does not need to turn the heater on during cold winter days. If we agree the energy required to produce material is a large factor in the raw material cost, my work and all other work being created digitally have the same impact as physical materials. It is a new economy. Digital waste and digital energy consumption are also as real as all physical ones. They affect the climate and could be more sustainable. The consciousness of using digital tools needs to be developed, especially when the world is telling us to shift our work to the cloud. We need to be more critical of our digital design behaviors. We need new rules and standards to produce our work more efficiently and reduce excessive representations.
My design practice can sometimes be considered speculative. Much of my work has been presented in museums and galleries as architectural installations or digital art. I was invited to make an installation at the Adidas a3 storefront in Shanghai for their new campaign. Two of my 3D autostereoscopic works have been displaced on large LED billboards in both Harajuku Tokyo and Chengdu, China, which become local attractions. Currently, I am working on the projection for downtown Denver Belltower.
Any big plans?
Beyond the digital art market, paired with digital animations and simulations, physical architecture is where I would like to land eventually, fusing new contemporary atypical thinking in fabricated solutions. Binding theoretical research with practical projects could be very challenging. I look forward to future clients who would share the same curiosity and passion with me to explore the now and future of design.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.he-x-agon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nerohe/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nerohe/
