Datafication Act 1 : May Ian Valley 0101 《數據化 事件一 : 美人谷0101》(working title) is part of Yarli’s mixed-media series in exploring themes of digital humanity. In the looping dreamscape of ‘Act 1’, Yarli imagines daily influences of AI emergence and gamification on one’s behaviour – taking the most intimate sexual encounters as departure.

Viewers will join the data-mining authorities to monitor May Ian (美人)’s machine-readable body, known as ‘Subject 06′. In the control room, all the subjects’ sex acts are constantly being extracted and analysed. They will be rewarded unpredictably every time a new data pattern is detected, creating an addictive effect.

This is the first time Yarli returns to hand-drawing to mimic a digital interface. The labour-intensive handmaking process allows her to play with alternative artistic decisions, and question the relationship between art-making and digital AI tools. Combining fiction, performance, sexual acts, 3D modelling, and electronic music, the work is a ‘fried rice’, swinging in between surveillance systems’ control and care.