02- INNER CARBON01 - MAMMOTH TECHNOLOGY00- PRIMORDIUM
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WritingsSpeaking
Interviews
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Wendi Yan (b. 1999, Beijing) constructs speculative epistemologies through research-driven worldbuilding and metafictional simulation, using CGI, game engines, and documentary practices to probe and play with the artifice of knowledge. Her work—spanning films, interactive media, and fictional archival installations—examines the embodied challenges of facing alien epistemic systems across time. Staging fiction to investigate what constitutes the real, she models metaphysical instruments, animates epistemological creatures, and engineers virtual environments governed by counterfactual logics.
Yan collaborates frequently with scientists and engineers, from synthetic biology to astrophysics, to explore the frontier between science and entertainment, between imaging and imagining. Parallel to her studio work, Yan writes on the history and future of scientific discovery; her research on artemisinin, published by Asimov Press, was named “Best of Journalism” by The Syllabus.
The Grand Prix recipient of the 6th VH Award by Hyundai Motor Group, Yan has or will exhibit at Ars Electronica Festival (Linz), House of Electronic Arts (Basel), Stiftung St. Matthaus (Berlin), Ujazdowski CCA (Warsaw), Vision Hall (Yongin), Hyundai Motorstudio (Beijing), TANK Shanghai, X Museum (Virtual), and Slash (San Francisco). She has spoken at the Gray Area Festival, New Inc Demo Festival, Rhizome World, Trust, SeedAI x SXSW, FWB Fest and Skywalker Ranch. Residencies include Eyebeam and the Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Expedition. She has been profiled or interviewed for her work by Monopol Magazine, Art & Business China, Meta Eye, Sursuma, Serpentine Future Art Ecosystem, WeTransfer and Coeval Magazine. She was a New Museum New Inc member for Y11 (Creative Science) and Y12 (Extended Realities). She has completed multiple art and writing commissions for the Berggruen Institute.
Based in New York, Yan holds an A.B. in History of Science from Princeton University, where she won the Horace H. Wilson ’25 Senior Thesis Prize in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a M.S. in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc. She was an inaugural member of the Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship (2023), created by Laurene Powell Jobs to support young creators between technology and liberal arts.
CV
Headshots [1] [2] by Jessica Chou