The parable of the blind men and the elephant serves as a metaphor for grappling with the complexities of perception, knowledge, and truth. Each blind man, encountering a different part of the elephant, constructs a distinct interpretation of the whole based on his or her limited, subjective experience. This allegory underscores the tension between individual perception and collective understanding, prompting us to critically examine how fragmented perspectives can simultaneously obscure and illuminate the ‘bigger picture.’ It also highlights how our prior experiences mediate our perception and understanding of the world, existing frameworks of knowledge, and the vocabulary we use to articulate what we encounter.

The parable reflects how we, as individuals, navigate the unknown, very much like blind men relying on intuition and the immediacy of sensory experience. These encounters are never neutral: they are filtered through the lens of our personal histories, cultural contexts, and linguistic tools. In the contemporary era, technology mediates and extends perception while refracting it into algorithmic, ideological, and infrastructural dimensions. From augmented reality to artificial intelligence, technological advancements extend our sensory and cognitive capacities, offering novel ways to ‘touch’ and interpret the ‘elephant.’ Yet, akin to the various interpretations of the blind men, among the fragmentation of perception, generating multiple—and often conflicting—versions of reality, technologies do not just enhance reality but determine what can be perceived as real, rendering truth plural and contested. Ho Rui An re-examines the contemporary world through fragments of archival materials in his recent project, Figures of History and the Grounds of Intelligence (2024). By delving into the interventions of history and politics, he explores how recent ideologies and colonial imprints have shaped his understanding of the present, generating a critical narrative that interrogates his discoveries, an ongoing process that opens up discursive possibilities. Jooyoung Oh delves into the history of the literary girls of Korea, reimagining and recontextualising their forgotten voices through a contemporary perspective. In fragments and segments, she brings these overlooked narratives into the present, offering a fresh lens to explore their significance and relevance for today’s world.

Within this framework, art emerges as a vital space for interrogating how technology shapes perception. With digital tools, algorithms, and immersive technologies, artists reinterpret reality and challenge conventional notions of truth and representation. The artists’ project investigates how technology can distort, amplify, and reconstruct our understanding of the world, raising ethical and philosophical questions about the nature of ‘truth’ in a digitally mediated age, actively produce new ontological categories, and displace textual and linear logic with programmed visuality. Wu Zi Yang’s Future Forecast exemplifies this approach through its speculative reimagining of the world, revealing the imprints of telecom infrastructure and its far-reaching impact, shaped by cross-geographical policies. His virtual universe produces a form of ‘truth’ that remains invisible in the material world. Yet, even these technological reconstructions are inevitably shaped by the artist’s—and the viewer’s—prior experiences, conceptual frameworks, and the language used to describe them. Eldwin Pradipta’s projection mapping focuses on capturing all non-flattened surface objects through the lens of a grassroots metaphor, emphasising intangible, non-monetary values in his artistic approach. By creating scenarios that challenge the notion of stable truths, he questions the market value and commercialisation of art.

The process of interpretation—whether through art or technology—is inherently personal yet fundamentally collaborative. When individuals with differing perspectives engage in dialogue, they co-create new possibilities, mapping out shared understandings that are richer and more nuanced than any singular viewpoint. Technology acts as ‘collective intelligence accelerators,’ transforming isolated knowledge into networked, dynamic systems of meaning-making. Technology facilitates this collaborative process, enabling unprecedented forms of dialogue and interaction across geographical, cultural, and experiential boundaries—yet these networks are never neutral; they embed the biases, infrastructures, and power structures of their design.  Jeong Ok Jeon directs Arcolabs in Indonesia, an initiative dedicated to fostering cultural exchange between Indonesian art and the global stage, embracing Indonesia’s cultural ideology of collectivity and collaboration, actively promoting collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and strengthening connections and mutual understanding across borders. Similarly, by inviting diverse parties to engage in dialogue, Bilguun Tuvshinbold builds connections and fosters a deeper understanding of Mongolia’s recent modernisation, highlighting the power of shared knowledge and collective action in shaping the nation’s evolving identity. However, these interactions remain contingent on the participants’ unique backgrounds, vocabularies, and ways of knowing, underscoring the complexity of achieving a truly shared understanding.

This artist talk invites participating artists and technologists to present works that critically examine the interplay between art, technology, and perception. By exploring how technology can both fragment and unify our understanding of the world, the discussion encourages audiences to reflect on their perspectives and consider how these fit into a larger, interconnected whole. How does technology shape what we see, feel, and believe? How can art serve as a tool to navigate the ethical and philosophical implications of these transformations? How do our individual experiences, existing knowledge systems, and linguistic frameworks influence the ways we interpret and engage with these mediated realities?

Through the Asia Artist Meetup, we move closer to understand—one that embraces the multiplicity of truths and the transformative potential of art and technology. This talk is an invitation to explore how these two fields can converge to expand our vision of reality, bridging the gap between the tangible and the intangible, the individual and the collective, while acknowledging the deeply personal and culturally situated nature of perception itself.

Talk 1 – The Act of ‘Touch’: Fragmented Perceptions and the Multiplicity of Reality

Time: 2 pm | Speakers: Ho Rui An, Jooyoung Oh
Moderator: Celia Ho

Talk 2 – The Lens of the ‘Blind’: Reinterpreting Truth and Reconstructing Our Perception of the World

Time: 3 pm | Speaker: Wu Ziyang, Eldwin Pradipta
Moderator: Sunny Cheung

Talk 3 – From Personal to Collective: The Evolution of Subjectivity in a Collaborative World

Time: 4 pm | Speakers: Jeong Ok Jeon, Bilguun Tuvshinbold
Moderator: Ryo Ikeshiro