Name: The Art of Chinese Social Media/ The 18th CCVA Annual Conference
Start: 2025-11-27T09:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-28T18:00:00+00:00
Location: Birmingham School of Art

$The Art of Chinese Social Media\/ The 18th CCVA Annual Conference$

Get ready to dive into the art world and visual culture of Chinese social media!
About this Event

Welcome to The Art of Chinese Social Media! Join us at the Birmingham School of Art for two- day filled with insights, networking, and creativity. This conference seeks to explore the artistic strategies and visual cultures generated from Chinese social media to reflect broader sociopolitical dynamics in the context of Xi Jinping’s increasing digital censorship and control. How do platforms like Weibo, Douyin/TikTok, and WeChat construct new forms of artistic practice and cultural expression within the new age of ‘digital China’ and the deglobalising world? In what ways do contemporary artists and communities remediate social media to challenge power asymmetries, and foster digital democratisation through reclaiming agency and individual empowerment?

The conference welcomes contributions that can develop disciplinary perspectives and critical inquiries on the art and aesthetics of Chinese social media in the fields of visual arts, digital media, design, performing arts, and cultural studies.

Part of Dr. Shiyu Gao’s Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship research project, Emerging Surveillance Culture, which explores the intersection of expanded media art and technology in the context of ‘digital China’.