Articles de revues sur le sujet « Painting, chinese – appreciation »

People’s appreciation needs of Chinese paintings have gradually increased. The research on automatic classification and recognition of Chinese painting artistic style and its authors have great practical value. This study presents a Chinese painting classification algorithm with higher classification accuracy and better robustness. Using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract the features of Chinese painting, the image features of Chinese painting are extracted by fine-tuning the pretrained VGG-F model. The mutual information theory is introduced into embedded machine learning, so that the embedded principle is affected by feature selection and feature importance. An embedded classification algorithm based on mutual information is proposed, and Chinese painting is classified.

Freehand Brushwork is a unique artistic language in Chinese painting and calligraphy, celebrated for its ability to express emotion and spirit in the process of artistic creation. This paper aims to explore the spiritual connotation and artistic aesthetics of Freehand Brushwork oil paintings, and to examine the use of traditional Chinese Freehand Brushwork techniques in the expression of Western painting. By reconstructing the language of oil painting expression with traditional Chinese techniques, the paper seeks to investigate the Freehand Brushwork spirit of Chinese oil painting, which is deeply rooted in the Chinese idea of the 'unity of heaven and man' and 'respect for individuals'. The paper presents a critical analysis of the aesthetic and expressive features of Freehand Brushwork oil paintings, shedding light on the unique artistic characteristics of Chinese oil painting that distinguishes it from other painting styles. This paper contributes to the understanding and appreciation of Freehand Brushwork oil paintings and serves as a guide for artists seeking to master the Freehand Brushwork techniques in their artistic creations.

This research employs methods of iconography analysis to dissect the visual representation of loneliness in the paintings of Harald Sohlberg, aiming to inspire in the creation of loneliness within Contemporary Chinese ink painting. The article unfolds by delving into Sohlberg's painting style, cultural origins, and the profound meanings embedded within his works, subsequently exploring the revelations of Sohlberg's paintings for contemporary Chinese ink painting, and thereby elucidating the author's creation. By providing novel perspectives and methodologies, this paper contributes to the realm of cross-cultural research in the arts, demonstrating the existence of commonalities diverse backgrounds, cultures, and artistic genres, with the aspiration of fostering mutual understanding and exchange across different cultures and nations. Furthermore, this article serves to inspire painters in their creations and aids in enhancing the audience's appreciation and aesthetic sensibilities towards painting.

Chinese painting pigments are essential for creating Chinese paintings and are an integral part of Chinese national culture, as they embody the spirit of Chinese painting. The technique of making Chinese painting pigments was included in the third batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List by the State Council in 2011, emphasizing the significance of Chinese traditional culture. However, as a "living" culture, it is susceptible to change or extinction due to various factors such as inheritance, the social environment, and conservation measures. The art of making Chinese painting pigments is a unique art form that is primarily passed down orally. However, due to the increasing scarcity of raw materials and the decreasing number of artisan heirs, this art form is facing a challenging dilemma. In light of the current situation of Chinese painting pigment making techniques, this paper proposes several feasible solutions for archival protection. One solution is to use the regional characteristics of Chinese painting pigment making for publicity. This strategy would involve promoting the unique aspects of Chinese painting pigment making in various regions to increase awareness and appreciation of the art form. Another solution is to build an archival talent team for Chinese painting pigment technique. This approach would involve identifying and training a group of experts in Chinese painting pigment making to ensure the continued preservation and development of the art form. Finally, building an online resource for Chinese painting pigment making technique would make the information accessible to a wider audience and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge about this art form.

The computational aesthetics of pictorial art is an important part of human artistic creation, and the computational aesthetics of pictorial art images is a computationally computable human aesthetic process using machines, which has important applications and scientific significance in the automated analysis of large-scale paintings and the computational modeling of perception by machines. To this end, this paper proposes a multitask convolutional neural network model for emotion and rating of artworks. (1) An artwork appreciation dataset consisting of fifty Chinese paintings and fifty Western oil paintings was created, and twenty subjects were recruited to score the art appreciation of one hundred artworks in the dataset, covering both painting aesthetic evaluation and painting emotion evaluation. (2) Based on the artwork art appreciation dataset, an AlexNet-based convolutional neural network model is proposed to utilize the powerful feature extraction and classification capabilities of neural networks to complete artwork art appreciation, and an oversampling method and multitask learning method are used to improve the overall recognition accuracy. (3) Compared with the combination of traditional manual features + machine learning algorithms, the end-to-end multitask convolutional neural network proposed in this paper has the highest accuracy rate of 74.57%/71.43%/74.12%.

Chinese painting is one of the representatives of our country’s outstanding traditional culture, and it embodies the long history and intellectual wisdom of the Chinese nation. In the paper, we combine the artistic characteristics of Chinese paintings and use an optimized SqueezeNet model to study the sentiment analysis of Chinese paintings. To make full use of the advantages of lightweight convolutional neural networks, we make two optimizations based on SqueezeNet. On the one hand, expand the model width to obtain more effective Chinese painting sentiment features for classification tasks, thereby improving the classification accuracy of the model. On the other hand, introduce the idea of residual network to prevent gradient disappearance and gradient explosion in the training process, thereby enhancing the model’s generalization ability. To verify the effectiveness of the optimized SqueezeNet model used in the sentiment analysis of Chinese paintings, four kinds of sentiment classifications were carried out on the multitheme Chinese paintings downloaded on the Internet. The results of comparative experiments show that the optimized SqueezeNet model used in this paper can improve the accuracy of classification and has better generalization ability. Finally, the research results of this paper can be applied to the protection of traditional culture, the appreciation of traditional Chinese painting, and art education and training, which is conducive to the inheritance and innovation of the national quintessence and promotes the prosperity and development of traditional art and culture.

Art is the product of culture, and the collision of cross-cultural communication and Chinese and Western culture has promoted the development and innovation of art. Today, oil painting is well known as a kind of art. At first, oil painting did not exist as art. It came from the most primitive activities of mankind and gradually became one of the categories of art with the development of civilization. In the context of the rapid development of material civilization today, the huge benefits brought by science and technology have promoted people’s pursuit of practicability. Oil painting has been used more as an instrument and has largely lost its purity as an art. Sexuality and spirituality and traditional cultural communication methods limit the development and inheritance of oil painting art. Oil painting can decorate the interior space and increase the income of museum tickets; it has collections that can add value; it cultivates readers’ temperament; the author expresses his emotions. Based on that, this article is based on the research of mobile information system and oil painting art cultural appreciation platform. The gradient descent method is the earliest, simplest, and most commonly used optimization method. The convergence speed of the gradient descent method in the region close to the optimal solution is significantly slower, and the use of the gradient descent method to solve the problem requires many iterations. First of all, this article uses the method of literature data to study the theories of keywords such as oil painting art and cultural communication. Then, oil painting art and culture communication model is designed through the classification algorithm under mobile information network. Finally, it analyzes the status quo of art culture dissemination and the dissemination of oil painting art culture in my country. Taking figure painting and landscape painting as examples, their total added values accounted for 33.4% and 49.2%, respectively. This shows that the overall scale of my country’s oil painting industry has been expanding year by year, and its status in the national economy has also been steadily improved.

Ancient Chinese calligraphy theories often “discuss calligraphy by taste”. “Taste” is an essential category of classical Chinese aesthetics, and is a concrete expression of the spirit of Chinese art. In contemporary calligraphic critical discourse, outside of the audiovisual norms, the Chinese calligraphic tradition of “discussing calligraphy by taste” is undoubtedly an ideological resource that cannot be ignored. “Gan”. In English is called “pleasant” and was originally one of the five flavors, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it slowly developed the meaning of “Tian” (sweet) to describe the taste. “Sweet”, as an aesthetic category, appeared in a large number of poetry, calligraphy, and painting theories in the Ming and Qing dynasties and beyond. Since the Tang Dynasty, “Sweet” has been combined with “Vulgar”. The word “Sweet” was formally introduced into the realm of painting and calligraphy appreciation. This article utilizes the theory of aesthetics and combines it with physiology, psychology, and other disciplines to explain discussing calligraphy by “Sweet”. An analysis of the generation and transfer of the category of “Sweet” in the appreciation of calligraphy reveals the mutual borrowing and influence of art theories. After sorting and analyzing, it can be seen that “Sweet” refers to works that are overly modified, not chewable, and have no flavor outside the taste. Or works with too much “craftsmanship”, too much skill, too much ink, and works that are opposite to the beauty of “clumsiness” and “lightness” appreciated by ancient calligraphers.

Spring Outing Painting of Madam Guo is one of the representative works of Zhang Xuan, a famous Chinese court painter of the Tang dynasty (618–907), who was the “leader” of the trend of figure painting in the Tang dynasty and had a great influence on later figure painting. The costumes of the characters in the paintings not only show the artistic aesthetics of the prosperous Tang dynasty, but also reflect the rich cultural connotation. At present, the research on this painting is mainly about character discrimination and painting appreciation. There are few studies involving the costumes in this painting. With the rapid development of digital clothing technology, it provides a new way and path for the restoration of ancient costumes. Based on the costume archaeology of Spring Outing Painting of Madam Guo, this paper uses 3D virtual simulation and reverse engineering technology to restore the costume style of the characters in the picture, realize the digital restoration and protection of the style drawing, paper pattern, and 3D simulation drawing of the characters’ costumes in the picture. Finally, we introduce the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to comprehensively evaluate the costume restoration effect. Our proposed method solves the problem of the constraints of time and space on the presentation of ancient traditional costumes, promotes the excellent historical culture of China, and provides a certain reference for the modern redesign of ancient costumes.

The materials used in ancient calligraphy and painting, such as silk and paper, are susceptible to damage and aging. The practice of creating copies through meticulous imitation has been employed by ancient individuals to extend the lifespan of precious cultural artifacts. Reproductions continue to serve as an effective means of dissemination in museums, imparting functions such as appreciation and educational value to society. The replication of cultural artifacts extends beyond calligraphy and painting to include items like bronze ware, lacquerware, and ceramics, giving rise to activities such as collecting, buying, and selling replicas. As ancient calligraphy and painting reproductions proliferate in a rapidly evolving society, they have become favored by enthusiasts and cater to the needs of the wider public. This paper aims to explore the positioning and development of reproductions of ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting in the context of social development.

During the late Ming to early Qing dynasties, the great demand for Chinese export porcelain laid the foundation for the development of export paintings. From the 18th to the 19th century, a unique form of cultural hybridity emerged in the coastal area of Canton: export paintings. This paper attempts to explore the interaction, conflict, and fusion with foreign cultures within the frameworks of Homi Bhabha's "third space" theory and Mary Louise Pratt's concept of the "contact zone." It examines how this cross-cultural art form manifests hybridity in materials, painting techniques, and themes.From the perspective of aesthetic education, these paintings provide profound insights into the cultivation of aesthetic sensibilities and cross-cultural appreciation. Predominantly produced by Chinese painters and workshops, with a few contributions from visiting European painters, these artworks cover a broad range of subjects, including Chinese social life, flora and fauna, and folk customs. By examining the aesthetic value and educational potential of these works through the lens of aesthetic education, we can better understand their significance in cross-cultural art exchange. This cross-cultural art form not only holds aesthetic importance but also provides a new perspective for studying Sino-Western cultural interactions, enriching the discourse on art education and cultural exchange.

With a unique system of symbols, the music art is a special form of art. The symbolic system based on the musical structure cannot find its prototype in the real life of the human. It is different from the symbolic system of the literature and poetry with the established system of language words as well as that of the plastic art with the concrete medium in the real life. Hence, the room for imagination, experience and comprehension created by the appreciation of music works is much broader and freer than that of the appreciation of literature, poetry and painting. Although it can not provide us with a concrete view of the real world just like the language art, it can still present a world of infinite broadness and richness in the emotional realm. In other words, it can trigger an emotional change in a rapid and direct manner. The strong emotional experience can give us an in-depth reflection on the life and ourselves.

By melodic landscape, this paper points to natural milieus such as mountains whose motifs are caught up in contrapuntal relations. With Merleau-Ponty, the structure of the world is a symphony, and the production of life which implicates both organism and environment as unfurling of Umwelt is ‘a melody that sings itself’. For the Chinese culture, mountains have been deemed virtuous in Confucianism, immortal by Daoists, and spiritual for a Buddhist to reach a substrate level of pure stream of a-subjective consciousness. A Chinese painter-poet within the ‘mountain-water’ genre would consider mountains as performance of events, a concert of vibration of light, shape and sound, movement and rest. Insofar as art is to create energy transfer, Chinese artists of mountains aim at concerting with nature as organised by rhythms and conspecifics, unfolding contrapuntal melodies with all kinds of counterpoints. As Deleuze and Guattari's notion of refrains are the three forces or tempos of chaos, earth and world confronting/converging one another, this paper endeavours to find out, first, how Deleuze and Guattari's geological, organic and alloplastic stratifications can be put alongside mountains, animals, plants and arts, and second, how this notion can contribute to our new appreciation of the way Chinese mountains in arts can give out music.

This article explores the importance of paper in traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting and investigates the performance differences between a new paper and an old paper. The characteristics of paper, such as texture, absorbency, color, and durability, significantly impact the artwork’s quality and expression. The development of new papers has been driven by the desire to improve characteristics and meet the evolving needs of artists. This research compares a new paper, made using alternative materials and technology, with an old paper, combining a simulation sample and authentic calligraphy and painting scraps. The evaluation considers parameters such as ink absorption, texture, color vibrancy, bleed-through, smudging, and durability. The new paper demonstrated superior ink absorption, a smooth texture suitable for detailed work, enhanced color vibrancy, minimal bleed-through and smudging, and improved durability. The old paper, while offering a unique rough texture, had slower ink drying times, slightly lower color vibrancy, and less durability. Artists seeking precision and vibrant colors may prefer the new paper, while those desiring a textured and traditional aesthetic may favor the old paper. The findings contribute to understanding the performance characteristics of different papers, aiding artists, collectors, and researchers in their selection and appreciation of paper in calligraphy and painting. Several challenges, such as the omission of specific paper types or brands, a limited sample size, and the oversight of long-term paper durability, warrant further exploration. In the context of modern tools, the article underscores the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in supporting artists, collectors, and researchers in the selection and appreciation of paper in calligraphy and painting. Integration of AI for tasks such as data analysis, pattern recognition, and recommendation systems could offer valuable insights, fostering objectivity and efficiency in the study and aiding in the exploration of a wider range of paper characteristics.

With the rise of the feminist movement in the 1970s, the concept of feminism gradually entered the public's field of vision. Its theory revolves around with the development of society, the wave of feminism continues to deepen and affect all aspects of human life. The improvement of productivity and the change of production relations urge women to re-recognize themselves, and the improvement of productivity and the change of production relations urge women to re-recognize themselves, and women's self-worth and social status are more and more affirmed. The female image, as one of the common subjects in the history of eastern and western illustration, has rich forms of expression, thus reflecting multiple connotations, and analyzing the visual elements in female illustrations from the perspective of feminism. it provides a new perspective for illustration analysis, and can deeply understand the author's creative ideas through the selection and performance of picture elements. The author starts with feminist painting art, through the analysis of representative paintings including female images in Chinese and western art history. The author starts with feminist painting art, through the analysis of representative paintings including female images in Chinese and western art history, combined with feminist thoughts to analyze the implication behind image expression, and then from feminist painting to feminist illustration research As feminism goes deep into the public's As feminism goes deep into the public's field of vision, feminist illustration expression is endowed with more forms and meaning of the times, and it is always intended to show the viewer a At the same time, illustration, as a widely used form of artistic expression, can provide an effective perspective for feminist expression as a woman. At the same time, illustration, as a widely used form of artistic expression, can provide an effective perspective for feminist expression as a suitable medium, so as to provide a window for the public to understand feminism. The research and thinking of this paper is devoted to excavating the unique and diverse female beauty in different female paintings and illustrations. and hopes to appeal to the viewer to have more tolerance and appreciation of the current feminist art, in the present when many female artists are open up the artistic road in the future with practice.

This article explores the emergence and development of the Xin Jinling school of traditional Chinese painting, focusing on its notable representatives. The main objective of this study is to investigate the school's formation, development, and the artistic features of works by renowned artists such as Fu Baoshi, Qian Songyan, Ya Ming, Wei Zixi, and Song Wenzhi. The scientific novelty of this research resides in determining the role and significance of the regional Xin Jinling school in Chinese art history and assessing its influence on contemporary Chinese art. Employing research methods such as historical and iconographic analysis, a historical and biographical approach, formal and stylistic analysis, and comparative analysis, the study delves into the school's main representatives. This article examines the geographical and chronological scope of the Xin Jinling school while elucidating the historical, sociopolitical, and cultural contexts of its formation. It also outlines the school's development trajectory, significantly impacted by China's political landscape during the twentieth century. Furthermore, the article scrutinizes the creative paths and artistic attributes of the school's primary representatives, analyzing the commonalities and distinct features of their works. These artists captured the spirit of their time and the everyday lives of the people, demonstrating a profound appreciation for nature. They devoted considerable attention to plein air activities, with each artist employing a unique creative approach. In conclusion, this article underscores the importance of the Xin Jinling school within the annals of Chinese art history. The findings of this research enhance our understanding of contemporary Chinese art by studying the Xin Jinling school of traditional painting as an integral component of China's artistic heritage.

Abstract: This article holds the opinion that some meta-picto-poetry of landscape, composed by American poet Gary Snyder, takes Chinese landscape painting as its subject matter with the characteristics of ancient Chinese poetry, shimmering with incomparable artistic charm and cultural substance. Poetry of this kind is a perfect combination of eastern and western elements, integrating the cultures, thoughts and arts of both sides. The appreciation of this poetry creates a complex experience with a hybrid of artistic forms and aesthetic spaces. Gary Snyder is not only an eco-poet, but also a stylist and a man of practice. His poetic works reveal the fostering relationship between literature, culture and nature. The article intends to make a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and multi-field attempt in Snyder’s criticism, with analytical methods inclusive of eastern and western cultures, ancient and present visions as well as dynamic and static experiences.

This article uses the idioms of embroidery appreciation as depicted in narrative figure paintings in the collection of the National Museum of Korea, to examine the effects of Gu-style embroidery, which reached Korea during the late Joseon period, on the development of late Joseon embroidered pictures enjoyed by the royal court.<br/>The late Joseon period saw unprecedented developments in social, economic and cultural norms. Among these were friendly relations with Qing, allowing Koreans access to new imported culture including various regional Chinese embroidery styles. Gu embroidery became an early source of influence on change and production of embroidery in the royal court. By the 18th century, embroidered everyday items had spread into the private homes of aristocrats and commoners as part of a luxury trend. Expert producers created masterpieces specifically for viewing, which were collected for this purpose. Decorative embroidered screens were created featuring Taoist hermit and narrative figure paintings, driving artistic growth based on motifs of elegance and appreciation of luxury. Characteristics relating to Gu found in these works include: first, the filling of parts corresponding to Gu-style mixed embroidery and painting with long and short stitches and irregular long and short stitches; second, the development of a type of decorative stitching capable of the same elaborate expression as Gu; third, the replacement of untwisted thread, in which Gu style was used to achieve gradation, with twisted thread; fourth, the tracing of the outlines of all pictorial elements with outline stitch, unlike in Gu, emphasizing neatness; fifth, the use of contrasting complementary colors rather than intermediate colors; and sixth, the production of Taoist hermit paintings such as Banquet at Jade Pond and narrative figure paintings as screens. In sum, it can be said that this series of phenomena developed into a formal idiom in Joseon embroidery, which had become more highly renowned than that of China by the 19th century.

Law-lauding ideology and rhetoric has been increasingly evident in China since the end of the Cultural Revolution. In conjunction nAth decades of rapid and prolfc legal institution-building, this has provded rich data for scholarship on the trajectory of China s legal system, and the nature of rule and order in modern Chinese society. Yet a solely law-centric approach to state regulation is not aposite to painting a complete picture o how order is maintained in the distinctly non-legal Chinese clture. Drang onfleldwork investigating non-state Chinese ophanage I argue that the surdval and proliferation of such quasi- or non-legal grassroots non-government organizations is indicative of, and premised on, both the un deldy and fragmented nature of the Chinese state, and several defining points of distinction of law as a cultural notion in the Chinese context. These include a marked preoccupation with legitimag over legalit, and paternalistic discipline and discretion over impartial adjudication. An increased appreciation for China ' local legal culture has far-reaching implications for the ways in which both legal academics and practitioners engage with the Chinese legal system, which is best approached nAthout constraining preconceptions about how law is used and regarded in local contexts.

University of LatviaThis essay stems from a hypothesis which belongs to a work in progress: an attempt to understand and to make translatable into contemporary conceptions the figure of the anonymous 隱者 (yin zhe) and its formation into a kind of humanistic cipher or an empty interior space sketched like a human being in classical Chinese poetry and Tang and Song painting. The idea is that the correspondence of personality and landscape in Chinese aesthetics replaces its Western counterpart―the relativity of subjectivity and outer space. The first part of the essay delineates differences in the approach to landscape or 山水 (shan-shui) and emphasizes that the appreciation of both essentially changes as soon as the cultural information does, which makes similarities of certain approaches―as in romantic landscapes and Chinese shan-shui―deluding rather than coherent. The last part focuses on a detail in the construction of the shan-shui in relation to concepts of personality which I call distance and framing. This combination of an absolute spatial order obtained by distance and its microcosmical, individual correspondence in a personally shaped frame seems the characteristic Chinese way to translate concepts of personality into an aesthetic reality―almost bare of any relation to the physical presence of the subject.

The art works take tea as the theme of painting elements, and depict the content of Chinese traditional culture by showing the connotation of tea culture painting elements. For example, Wen Zhiming, a painter and calligrapher in Ming Dynasty, is best at painting landscape figures. He often uses tea as the theme in his art works, adding the elegant, natural, and simple painting elements of tea into his works, and has created many famous art works that are spread around the world. In recent years, with the deepening of the research on image processing technology, image perception technology has attracted more and more researchers’ attention, which has made great achievements and progress in image perception algorithms. This paper studies the tea culture elements of art works based on image perception algorithm. The accuracy of similar image pairs is the ratio that similar image pairs are correctly recognized. When the number of experiments reaches 25, the image sensing algorithm in this paper has the highest accuracy rate, with the accuracy rate of 99.8%, when the number of experiments reaches 20, the ant colony algorithm with the accuracy rate of 96.5%, when the number of experiments reaches 20, and finally the artificial intelligence algorithm with the accuracy rate of 96.0%. The correct rate of similar image pairs is the correct recognition rate of tampered image pairs. When the number of experiments reaches 10 times, the correct rate of image perception algorithm in this paper still ranks first, with the correct rate of 99.8%, when the number of experiments reaches 25 times, the artificial intelligence algorithm with the correct rate of 98.2%, and finally when the number of experiments reaches 10 times, the ant colony algorithm with the correct rate of 96.2%. It can be seen that the numerical values in this column show the robustness of this algorithm. Through the cultivation of students’ image perception ability, it can promote students’ appreciation ability of tea culture painting elements, learn the knowledge of tea culture painting elements beauty in a deeper level, master the skills of beauty, and improve their artistic temperament and artistic accomplishment.

This essay is intended as an appreciation of an overlooked element of Chinese material culture: discarded blue bricks from demolished shikumen houses in Shanghai. It contemplates the concept and materiality of a wall from a unique perspective, combining insights from Chinese architecture history and scholarly tradition of appreciating stones. Combining scientific and poetic approaches, the author argues that these bricks can be contemplated analogically to ink landscape paintings and famous Dali dreamstones. The author uses these clay objects as a starting point to reflect on the rapid transformation of Chinese cities and complex relationship between enduring tradition and ongoing modernization.

In a number of experiments the effects of presenting different categories of art in contrasting order were explored. In the first experiment traditional and abstract paintings and Chinese calligraphy were used as stimuli, each type was contrasted with the other two, which led to shifts in appreciation as well as in perceived complexity. Two more experiments were performed. In one of these experiments fragments of traditional and modern classical music were presented. The same effect was found as when traditional and abstract paintings were contrasted: enhancement of the appreciation of traditional music but no decrease in the appreciation of modern music. It seems that when art is concerned only positive contrast effects are obtained. A possible explanation could be that it is considered socially undesirable to admit a lesser appreciation of modern than of traditional art. To test this hypothesis, socially ‘neutral’ stimuli, Chinese ideographs, differing in aesthetic quality, were contrasted. This yielded the expected positive as well as negative effects.

The scope of aesthetics is often bound by the limits of sensory perception. In appreciating music and painting, information is typically processed through distinct perceptual channels. However, at the cerebral cortex and nervous system level, these modes of perception can interact and integrate, influenced by collected audiovisual information, thereby enriching the aesthetic experience and improving aesthetic efficiency. The domain of audio-visual interactive aesthetics holds significant potential in aesthetic education, yet current research in this area has made limited substantial advancements. This paper explores the functionality and impact of an audio-visual interactive aesthetic model, combining music and painting, within practical aesthetic education through a series of applied experiments. By incorporating Chinese traditional music and painting into children’s regular curriculum, we conduct a quantitative evaluating and analysis of the benefits of audio-visual multi-sensory aesthetics over single-channel perception in enhancing children’s emotional, aesthetic experiences, and cognitive abilities.

Abstract One of the more overlooked forms of Chinese poetry is that called by the word zan 讚 or “appreciation.” Here we examine the pre-Tang use of the term in its application both to a summary prose or verse statement in historical texts as well as to a form of verse often regarded as akin to the song 頌 or “laud” but especially associated with illustrations or paintings. Discussion then proceeds to a focus on and analysis of Li Bo’s 李白 seventeen extant zan poems, nearly all of which are about or were inscribed on paintings. These poems can be divided among three categories: those on portrayed individuals, those on objects and scenes, and those on Buddhist topics. Li Bo’s zan give evidence of certain new as well as differently emphasized developments in the form.

This paper researches the art techniques used in a Chinese mural The Deer King Jataka to explore the narrative elements and methods in this work. The paper focuses on clarifying painting techniques of the mural especially through the layout, composition, color, and cultural style. After that, the paper discusses how such techniques influence viewers understandings of the mural, and followed by the explanation of the content. By clarifying and then comparing the techniques to their practices in the work, it is easier for readers to understand the methods, and link the information mentioned to the work when appreciating. The paper not only shows the basic Buddhism ideas of art and culture, but also includes my own conceptions of art to further investigate the thesis. 1

This books offers an appreciation of the life and work of Father Mon Van Genechten, a Belgian artist-priest who was a missionary in China from 1930 to 1946. It presents Father Van Genechten as an open-hearted and creative man of faith, and also makes the rather dramatic claim that Van Genechten, whose art combined Chinese styles with Christian iconography, should be seen as a Chinese artist.The book contains two essays: one by De Ridder, on the art-historical context of Van Genechten's work; and the other by Swerts, giving fuller biographical detail. It also includes a brief memoir of Van Genechten by a former student; reproductions of his paintings, woodcuts and photographs; a list of his exhibitions; and a catalog of his known works. This catalogue is, unfortunately, less useful than it might be as it gives neither the current location of a work nor where it is reproduced.Van Genechten is no neglected genius, but he is potentially interesting to students of Christian missionary work in China, of the modern development of Christian art, and also to students of modern Chinese art. His career – which encompassed decorating churches in Inner Mongolia, teaching at the Catholic University of Peking, and being prisoner of war in Shandong – offers a fresh perspective on East–West artistic interchange. But while the book introduces a worthwhile subject, it falls short in analysis and historical contextualization.

The Balinese puppets in the traditional paintings as a cultural heritage has inspired Balinese craftsmen created ceramic works of aesthetic value. The efforts these craftsmen can be read as resistance to entry the ceramic works from outside and the production of the ceramic art in Indonesia that ignore Indonesian characters. This study aims to discuss the aesthetics of visuals ceramic works that apply Balinese puppets ornaments. The data collection method by observation and documentation. The results showed that the aesthetics of the ceramic craft products with Balinese puppets ornaments seen from unity, harmony, symmetry, balance, and contrast are quite good, although not yet optimal. Besides, the visual aesthetics of the ceramic works have not displayed good complexity, so the beauty that obtained was not optimal. The visual aesthetic assessment of this work was subjective in nature, so it was possible that there will be different judgments. The conclusion that aesthetics can be achieved by elevating the cultural traditions of the past and at the same time as a form of appreciation for that culture and become a differentiator amid the rise of Chinese ceramics in Indonesia.

Dijian tushuo (帝鑑圖說; The Emperor's Mirror, Illustrated and Discussed) is a book compiled by Zhang Juzheng (張居正, 1525-1582), a great scholar during the late period of the Ming Dynasty of China. The book was made for the education of Wanli Emperor (萬歷帝, r.1572-1620), who rose to the throne at an early age. It contains 117 stories about the virtuous and evil deeds of previous emperors, complete with illustrations and relevant articles. After its presentation to the emperor in 1572, several editions of the book were produced by the end of the nineteenth century, and copies were distributed to neighboring countries like Korea and Japan and even to France via Jesuit missionaries. There are copies of more than twelve extant woodblock-printed and lithographic editions in East Asia, as well as copies reprinted with copper plates in France. Also, copies of the book with color illustrations remain in China and France. In Korea, colored illustrations of Dijian tushuo are kept under different titles such as Gunwang jwaumyeong (君王左右銘; The King's Motto) and Dohae yeokdae gungam (圖解歷代君鑑; The Mirror of Rulers throughout the Ages, An Illustrated Explanation) at the Gyeonggi Provincial Museum and the Jangseogak, the archive of the Academy of Korean Studies, respectively.<br/>In China, Dijian tushuo formed part of the education of the crown princes during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. More than eight different editions were made by the flourishing commercial publication industry during the two dynasties. In Joseon royal court, the book was recognized as one of the didactic books for the discipline of kingship. As for Japan, the shoguns of the Edo Bakufu used the book to advertise themselves as ideal rulers or to make Chinese royal palace genre paintings as an exotic hobby. Isidore Stanislas Henri Helman (1743~1809), a French engraver, made reprinted copies of the book amid Chinoiseries popularized in eighteenth-century France. The French edition reflects not only the public criticism of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but also Helman’s implicit intention to receive financial support from Marie Louise Josephin de Savoie and the Count of Provence (later Louis XVIII), first in line to the throne at the time.<br/>Dijian tushuo was adopted in various countries in East Asia and Europe between the end of the sixteenth century and the early twentieth century, although the way it was used differed from country to country depending on their respective political, social, and cultural situations. However, all these countries had one thing in common– they had future rulers read the book. Perhaps, the fact that it was written for the education of the crown princes of China served as the stimulus for leaders and intellectuals alike. Studies on the ways in which books like Dijian tushuo were distributed as an aggregation of knowledge, information, and culture are thought to be significant and useful in identifying certain characteristics shared by diverse countries and in shedding light on differences in their political and social backgrounds and their art history.

Abstract The authors investigate Chinese “Shanshui” (literally meaning mountain and water), a China-origin and East Asian ink paintings of the natural landscape, through an interactive art installation, entitled “Shanshui Journey.” By examining Shanshui’s philosophy, multiple-moving perspectives, and creation and appreciation practices, the work emphasizes motion in nature, memories, and interactive appreciation. These concepts are realized in a digitized room, where each participant’s motion is captured as a line “sketch” and transformed into an ink painting (i.e., Shanshui) via a custom neural network. Generated paintings are displayed in real-time alongside previous works, collectively termed “Shanshui Memories,” mimicking the handscroll interaction. This new Shanshui approach aims to reproduce the Chinese literati art experience, raising awareness of the cultural heritage.

This article is about the appreciation of Chinese contemporary oil paintings in Henan Province, and the researcher has chosen the work "Crows Returning to the Forest"(han ya gui lin) by the artist Li Mingwei from Henan Province, China, as the object of discussion. The work is analysed in terms of formalism, but also in terms of the concepts of culture that exist through values, behaviours, needs and environments in the field of art. The aim of the study was to identify the subject and analyse the art form in the work “Crows Returning to the Forest” and to explain the connection between formalism in the art of painting through the socio-cultural system. The written and visual data collection methodology in this study uses a descriptive qualitative approach based on empirical field work of the data obtained. Documentation, visual records and observation methods were used to gather information related to the paintings studied. The results of the study show that Li Mingwei's work "Crows Returning to the Forest" is an application of traditional Chinese cultural elements to the art of oil painting. The concepts used in the study underlie the subject, design and aesthetic meaning to classify the painting using a cultural approach. The significance of the study suggests that contemporary Chinese oil paintings in Henan Province cannot be viewed only from the formalistic perspective of art but can also be presented through a cultural context. This study contributes to the understanding of the meaning, concepts and purposes of design employed by contemporary Chinese artists in shaping the image and cultural identity of their work.

Chinese traditional art is an important source of contemporary arts and crafts practice, for the study of excellent traditional visual art can promote the creative transformation of contemporary arts and crafts and innovative invention, enhance cultural confidence. Pang XunQIN OPENED UP THE MODERN PAINTING WITH national characteristics and extended the decorative painting to the decorative art of arts and crafts, which complied with the needs of The Times and society. To be able to follow the path he explored would go a long way toward reshaping the contemporary values of arts and crafts. This paper tries to sum up three transformation roads of arts and crafts that adapt to the contemporary social life by appreciation and analysis of Mr. Pang Xunqin's creation thought sources and works, so that the technology and art show a new look that conforms to its native environment and development process under the "modern" life background, so that the Chinese excellent traditional culture can glow with vitality.

Painting, music, literature, and other art forms embody the essence of human wisdom and induce esthetic experience, among which poetry is inherently creative, because it contains a wealth of symbols, imageries, insights, and so forth. The appreciation and learning of Chinese poetry is an important part of the curriculum in secondary schools. However, studies have mainly focused on textual characters of poetry, with little literature focusing on esthetic appreciation and in-depth learning of poetry. In this vein, we ask whether emotional designs will promote the appreciation and learning of Chinese poetry. To answer this question, we explored the influence of the combination of external emotion induction (positive and neutral movie clips) and internal colorful design (chromatic and achromatic) on esthetic preference and learning of poetry. One hundred and sixty-six participants (14–15 years old) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions created by two factors (external emotion induction and internal colorful design). The results showed that the combination of external emotion induction and internal colorful design promoted positive emotions, retention, and transfer performances of learners. Furthermore, perceived difficulty of learners decreased significantly when external emotional induction and internal colorful design were both positive. Consequently, these findings indicated that emotional designs in multimedia facilitated the learning performance of middle school students in Chinese poetry, and supported the cognitive-affective theory of learning with media. This research was a preliminary exploration of emotional design in humanities.

Abstract: Photography, as a tool, mainly presents the relationship between people and objects through the use of artistic elements, such as light, shadow and color in images. The creation of photography is an activity that requires inspiration and skills. It requires photographers to carefully and deeply observe and think about the overall structure of the work, in order to take good photos that are both artistic and thoughtful. The development and popularization of photography in today’s society cannot be underestimated for their impact on public aesthetics and humanistic thinking. This paper aims to analyze the aesthetic connotation of Chinese photography and explore its aesthetic standards and values. The philosophical thoughts in Chinese photography are explored, and their reflections and perspectives on life and society are analyzed. The relationship and mutual influence between aesthetic connotations and philosophical thoughts in Chinese photography are explored, and their significance and influence on photography works are analyzed, so as to better understand and appreciate the uniqueness of Chinese photography. Chinese photography is a unique and diverse form of artistic expression that reflects China’s rich cultural heritage and social development. By emphasizing harmony, the integration of painting elements, storytelling and appreciation of nature, Chinese photography provides a profound aesthetic experience and conveys deeper meanings of unity, tranquility, and the relationship between people and the environment.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 翁氏和友人、門生關於王士禛“秋林讀書圖”的題詠對該畫題在乾嘉時代文人畫壇的日漸流行和進入詩歌的頻繁題詠潮流中起了一定的帶動作用。作爲一個畫題，“秋林讀書圖”發源於元代畫家，屬於在後世漸盛的“讀書圖”系列畫題中較早出現的，在明清時代比較盛行。因具有濃鬱的士人情調，它成爲文人創作和題詠的對象。“讀書圖”系列畫題具有較强的交際性和私屬性特點，翁氏及其門生、友人對漁洋“秋林讀書圖”的幾十年間的題詠活動體現了這一點。這些題畫詩對於我們認識王士禛與翁方綱的詩學關係、學緣和翁方綱所在的乾嘉時代學風，以及圖畫與詩歌關係的某些面向，都具有重要意義。翁方綱在題寫、欣賞“漁洋秋林讀書圖”過程中，體悟到的詩學旨趣及詩—畫藝術本體論（“詩髓”説）富有理論價值，值得重新認識。 The inscriptions on Wang Shizhen’s (1634-1711) “Reading in the Autumn Groves” by the disciples and friends of Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) boosted the increasing popularity of these kinds of paintings and inscription of poetry on paintings in the Qianlong and Jiaqing eras (1736-1820). The title “Reading in the Autumn Groves” was first created by Yuan-dynasty painters, appeared in a “Reading” series of painting titles that became increasingly popular, and contributed to the formation of a new vogue in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Because of its rich intellectual appeal, it won the favor of the literati and became an object of literary creation and inscription. The series of “Reading” painting titles are strong in both communicative and private features, which is reflected the decades of similar works by Weng Fanggang, his disciples and friends, who inscribed on Wang Shizhen’s paintings under the title “Reading in the Autumn Groves.” These inscription poems are of great significance in our understanding of the relationship between Wang’s and Weng’s poetics, their academic backgrounds, and the scholarship styles of the Qian-Jia era in which Weng mainly lived, as well as some aspects of the relationship between painting and poetry. In the process of inscribing and appreciating these paintings titled “Reading in the Autumn Groves,” Weng Fanggang gained enlightenment in poetics and the ontology of the art of poetry and painting from a cross-disciplinary perspective (called “Marrow of Poetry” theory). These have rich theoretical value and are worth re-consideration.

Introduction Despite the expansive and multimodal realm of Chinese Boys’ Love (BL) culture (also known as danmei in Chinese), audio works have been notably absent from scholarly discussions, with the focus predominantly being on novels (e.g. Bai; Zhang). This article aims to fill this gap by delving into the transformative impact of sound on narrative engagement within the Chinese BL culture. Focussing on the audio drama adaptations of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (modao zushi, hereafter Grandmaster), originally a serialised Chinese BL novel, this analysis aims to unravel the meticulously crafted BL fantasy in these auditory renditions. The audio drama format delivers an intimate storytelling experience directly to the listener’s ears. Unlike textual media, audio dramas allow listeners to immerse themselves in narratives during various daily activities, deepening their connection with the content. The audio drama Grandmaster, produced by the renowned Chinese platform MissEvan, has garnered a vast fan base and over 640 million plays across three seasons (the episodes and numbers of plays can be found on MissEvan: Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3). Unlike the serialised Web-drama adaption diluted by censorship regulations, the audio drama retains the utmost BL fidelity to the original novel, highlighting the significant potential of this medium in the Chinese BL culture. BL culture has surged in popularity within China, partly due to the export of Japanese culture and the burgeoning Chinese Internet accessibility (Feng). The BL genre encompasses diverse media forms such as novels, fanfiction, comics, animation, and audio/Web dramas, rooted in shared fantasies of romantic love between men. The growing interest in BL culture reflects a response to societal structures like Confucianism and the oppressive education system, which, due to their restrictedness, inadvertently foster the exploration of alternative narratives and identities within the genre (Kwon). While initially inspired by Japanese subculture, Chinese BL has evolved under diverse global influences, including American and other Asian subcultures (Lavin et al.). Chinese BL narratives delve into themes of identity, sexuality, power dynamics, and societal norms, reflecting a rich blend of modern and traditional Chinese culture (Madill and Zhao). Moreover, the rise of BL fandom has empowered female readers to engage in questions about gendered politics, questions that enable them to turn a voyeuristic gaze upon men (Zhang). The versatility of Chinese BL media reflects not only the evolving nature of the genre but also its enduring appeal and cultural significance within contemporary Chinese society. This article initiates a concise review of audio drama in China and the transformative impact of earphone technology, shifting listening experiences from public to intimate settings. It subsequently explores the intricate interplay between Chinese BL novels and audio dramas, elucidating the unique dynamics involved. The analysis then examines specific scenes from Grandmaster, providing insights into its role in facilitating a mesmerising BL audio fantasy. Grandmaster, originating as an Internet novel, has gained a dedicated following. MissEvan, recognising its potential, secured copyrights and commissioned Triones Penguin Studio for a radio drama adaptation in Mandarin. This full-cast dramatisation involves skilled editors, playwrights, and composers, thereby enriching character portrayals and interactions. The professional teamwork and meticulous oversight at each production stage guaranteed regular updates and high audio quality (Shao). Despite the collaborative nature of teamwork, I argue that the power of sound technology personalises the auditory journey as it creates an immersive experience for individual listeners. My analyses mainly rely on research involving actual listeners, along with examinations of specific content within Grandmaster with an idealised listener in consideration, to elucidate the factors contributing to its auditory allure. This examination contributes to a nuanced understanding of Chinese BL culture and its constitutive relationship to audio. From Public Broadcasting to Intimate Voicing: Audio Drama in China Radio broadcasting in China, with roots dating back to the early twentieth century, initially served as a propaganda instrument for mass mobilisation and communication. Chinese storytelling, rooted in acoustics, emphasises the sensory appeal of sound (Chan). It intertwines oral and written traditions in classical literature, particularly fiction and drama (Børdahl). Local vernaculars commonly feature in oral storytelling traditions, whereas Chinese radio programs adopt Mandarin to foster a cohesive national identity via linguistic uniformity. The Communist Party tactically expanded its audience through a radio reception network, establishing a wired broadcasting infrastructure with over 100 million loudspeakers by the 1970s. This revolutionised politics, everyday life, and perceptions of time and space (Li). The interplay between radio and social change reflected China’s pursuit of modernity, as the Communist Party utilised radio to institute a national communication system and monopolise news production. Radio thus served as a crucial tool for constructing and sustaining revolutionary fervor (Lei; He). Radio dramas, often cross-media adaptations from edited films in the 1970s, contributed to everyday sensory pleasure amidst a totalising revolutionary soundscape (Huang). The growth of radio and loudspeaker infrastructure played diverse roles in the revolution, fostering political communication, labour mobilisation, propaganda, surveillance, and even nurturing the Mao cult, turning radio drama into a potent tool for mass mobilisation and communication (Li). As a result, before the widespread availability of televisions in the 1990s, radio structured Chinese people’s daily activities and served as the primary information medium. Technological advancements in earphones, transitioning from larger wired headphones to smaller wireless earbuds like AirPods, have shifted auditory experiences in China from a collective identity tool used in political propaganda to a medium for individualistic entertainment. This change is marked by the personal nature of headphone usage, which can extend social interactions in and beyond physical dimensions (Grusin). The transition from wired headphones to wireless earbuds implements the interiorisation of one person’s body/voice within another, initiating a profound connection that transcends physical limitations (Stankievech). Since 2018, wireless earbuds have exceeded wired headphones in output value in China (Insight and Info), with the online audio market surging to 22 billion yuan in 2021, a 67.9% increase year-on-year. Audiobooks and audio dramas are the most popular genres, with a predominantly female audience under forty who prefer listening at night after work (iimedia). Among audio dramas, BL works generate the most traffic and revenue in China (Y. Wang). Along with such content, putting wireless earbuds inside the ear intensifies the intimacy of listening, transmitting voices directly into the listener’s head and sitting alongside their thoughts (Weldon). This physical closeness underscores the exclusive bond between the listener and the audio content, redefining oral narratives and transforming public and political audio content into a more personal and intimate medium. The use of wireless earbuds even extends listening beyond mere auditory experience, empowering haptic sensations that create an intimate bond. The acousmatic voice envelops the listener’s ears, establishing a connection even before the message’s content is considered (Madsen and Potts). The ear’s sensitivity prompts consciousness and memory, unlocking the imaginative world (C. Wang 91-94). This sensory engagement surpasses traditional auditory limits, resembling a physical encounter where listeners feel like their body has joined with the body of sound. Dermot Rattigan, discussing radio drama, notes how listeners fill the void with mental visualisations and imagination, entering a state of individual ‘virtual reality’ through aural stimulation (Rattigan 118). Drawing from visual psychology, Shaffer likens the soundscape to a dynamic landscape painting, emphasising the fluidity of auditory experiences (Schafer). Listening becomes a multi-dimensional journey involving the entire body and mind, a compelling tool for reception and connection that transcends reality’s boundaries. The advent of MP3 technologies and the podcasting boom also extends the former spatial and temporal limitations of listening. In contrast to traditional real-time broadcasting, MP3 technologies enable voices to persist indefinitely into the future (Madsen and Potts). This temporal flexibility further builds a private sound sphere for listeners (Euritt). Listeners no longer need to share time and space with others around loudspeakers or radios, so they can freely indulge in their subcultural preferences, such as BL stories, without concern for societal judgment. Many listeners strategically incorporate audio dramas into their daily schedule, choosing moments of solitude such as before sleep or upon waking, where they can detach from the expectations of their physical space and identity roles. This is particularly evident among devoted fans of Chinese BL audio dramas, who carve out personal time for these works and seek a quiet space for focussed engagement (Wang 55). This intentional, focussed engagement differs from the typical mode of everyday radio listening as it serves an expanded, widespread dissemination environment that is also highly intimate (Madsen and Potts). Thus, the convergence of temporal flexibility and immersive technology shapes listener engagement and interaction dynamics. The fusion of intimacy, physical closeness, and temporal flexibility heightens the allure of the voice in programs with erotic undertones, such as BL audio dramas. Euritt introduces the concept of ‘breathing out into you’ to explain queer eroticism in podcasts, emphasising shared breaths and potential haptic exchanges that enhance the sensual dimensions of sound (Euritt 27-53). This wireless, intimately riveting auditory experience transforms the soundscape and reshapes contemporary social interactions. This shift is particularly noteworthy for popular Chinese radio and audio content as they began as a public, propaganda-oriented tool and transitioned into forms as novel as the intimate domain of BL audio dramas. This change underscores the transformative power of sound in shaping interactions, surpassing conventional storytelling boundaries, and ushering in a new era of engaging narratives. The 2.5-Dimensional: Auralising Chinese Boys’ Love Fiction The BL genre emerges as a cultural and social force that can potentially challenge traditional Chinese values. Its focus on male-male love inherently questions societal expectations around gender and sexuality in ways that disrupt Confucian ideology’s emphasis on heterosexual marriage and lineage (Welker). Furthermore, the genre’s similarity to the melodramatic ‘soap opera’ storytelling style resonates with Western ideals of individualism and aligns more with a feminist viewpoint that contrasts with the male-dominant heterosexism often found in traditional Chinese narratives (Mumford). This emphasis on individual desires also implicitly disputes the collectivist and socialist values, as well as the importance of the extended family, traditionally embraced in Chinese cultures. In short, the love, sex, and romance depicted in BL represent a departure from traditional Chinese values, positioning the BL genre as a vehicle for cultural exchange and societal transformation in terms of gender norms. The surge of Internet radio and social media in the 2010s has substantially contributed to the professionalisation and commercialisation of Chinese BL audio dramas. MissEvan, a prominent barrage-audio and live-broadcasting Website, has been crucial to this proliferation (Hu et al.). Before the advent of commercial dubbing, enthusiasts of BL novels voluntarily recorded non-profit Chinese audio dramas and disseminated them online. The popularity of BL novels subsequently prompted their adaptation into animation and television dramas, creating a demand for dubbing services. This demand inaugurated a niche for professional voice actors to hone and showcase their skills. The integration of technology and capital by commercial production teams has markedly elevated the quality of Chinese BL audio dramas. Amidst tightening censorship in 2021, Chinese BL online novels and their television/Web-drama adaptations faced restrictions. Audio drama emerged as a less restrictive medium, which can relatively directly present explicit gay relationships (Hu et al.). Listeners of Chinese BL audio dramas typically read the online novel beforehand, engaging in dual consumption for pleasure in both reading and listening (Wang 58). Their engagement transcends plot comprehension, focussing instead on appreciating sophisticated voice performances. Exploring how audio dramas derived from novels can transcend textual narratives and captivate audiences has become a central focus in the production process, highlighting the flourishing landscape of audio drama. The listening process provides informed listeners with a re-experience, offering multiple sensory and emotional pleasures by translating words into voice and sounds. Unlike film and television dubbing, which requires synchronisation with actors’ lip movements and speech rhythms, dubbing for animation, audio dramas, and games gives greater creative autonomy to voice actors. The thriving market for audio dramas has shaped the Chinese dubbing industry, cultivating a devoted fan base for previously overlooked voice actors. The character voices (CVs, also known as voice actors, or VAs) have emerged as central figures, attracting fans and driving media traffic. In the late 2010s, collaborations between MissEvan and renowned CVs resulted in the adaptation of popular online fiction into paid audio dramas, exemplified by Grandmaster, which aired in 2017 and 2018 (Hu et al.). Fans’ motivation for engaging with BL audio dramas extends beyond intertextual and trans-media entertainment but incorporates an appreciation for their beloved CVs, thereby fostering a culture of support within the burgeoning Chinese BL audio drama market. In the storytelling of aural media, CVs are crucial in bridging the auditor’s BL imagination between the text and the characters as their performances breathe life into characters. CVs fill a gap between two-dimensional works (fiction, comic, and animation) and the three-dimensional real world, forging ‘2.5-dimensional’ content. This term originated in the 1970s-80s to describe anime voice actors, who imbue two-dimensional characters with a sense of existence and generate interrelations between the real, fictional, and cyber worlds (Sugawa-Shimada and Annett). In BL audio dramas, CVs commonly stimulate listeners’ sensations through male moans that facilitate an erotic flow between sound and body, arousing desire through the auditory channel. The incorporation of scenes with sexual innuendo between the male protagonists creates a space for listeners to indulge in these moments with earphones on, enveloped in their own private, eroticised sphere of engagement between fiction and reality. The deliberate pauses, gasps, and panting become the silent dialogue that intertwines inner voices with external narratives, enhancing comprehensive sensory engagement for listeners. Audio Fantasy in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Grandmaster is a seminal Chinese BL novel that blends martial arts, supernatural fantasies, and emotional depth. Set in a richly imagined world where immortal cultivation techniques bestow individuals with extraordinary powers, the story follows protagonists Wei Wuxian’s and Lan Wangji’s intertwined fates. Its captivating narrative and nuanced characters have garnered a global fanbase, solidifying its place as a cornerstone of Chinese BL literature and media. The audio drama Grandmaster faithfully mirrors the novel’s narrative structure, unfolding from the protagonist Wei’s perspective after his reincarnation, weaving memories of his past and present life, including his romantic involvement with Lan. Wei’s establishment of the forbidden Demonic Path leads to his death, but he is reincarnated thirteen years later and reunites with Lan. After his reincarnation, Wei gradually realises Lan’s concealed profound affection and scarification for him. Diverging from the television/Web-drama adaptation, which replaces the romance with platonic ‘bromance’ due to censorship (Lei), the audio drama accentuates the impassioned soundscapes of their relationship. The three-season series, comprising episodes of 30-40 minutes, offers the first three episodes for free, with subsequent content requiring payment (approximately four to six dollars per season). Impressively, the series has driven earnings exceeding $1.5 million (Asia Business Leaders). This success highlights the captivating and profitable potential of audio dramas as a BL storytelling medium. Unlike the original novel, which uses an omniscient narrator, the audio drama advances the plot solely through character dialogue. Consequently, listeners navigate the storyline guided by the rhythm of the CVs’ delivery and the accompanying music. Different from Japanese BL audio dramas that feature as ‘voice porn’ for women (Ishida), Grandmaster subtly implies the romance between Lan and Wei, with the most intimate interactions limited to kisses. Rather than sexually explicit content, the drama focusses on the characters’ affective fulfillment after a prolonged thirteen-year anticipation. For instance, in Season 1, Episode 4, Wei attempts to hide his identity and flee from Lan. When Wei creeps back towards Lan’s bed to steal the pass for exiting Lan’s residence, Lan catches him. Rather than simply saying ‘Get off’ as in the novel, Lan instructs Wei in the audio drama to ‘Get off from my body,’ offering listeners additional physical contact cues (the quotes from the novel and audio drama in this article are translations from Chinese to English). Following Wei’s intentional refusal, the CV Wei Chao, portraying Lan, strategically breathes before his next line, ‘then stay like this for the whole night’. The breath conveys Lan’s deep, restrained affection and evokes the listener’s nuanced emotional resonance. To represent Lan’s affection within his minimal and often monosyllabic lines requires the CV to convey emotions through breaths and intonations, which commonly elicit an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) in listeners. ASMR is a tingling sensation often triggered by soft low-tone spoken or whispered voices (Barratt and Davis). Wei Chao intentionally lowers his voice to interpret how Lan’s sighs encapsulate unspoken sentiments (Wei). In contrast, the CV Lu Zhixing employs a playful and sweet tone in his portrayal of Wei Wuxian. When Lu delivers flirtatious lines, online real-time comments frequently express listeners’ admiration, suggesting that his voice is even more captivating than women’s. The contrasting restraint and playfulness intensify the listener’s empathy for Lan’s unspeakable passion. Thus, Lan’s subtle expressions of his restrained love become the primary attraction for listeners (KikuHonda). The high-quality sound further amplifies the breath sounds, making each of Lan’s ‘hmm’ responses—indifferent, melancholy, or indulgent—a nuanced emotional trigger. Listeners, through their wireless earbuds, engage in the meticulously crafted expressions of Lan within a profoundly personal soundscape. This listening mode is a crucial component of the overall enthralling auditory voyage, augmenting the appreciation of the characters’ subdued emotions. The layered integration of music and sound in Grandmaster constructs a three-dimensional sonic storytelling landscape. Effective soundscapes for storytelling are crafted by multiple dimensions: sound source, temporal progression, simultaneous layers, and spatialisation. Sound editing allows for source selection, with listeners experiencing these dimensions as integrated, not separate or sequential (Stedman et al.). The audio drama Grandmaster distinguishes itself from the novel by using voice flashbacks for narrative enhancement. In Season Three, Episode 12, when Lan’s brother recounts Lan’s sacrifice for Wei, particularly the moment when Lan endured severe punishment to save Wei thirteen years ago, the soundscape instantly transports listeners to that intense scene. Listeners vividly hear the swishing force of the whip and its impact, immersing them in the sounds of Lan’s anguish and unwavering love. This direct auditory impact allows listeners to feel as if they are experiencing the events firsthand, physically sensing the hardships encountered by the protagonists in understanding each other’s affection, intensifying their hard-won love. The musical orchestration and vocal interplay are also pivotal to conveying the story. In the storyline, Wei and Lan showcase proficiency in their respective instruments: Wei with the flute and Lan with the guqin (a seven-string Chinese zither). The tonal features of these instruments—the flute’s melodious brightness and the guqin’s deep lingering resonance—symbolise the protagonists’ distinct personalities, adding ingenious layers to their relationship. In the Guanyin Temple scene (Season Three, Episode 13), as Wei confesses to Lan, the initial background music features the flute, guqin, and rain sounds, foreshadowing the confessional moment with Wei’s worries that Lan will not believe his words. As Wei promises to remember Lan’s every word from now on, the music incorporates the guzheng, a Chinese string instrument with a brighter timbre than guqin. The tremolo technique of guzheng is reminiscent of the characters’ heartstring vibrations. Through auditory cues, the narrative climaxes with Wei’s heartfelt confession of love for Lan. When Wei straightforwardly confesses, ‘I fancy you, I love you, I want you, I cannot leave you. … I do not want anyone but you—it cannot be anyone but you’ (Season Three, Episode 13), his heartfelt words are accompanied by layered sounds, including the duet of the flute and guqin, and the sound of thunder and rain, accelerating the affective climax. Lan echoes Wei’s words, underscored by erhu, thereby showing how this string instrument resembles humans’ sobbing voices through its sliding technique, rendering the touching melody. The heartbeat and rain sound with Lan’s panting highlight the painful loneliness of Lan’s thirteen-year wait. The intricate fusion of musical and vocal elements enables listeners to not only hear but also to feel the mutual affection between the characters, culminating in a sense of delight upon the disclosure of their reciprocal love following numerous adventures. Using earbuds amplifies listeners’ capacity to fully receive auditory details and stereo effects, thereby contributing to the popularity of BL audio dramas that skillfully convey unspoken love through detailed soundscapes. Epilogue The Grandmaster audio dramas provide crafted episodes that fulfill fans’ passionate needs that exceed the novel’s scope. In addition to adapting the novel, the team has conceived original mini-dramas that enrich the character images. Listeners can access additional content such as iconic quotes, ringtones, and ‘lullaby’ episodes recorded by the leading CVs, maximising the captivating power of sound and justifying listeners’ investment. The multi-layered use of sounds and instrumental arrangements effectively constructs a three-dimensional soundscape, reinforcing the audience’s understanding of the story and characters. Unlike television/Web-drama adaptations, the audio drama fully amplifies the tragic elements of the novel, pushing the immersed listener’s imagination past textual limitations. While casting choices and modelling in visual adaptions may disappoint viewers’ expectations at times, the audio drama leverages the power of sound to stimulate listeners’ imaginations, encouraging them to visualise their own specific character images. Skillful orchestration, along with sound effects, breaths, and dialogues in Grandmaster intensifies emotional expression, forming a rich and dimensional soundscape and unlocking new possibilities for audio drama artistic expression for Chinese BL fantasy. 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Euritt, Alyn. Podcasting as an Intimate Medium. Routledge, 2022. Feng, Jin. “‘Addicted to Beauty’: Consuming and Producing Web-Based Chinese ‘Danmei’ Fiction at Jinjiang.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 21.2 (2009): 1–41. Grusin, Richard A. Premediation: Affect and Mediality after 9/11. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. He, Bixiao. “ ‘Yelling at the Masses’: Making Propaganda Audible in the Communist Revolution.” China Report 58.1 (2022): 28–40. Hu, Tingting, Jing Jin, and Lin Liao. “A Transmedia ‘Third’ Space: The Counterculture of Chinese Boys” Love Audio Dramas.” Asian Studies Review 47.4 (2023): 836–54. Huang, Nicole. “Listening to Films: Politics of the Auditory in 1970s China.” Journal of Chinese Cinemas 7.3 (2013): 187–206. Hunn, Nick. “The Market for Hearable Devices 2016-2020.” Wearable Technologies. 7 Dec. 2016. <https://wt-obk.wearable-technologies.com/2016/12/the-market-for-hearable-devices-2016-2020-and-then-there-were-airpods/>. iimedia. “2021年中国在线音频行业发展及用户行为研究报告 [2021 China Online Audio Industry Development and User Behaviour Research Report].” 21 Nov. 2021. <https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/82048.html>. Insight and Info. “中国无线耳机行业发展现状分析与投资前景研究报告 (2022-2029 年) [Analysis and Investment Prospect Research Report on the Development of China's Wireless Earphone Industry (2022-2029)].” 2022. <https://www.chinabaogao.com/detail/607742.html>. Ishida, Minori. “Sounds and Sighs: 'Voice Porn' for Women.” In Shōjo across Media: Exploring “Girl” Practices in Contemporary Japan, eds. Jaqueline Berndt et al. Springer International, 2019. 283–99. KikuHonda. “[閒聊] 廣播劇魔道祖師 [[Chat] The Audio Drama Grandmaster].” 18 Jan. 2020. <https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/YuanChuang/M.1579362798.A.49D.html>. Kwon, Jungmin. “The Past, Present, and Future of Boys Love (BL) Cultures in East Asia.” In Transnational Convergence of East Asian Pop Culture. Routledge, 2021. Lavin, Maud, et al. Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Hong Kong UP, 2017. Lei, Jun. “Taming the Untamed Politics and Gender in BL-Adapted Web Dramas.” In Queer TV China: Televisual and Fannish Imaginaries of Gender, Sexuality, and Chineseness, ed. Jamie J. Zhao. Hong Kong UP, 2023. 105–23. Lei, Wei. Radio and Social Transformation in China. Routledge, 2019. Li, Jie. “Revolutionary Echoes: Radios and Loudspeakers in the Mao Era.” Twentieth-Century China 45.1 (2020): 25–45. Madill, A., and Y. Zhao. “Engagement with Female-Oriented Male-Male Erotica in Mainland China and Hong Kong: Fandom Intensity, Social Outlook, and Region.” Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 18.1 (May 2021): 111–31. Madsen, Virginia, and John Potts. “Voice-Cast: The Distribution of the Voice via Podcasting.” In VOICE: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, eds. Norie Neumark et al. MIT P, 2010. Mumford, Russell E. Love and Ideology in the Afternoon: Soap Opera, Women and Television Genre. Indiana UP, 1995. Rattigan, Dermot. Theatre of Sound: Radio and the Dramatic Imagination. Carysfort, 2002. Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape. Destiny, 1993. Shao, Maomao. “魔道祖师广播剧播放2000万 [The Audio Drama Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Has Been Played 20 Million Times].” JMedia 2018. <https://www.jiemian.com/article/2324030.html>. Stankievech, Charles. “From Stethoscopes to Headphones: An Acoustic Spatialisation of Subjectivity.” Leonardo Music Journal 17 (Dec. 2007): 55–59. Stedman, Kyle D., et al. "Tuning into Soundwriting." Intermezzo, 2020. <http://intermezzo.enculturation.net/14-stedman-et-al/index.html>. 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Zhang, Chunyu. “Loving Boys Twice as Much: Chinese Women’s Paradoxical Fandom of ‘Boys’ Love’ Fiction.” Women’s Studies in Communication 39.3 (July 2016): 249–67.

IntroductionThe European will to modify the natural world emerged through English landscape design during the eighteenth century. Released from the neo-classical aesthetic dichotomy of the beautiful and the ugly, new categories of the picturesque and the sublime gestured towards an affective relationship to nature. Europeans began to see the world as a picture, the elements of which were composed as though part of a theatrical scene. Quite literally, as I shall discuss below, gardens were “composed with ‘pantomimic’ elements – ruins of castles and towers, rough hewn bridges, Chinese pagodas and their like” (McGillivray 134–35) transforming natural vistas into theatrical scenes. Such a transformation was made possible by a habit of spectating that was informed by the theatrical metaphor or theatrum mundi, one version of which emphasised the relationship between spectator and the thing seen. The idea of the natural world as an aesthetic object first developed in poetry and painting and then through English landscape garden style was wrought in three dimensions on the land itself. From representations of place a theatrical transformation occurred so that gardens became a places of representation.“The Genius of the Place in All”The eighteenth century inherited theatrum mundi from the Renaissance, although the genealogy of its key features date back to ancient times. Broadly speaking, theatrum mundi was a metaphorical expression of the world and humanity in two ways: dramaturgically and formally. During the Renaissance the dramaturgical metaphor was a moral emblem concerned with the contingency of human life; as Shakespeare famously wrote, “men and women [were] merely players” whose lives consisted of “seven ages” or “acts” (2.7.139–65). In contrast to the dramaturgical metaphor with its emphasis on role-playing humanity, the formalist version highlighted a relationship between spectator, theatre-space and spectacle. Rooted in Renaissance neo-Platonism, the formalist metaphor configured the world as a spectacle and “Man” its spectator. If the dramaturgical metaphor was inflected with medieval moral pessimism, the formalist metaphor was more optimistic.The neo-Platonist spectator searched in the world for a divine plan or grand design and spectatorship became an epistemological challenge. As a seer and a knower on the world stage, the human being became the one who thought about the world not just as a theatre but also through theatre. This is apparent in the etymology of “theatre” from the Greek theatron, or “seeing place,” but the word also shares a stem with “theory”: theaomai or “to look at.” In a graceful compression of both roots, Martin Heidegger suggests a “theatre” might be any “seeing place” in which any thing being beheld offers itself to careful scrutiny by the beholder (163–65). By the eighteenth century, the ancient idea of a seeing-knowing place coalesced with the new empirical method and aesthetic sensibility: the world was out there, so to speak, to provide pleasure and instruction.Joseph Addison, among others, in the first half of the century reconsidered the utilitarian appeal of the natural world and proposed it as the model for artistic inspiration and appreciation. In “Pleasures of the Imagination,” a series of essays in The Spectator published in 1712, Addison claimed that “there is something more bold and masterly in the rough careless strokes of nature, than in the nice touches and embellishments of art,” and compared to the beauty of an ordered garden, “the sight wanders up and down without confinement” the “wide fields of nature” and is “fed with an infinite variety of images, without any certain stint or number” (67).Yet art still had a role because, Addison argues, although “wild scenes [. . .] are more delightful than any artificial shows” the pleasure of nature increases the more it begins to resemble art; the mind experiences the “double” pleasure of comparing nature’s original beauty with its copy (68). This is why “we take delight in a prospect which is well laid out, and diversified, with fields and meadows, woods and rivers” (68); a carefully designed estate can be both profitable and beautiful and “a man might make a pretty landskip of his own possessions” (69). Although nature should always be one’s guide, nonetheless, with some small “improvements” it was possible to transform an estate into a landscape picture. Nearly twenty years later in response to the neo-Palladian architectural ambitions of Richard Boyle, the third Earl of Burlington, and with a similarly pictorial eye to nature, Alexander Pope advised:To build, to plant, whatever you intend,To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,To swell the Terras, or to sink the Grot;In all, let Nature never be forgot.But treat the Goddess like a modest fair,Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;Let not each beauty ev’ry where be spy’d,Where half the skill is decently to hide.He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds.Consult the Genius of the Place in all;That tells the Waters or to rise, or fall,Or helps th’ ambitious Hill the heav’ns to scale,Or scoops in circling theatres the Vale,Calls in the Country, catches opening glades, Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,Now breaks or now directs, th’ intending Lines;Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs. (Epistle IV, ll 47–64) Whereas Addison still gestured towards estate management, Pope explicitly advocated a painterly approach to garden design. His epistle articulated some key principles that he enacted in his own garden at Twickenham and which would inform later garden design. No matter what one added to a landscape, one needed to be guided by nature; one should be moderate in one’s designs and neither plant too much nor too little; one must be aware of the spectator’s journey through the garden and take care to provide variety by creating “surprises” that would be revealed at different points. Finally, one had to find the “spirit” of the place that gave it its distinct character and use this to create the cohesion in diversity that was aspired to in a garden. Nature’s aestheticisation had begun with poetry, developed into painting, and was now enacted on actual natural environments with the emergence of English landscape style. This painterly approach to gardening demanded an imaginative, emotional, and intellectual engagement with place and it stylistically rejected the neo-classical geometry and regularity of the baroque garden (exemplified by Le Nôtre’s gardens at Versailles). Experiencing landscape now took on a third dimension as wealthy landowners and their friends put themselves within the picture frame and into the scene. Although landscape style changed during the century, a number of principles remained more or less consistent: the garden should be modelled on nature but “improved,” any improvements should not be obvious, pictorial composition should be observed, the garden should be concerned with the spectator’s experience and should aim to provoke an imaginative or emotional engagement with it. During the seventeenth century, developments in theatrical technology, particularly the emergence of the proscenium arch theatre with moveable scenery, showed that poetry and painting could be spectacularly combined on the stage. Later in the eighteenth century the artist and stage designer Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg combined picturesque painting aesthetics with theatrical design in works such as The Wonders of Derbyshire in 1779 (McGillivray 136). It was a short step to shift the onstage scene outside. Theatricality was invoked when pictorial principles were applied three dimensionally; gardens became sites for pastoral genre scenes that ambiguously positioned their visitors both as spectators and actors. Theatrical SceneryGardens and theatres were explicitly connected. Like “theatre,” the word “garden” was sometimes used to describe a collection, in book form, which promised “a whole world of items” which was not always “redeemable” in “straightforward ways” (Hunt, Gardens 54–55). Theatrum mundi could be emblematically expressed in a garden through statues and architectural fabriques which drew spectators into complex chains of associations involving literature, art, and society, as they progressed through it.In the previous century, writes John Dixon Hunt, “the expectation of a fine garden [. . .] was that it work upon its visitor, involving him [sic] often insidiously as a participant in its dramas, which were presented to him as he explored its spaces by a variety of statues, inscriptions and [. . .] hydraulically controlled automata” (Gardens 54). Such devices, which featured heavily in the Italian baroque garden, were by the mid eighteenth century seen by English and French garden theorists to be overly contrived. Nonetheless, as David Marshall argues, “eighteenth-century garden design is famous for its excesses [. . .] the picturesque garden may have aimed to be less theatrical, but it aimed no less to be theater” (38). Such gardens still required their visitors’ participation and were designed to deliver an experience that stimulated the spectators’ imaginations and emotions as they moved through them. Theatrum mundi is implicit in eighteenth-century gardens through a common idea of the world reimagined into four geographical quadrants emblematically represented by fabriques in the garden. The model here is Alexander Pope’s influential poem, “The Temple of Fame” (1715), which depicted the eponymous temple with four different geographic faces: its western face was represented by western classical architecture, its east face by Chinese, Persian, and Assyrian, its north was Gothic and Celtic, and its south, Egyptian. These tropes make their appearance in eighteenth-century landscape gardens. In Désert de Retz, a garden created between 1774 and 1789 by François Racine de Monville, about twenty kilometres west of Paris, one can still see amongst its remaining fabriques: a ruined “gothic” church, a “Tartar” tent (it used to have a Chinese maison, now lost), a pyramid, and the classically inspired Temple of Pan. Similar principles underpin the design of Jardin (now Parc) Monceau that I discuss below. Retz: Figure 1. Tartar tent.Figure 2. Temple of PanStowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire has a similar array of structures (although the classical predominates) including its original Chinese pavillion. It, too, once featured a pyramid designed by the architect and playwright John Vanbrugh, and erected as a memorial to him after his death in 1726. On it was carved a quote from Horace that explicitly referenced the dramaturgical version of theatrum mundi: You have played, eaten enough and drunk enough,Now is time to leave the stage for younger men. (Garnett 19) Stowe’s Elysian Fields, designed by William Kent in the 1730s according to picturesque principles, offered its visitor two narrative choices, to take the Path of Virtue or the Path of Vice, just like a re-imagined morality play. As visitors progressed along their chosen paths they would encounter various fabriques and statues, some carved with inscriptions in either Latin or English, like the Vanbrugh pyramid, that would encourage associations between the ancient world and the contemporary world of the garden’s owner Richard Temple, Lord Cobham, and his circle. Stowe: Figure 3. Chinese Pavillion.Figure 4. Temple of VirtueKent’s background was as a painter and scene designer and he brought a theatrical sensibility to his designs; as Hunt writes, Kent particularly enjoyed designing “recessions into woodland space where ‘wings’ [were] created” (Picturesque 29). Importantly, Kent’s garden drawings reveal his awareness of gardens as “theatrical scenes for human action and interaction, where the premium is upon more personal experiences” and it this spatial dimension that was opened up at Stowe (Picturesque 30).Picturesque garden design emphasised pictorial composition that was similar to stage design and because a garden, like a stage, was a three-dimensional place for human action, it could also function as a set for that action. Unlike a painting, a garden was experiential and time-based and a visitor to it had an experience not unlike, to cautiously use an anachronism, a contemporary promenade performance. The habit of imaginatively wandering through a theatre in book-form, moving associatively from one item to the next, trying to discern the author’s pattern or structure, was one educated Europeans were used to, and a garden provided an embodied dimension to this activity. We can see how this might have been by visiting Parc Monceau in Paris which still contains remnants of the garden designed by Louis Carrogis (known as Carmontelle) for the Duc de Chartres in the 1770s. Carmontelle, like Kent, had a theatrical background and his primary role was as head of entertainments for the Orléans family; as such he was responsible for designing and writing plays for the family’s private theatricals (Hays 449). According to Hunt, Carmontelle intended visitors to Jardin de Monceau to take a specific itinerary through its “quantity of curious things”:Visitors entered by a Chinese gateway, next door to a gothic building that served as a chemical laboratory, and passed through greenhouses and coloured pavilions. Upon pressing a button, a mirrored wall opened into a winter garden painted with trompe-l’œil trees, floored with red sand, filled with exotic plants, and containing at its far end a grotto in which supper parties were held while music was played in the chamber above. Outside was a farm. Then there followed a series of exotic “locations”: a Temple of Mars, a winding river with an island of rocks and a Dutch mill, a dairy, two flower gardens, a Turkish tent poised, minaret-like, above an icehouse, a grove of tombs [. . .], and an Italian vineyard with a classical Bacchus at its center, regularly laid out to contrast with an irregular wood that succeeded it. The final stretches of the itinerary included a Naumachia or Roman water-theatre [. . .], more Turkish and Chinese effects, a ruined castle, yet another water-mill, and an island on which sheep grazed. (Picturesque 121) Monceau: Figure 5. Naumachia.Figure 6. PyramidIn its presentation of a multitude of different times and different places one can trace a line of descent from Jardin de Monceau to the great nineteenth-century World Expos and on to Disneyland. This lineage is not as trite as it seems once we realise that Carmontelle himself intended the garden to represent “all times and all places” and Pope’s four quadrants of the world were represented by fabriques at Monceau (Picturesque 121). As Jardin de Monceau reveals, gardens were also sites for smaller performative interventions such as the popular fêtes champêtres, garden parties in which the participants ate, drank, danced, played music, and acted in comedies. Role playing and masquerade were an important part of the fêtes as we see, for example, in Jean-Antoine Watteau’s Fêtes Vénitiennes (1718–19) where a “Moorishly” attired man addresses (or is dancing with) a young woman before an audience of young men and women, lolling around a fabrique (Watteau). Scenic design in the theatre inspired garden designs and gardens “featured prominently as dramatic locations in intermezzi, operas, and plays”, an exchange that encouraged visitors to gardens to see themselves as performers as much as spectators (Hunt, Gardens 64). A garden, particularly within the liminal aegis of a fête was a site for deceptions, tricks, ruses and revelations, assignations and seductions, all activities which were inherently theatrical; in such a garden visitors could find themselves acting in or watching a comedy or drama of their own devising. Marie-Antoinette built English gardens and a rural “hamlet” at Versailles. She and her intimate circle would retire to rustic cottages, which belied the opulence of their interiors, and dressed in white muslin dresses and straw hats, would play at being dairy maids, milking cows (pre-cleaned by the servants) into fine porcelain buckets (Martin 3). Just as the queen acted in pastoral operas in her theatre in the grounds of the Petit Trianon, her hamlet provided an opportunity for her to “live” a pastoral fantasy. Similarly, François Racine de Monville, who commissioned Désert de Retz, was a talented harpist and flautist and his Temple of Pan was, appropriately, a music room.Versailles: Figure 7. Hamlet ConclusionRichard Steele, Addison’s friend and co-founder of The Spectator, casually invoked theatrum mundi when he wrote in 1720: “the World and the Stage [. . .] have been ten thousand times observed to be the Pictures of one another” (51). Steele’s reiteration of a Renaissance commonplace revealed a different emphasis, an emphasis on the metaphor’s spatial and spectacular elements. Although Steele reasserts the idea that the world and stage resemble each other, he does so through a third level of abstraction: it is as pictures that they have an affinity. World and stage are both positioned for the observer within complementary picture frames and it is as pictures that he or she is invited to make sense of them. The formalist version of theatrum mundi invokes a spectator beholding the world for his (usually!) pleasure and in the process nature itself is transformed. No longer were natural landscapes wildernesses to be tamed and economically exploited, but could become gardens rendered into scenes for their aristocratic owners’ pleasure. Désert de Retz, as its name suggests, was an artfully composed wilderness, a version of the natural world sculpted into scenery. Theatrum mundi, through the aesthetic category of the picturesque, emerged in English landscape style and effected a theatricalised transformation of nature that was enacted in the aristocratic gardens of Europe.ReferencesAddison, Joseph. The Spectator. No. 414 (25 June 1712): 67–70. Eighteenth Century Collections Online.Garnett, Oliver. Stowe. Buckinghamshire. The National Trust, 2011.Hays, David. “Carmontelle's Design for the Jardin de Monceau: A Freemasonic Garden in Late-Eighteenth-Century France.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 32.4 (1999): 447–62.Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Trans. William Lovitt. New York: Harper and Row, 1977.Hunt, John Dixon. Gardens and the Picturesque: Studies in the History of Landscape Architecture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1992.———. The Picturesque Garden in Europe. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.Marshall, David. The Frame of Art. Fictions of Aesthetic Experience, 1750–1815. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2005.Martin, Meredith S. Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de' Medici to Marie-Antoinette. Harvard: Harvard UP, 2011.McGillivray, Glen. "The Picturesque World Stage." Performance Research 13.4 (2008): 127–39.Pope, Alexander. “Epistle IV. To Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington.” Epistles to Several Persons. London, 1744. Eighteenth Century Collections Online.———. The Temple of Fame: A Vision. By Mr. Pope. 2nd ed. London, 1715. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Ed. Agnes Latham. London: Routledge, 1991.Steele, Richard. The Theatre. No. 7 (23 January 1720).

<p>Through an in-depth analysis and evaluation of digital design in traditional graphic art, this paper focuses specifically on how blockchain can enhance the digital representation and management of these designs. The integration of AI and digital design art is taking a major leap forward, breathing new life into traditional cultural elements by harnessing AI's capabilities to create immersive interactive experiences. This paper uses fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the digital design of classic pattern art, highlighting the richness, interest, innovation and digitalization of pattern. Blockchain technology provides a secure and decentralized platform for the storage and verification of digital graphic art, preserving the cultural and artistic value of the design. By linking digital design to blockchain, we can create a transparent and verifiable record of the creation and ownership of each artwork, promoting ethical practices in the digital art market. The study shows that the combination of VR and AR with blockchain technology not only revolutionizes the way traditional Chinese pictorial paintings are perceived and appreciated, but also provides a powerful framework for managing and protecting related digital assets. The final scores obtained through the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation - 86.17 for richness, 89.24 for liking, 90.61 for innovation, and 91.38 for digitalization - underscore the significant advantages that the application of these technologies brings to the digital design of traditional pattern art.In conclusion, the application of blockchain technology in the realm of digital design of traditional pattern art is not merely a technological advancement but a cultural and ethical imperative. It ensures the preservation of traditional art forms in their digital manifestations, while also opening up new avenues for innovation and global appreciation.</p>

Introduction While individuals from marginalised and vulnerable communities have long been confronted with the task of developing coping strategies, COVID-19 lockdowns intensified the conditions under which resilience and wellbeing were/are negotiated, not only for marginalised communities but for people from all walks of life. In particular, the pandemic has highlighted in simple terms the stark divide between the “haves” and “have nots”, and how pre-existing physical conditions and material resources (or lack thereof), including adequate income, living circumstances, and access to digital and other resources, have created different conditions for people to be able to physically isolate, avoid working in conditions that put them at greater risk of exposure to the virus, and maintain up-to-date information. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live, and its conditions have tested our capacity for resilience to varying degrees. Poor mental health has become an increasingly urgent concern, with almost one in ten people contemplating suicide during Victoria’s second wave and prolonged lockdown in 2020 (Ali et al.; Czeisler & Rajaratnam; Paul). The question of what enables people to cope and adapt to physical distancing is critical for building a more resilient post-pandemic society. With the understanding that resilience is comprised of an intersection of material and immaterial resources, this project takes as its focus the material dimensions of everyday resilience. Specifically, “Objects for Everyday Resilience” explores the intersection of material objects and everyday resilience, focussing on the things that have supported mental and physical health of different sections of the community in Melbourne, Australia, during the pandemic. People in the Victorian city of Melbourne, Australia – including the research team authors of this article – experienced 262 days of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than any other city in the world. The infection rate was high, as was the death rate. Hospitals were in crisis attempting to deal with the influx (McReadie). During lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, all movement in the city was restricted, with 9 pm to 5 am curfews and a five-kilometre travel limit. Workplaces, schools, businesses, sports and leisure clubs were closed. One person per household could shop. Masks were mandatory at all times. PCR testing was extensive. People stayed in their homes, with no visitors. The city limits were closed by roadblocks. Rare instances of air travel required a hard-to-get exemption. Vaccines were delayed. The state government provided financial support for most workers who lost income from their regular work due to the restrictions. However, the financial assistance criteria rejected many casual workers, including foreign students who normally supported themselves through casual employment (McReadie). The mental health toll of protracted lockdowns on Melbourne residents was high (Klein, Tyler-Parker, and Bastian). Yet people developed measures of resilience that helped them cope with lockdown isolation (Gerrand). While studies of resilience have been undertaken during the pandemic, including increased attention towards the affordances of online platforms in lockdown, relatively little attention has been paid to whether and how material objects support everyday resilience. The significant amount of literature on objects and things (e.g. Whitlock) offers a wide range of potential applications when brought to bear on the material conditions of resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic as it continues to unfold. As ethnographer Paula Zuccotti notes in her study of objects that people used in lockdowns around the world, “Future Archeology of a Global Lockdown”, the everyday items we use tell us stories about how we exist (Zuccotti). Paying attention to the intersection of objects with resilience in everyday contexts can enable us to view resilience as a potential practice that can shape the conditions of social life that produce adversity in the first place (Chalmers). By studying relationships between material objects and people in conditions of adversity, this project aims to enhance and extend emerging understandings of multisystemic resilience (Ungar). Objects have been central to human history, culture, and life. According to Maurizio Ferraris, objects are characterised by four qualities: sensory-ness, manipulability, ordinariness, and relationality. “Unlike the three spheres of biological life – the mineral, the vegetable and the animal – objects and things have been customarily considered dependent on humans’ agency and presence” (Bartoloni). In everyday life, objects can enhance resilience when they are mobilised in strategies of resourcefulness and “making do” (de Certeau). Objects may also support the performance of identity and enable inter-subjective relations that create a sense of agency and of being at home, wherever one is located (Ahmed et al.; Gerrand). From an existential perspective, the experience of being confined in lockdown, “stuck” in one place, challenges cosmopolitan connectedness and sense of belonging. It also bears some similarities to the experiences of migrants and refugees who have endured great uncertainty, distance, and immobility due to detention or vintage of migration (Yi-Neumann et al.). It is possible that certain objects, although facilitating resilience, might also trigger mixed feelings in the individuals who relied on them during the lockdown (Svašek). From domestic accoutrements to digital objects, what kinds of things supported wellbeing in situations of confinement? Multisystemic Resilience in Lockdown It is especially useful to consider the material dimensions of resilience when working with people who have experienced trauma, marginalisation, or mental health challenges during the pandemic, as working with objects enables interaction beyond language barriers and enables alternatives to the re-telling of experiences. Resilience has been theorised as a social process supported (or inhibited) by a range of “everyday” intersecting external and contextual factors at individual, family, social, institutional, and economic resource levels (Ungar; Sherrieb et al.; Southwick et al.). The socio-ecological approach to resilience demonstrates that aspects of individual, family, and community resilience can be learned and reinforced (Bonanno), but they can also be eroded or weakened, depending on the dynamic interplay of various forces and influences in the social ecology of an individual or a group. This means that while factors at the level of the individual, family, community, or institutions may strengthen resistance to harms or the ability to overcome adversity in one context, the same factors can promote vulnerability and erode coping abilities in others (Rutter). Our project asked to what extent this social-ecological understanding of resilience might be further enhanced by attending to nonhuman materialities that can contribute or erode resilience within human relations. We were particularly interested in understanding the potential of the exhibition for creating an inclusive and welcoming space for individuals who had experienced long COVID lockdowns to safely reflect on the material conditions that supported their resilience. The aim of this exercise was not to provide answers to a problem, but to draw attention to complexity, and generate additional questions and uncertainties, as encouraged by Barone and Eisner. The exhibition, through its juxtaposition of (lockdown-induced) loneliness with the conviviality of the public exhibition format, enabled an exploration of the tension between the neoliberal imperative to physically isolate oneself and the public messaging concerning the welfare of the general populace. Our project emerged from insights collected on the issue of mental health during “Living Lab” Roundtables undertaken in 2020 by our Centre For Resilient and Inclusive Societies, convened as part of the Foundation Project (Lam et al.). In particular, we deployed an object-based analysis to investigate the art- and object-based methodology in the aftermath of a potentially traumatising lockdown, particularly for individuals who may not respond as well to traditional research methods. This approach contributes to the emerging body of work exploring the affordances of visual and material methods for capturing feelings and responses generated between people and objects during the pandemic (Watson et al.). “Objects for Everyday Resilience” sought to facilitate greater openness to objects’ vitality (Bennett) in order to produce new encounters that further understandings of multisystemic resilience. Such insights are critically tied to human mental health and physical wellbeing. They also enabled us to develop shared resources (as described below) that support such resilience during the period of recovery from the pandemic and beyond. Arts and Objects as Research The COVID-19 pandemic provoked not only a global health response, but also a reorientation of the ways COVID-related research is conducted and disseminated. Javakhishvili et al. describe the necessity of “a complex, trauma-informed psycho-socio-political response” in the aftermath of “cultural/societal trauma” occurring at a society-wide scale, pointing out the prevalence of mental health issues following previous epidemics (1). As they note, an awareness of such trauma is necessary “to avoid re-traumatization and to facilitate recovery”, with “safety, trustworthiness, transparency, collaboration and peer support, empowerment, choice” among the key principles of trauma-informed policies, strategies, and practices (3). Our project received funding from the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS) in July 2021, and ethics approval in November 2021. Centring materiality, in November 2021 we circulated a “call for objects” through CRIS’ and the research team’s social media channels, and collected over 40 objects from participants of all ages for this pilot study. Our participants comprised 33 women and 10 men. Following is a breakdown of the self-described cultural background of some participants: Five Australian (including one ‘6th generation Australian’); four Vietnamese; two Caucasian; one Anglo-Australian; one Asian; one Brazilian; one British; one Caucasian/English Australian; one Filipino; one Filipino-Australian; one German/Portuguese/US; one Greek Australian; one Iranian; one Irish and Welsh; one Israeli; one Half German, Half Middle Eastern; one Middle Eastern; one Singaporean; one White British. Participants’ objects and stories were analysed by the team both in terms of their ‘people, place, and things’ affordances – enhancing participants’ reflections of life in the pandemic – and through the prism of their vibrancy, drawing on object-oriented ontology and materiality as method (Ravn). Our participants were encouraged to consider how their chosen object(s) supported their resilience during the pandemic. For example, some objects enabled linking with memories that assist in elaborating experiences of loss or grief (Trimingham Jack and Devereux). To guide those submitting objects, we asked about: 1) their relationship to the object, 2) the meaning of the object, and 3) which features of resilience are mobilised by the object. From an analysis of our data, we have developed a working typology of objects to understand their particular relationship role to features of resilience (social capital, temporality) and to thematise our data in relation to emerging priorities in research in multisystemic resilience, materiality, and mental health. Things on Display Whilst we were initially unable to gather in person, we built an online Instagram gallery (@objectsforeverydayresilience) of submitted objects, with accompanying stories from research participants. Relevant hashtags in several languages were added to each post by the research team to ensure their widest possible visibility. This gallery features objects such as a female participant’s jigsaw puzzle which “helped me to pass the downtime in an enjoyable way”. Unlike much of her life in lockdown that was consumed by chores that “did not necessarily make me feel content or happy”, jigsaw puzzles made this participant “happy for that time I was doing them, transport[ing] me out of the confines of the lockdown with landscapes and images from across the globe”. Another female participant submitted a picture of her worn sneakers, which she used to go on what she called her “sanity walks”. To counteract the overwhelm of “being in the house all the time with 3 (autistic) children who were doing home learning and needed a lot of support”, while attempting to work on her PhD, going for walks every day helped clear my mind, get some fresh air, keep active and have some much needed quiet / me time. I ordered these shoes online because we couldn’t go to the shops and wore them almost daily during the extended lockdowns. Books were also popular. During lockdowns, according to a female participant, reading helped me connect with the outside world and be able to entertain myself without unhealthy coping mechanisms such as scrolling endlessly through TikTok. It also helped me feel less alone during the pandemic. Another female participant found that her son’s reading gave her time to work. Olfactory objects provided comfort for a participant who mourned the loss of smell due to mask wearing: perfumes were my sensory transport during this time – they could evoke memories of places I’d travelled to, seasons, people, feelings and even colours. I could go to far-off places in my mind through scent even though my body was largely stationary within my home. (Female participant) Through scent objects, this participant was “able to bring the world to meet me when I was unable to go out to meet the world”. Other participants sought to retreat from the world through homely objects: throughout lockdown I felt that my bed became an important object to my sanity. When I felt overwhelmed, I would come to bed and take a nap which helped me feel less out of control with everything going on in the world. (Female participant) For an essential worker who injured her leg whilst working in a hospital, an Ikea couch enabled recovery: “the couch saved my throbbing leg for many months. It served as a place to eat, paint and rest.” (Female participant) While pets were not included as objects within this project, several participants submitted their pets’ accoutrements. A female participant who submitted a photograph of her cat’s collar and tree movingly recounts how while I was working online in lockdown, this cat tree kept my cat entertained. She was so enthusiastic while scratching (covered in her fur) she somehow managed to remove her collar. I call Bouny my Emotional support cat … . She really stepped up her treatments of me during the pandemic. My mother had advanced dementia and multiple lockdowns [which] meant I could not see her in the weeks leading up to her death. These objects highlight the ways in which this participant found comfort during lockdown at a time of deep grief. For other participants, blankets and shawls provided sources of comfort “since much of lockdown was either in cool weather or deepest winter”. I found myself taking [my shawl] whenever I went out for any of the permitted activities and I also went to bed with it at night. The soft texture and the warmth against my face, neck and shoulders relaxed my body and I felt comforted and safe. (Female participant) Another used a calming blanket during lockdown “for time-outs on my bed (I was confined to a tiny flat at the time and separated from my family). It gave me a safe space”. (Female participant) In a similar vein, journalling provided several participants with “a safe space to explore thoughts and make them more tangible, acting as a consistent mindful practice I could always turn to”. The journal provided consistency throughout the ever-changing lockdown conditions and a strong sense of stability. Recording thoughts daily allowed me to not only process adversity, but draw attention to the areas in my life which I was grateful for … even from home. (Female participant) In addition to fostering mindfulness, the creative practice of journalling enabled this participant to exercise her imagination: writing from the perspectives of other people, from friends to strangers, also allowed me to reflect on the different experiences others had during lockdown. I found this fostered empathy and motivated me to reach out and check in on others, which in turn also benefited my own mental health. (Female participant) Creative practices were critical to sustaining many participants of this study. The Norman family, for example, submitted an acrylic on canvas artwork, Surviving COVID in Port Melbourne (2021), as their object of resilience: this work represents the sentiments and experiences of our family after a year of successive COVID lockdowns. Each section of the canvas has been completed a member of our family – 2 parents and a 21, 18 and 14 year-old. (Norman family) Likewise, musical instruments and sound objects – whether through analogue or digital means – helped participants to stay sane in long lockdowns: wen I didn’t know what to do with myself I always turned to the guitar. (Male participant) Music was so important to us throughout the lockdowns. It helped us express and diffuse big feelings. We played happy songs to amplify nice moments, funny songs to cheer each other up, angry songs to dance out rage. (Family participants) Curating the Lockdown Lounge To enhance the capacity of our project’s connections to the wider community, and respond to the need we felt to gather in person to reflect on what it meant for each of us to endure long lockdowns, we held an in-person exhibition after COVID-19 restrictions had eased in Melbourne in November 2022. The decision to curate the “Lockdown Lounge” art and research exhibition featuring objects submitted by research participants was consistent with a trauma-informed approach to research as described above. According to Crowther, art exhibits have the potential to redirect viewers’ attention from “aesthetic critique” to emotional connection. They can facilitate what Moon describes as “relational aesthetics”, whereby viewers may connect with the art and artists, and enhance their awareness of the self, artist, and the world. As a form of “guided relational viewing” (Potash), art exhibits are non-coercive in that they invite responses, discussion, and emotional involvement while placing no expectation on viewers to engage with or respond to the exhibition in a particular way. When considering such questions, our immersive in-person exhibition featured a range of object-based installations including audio-visual and sound objects, available for viewing in our Zine, The Lockdown Lounge (Walimunige et al.). The living room design was inspired by French-Algerian artist Zineb Sedira’s immersive living room installation, “Dreams Don’t Have Titles”, at the 59th Venice Art Biennale’s French pavilion (Sedira), attended by project co-lead Vivian Gerrand in June 2022. The project team curated the gallery space together, which was located at Deakin University’s city conference venue, “Deakin Downtown”, in Melbourne, Australia. Fig. 1: The Lockdown Lounge, living room. “What Got You through Lockdown?” research exhibition and experience, Deakin Downtown, Melbourne, 21-25 November 2022. In the centre of the Lockdown Lounge’s living room (see fig. 1), for example, a television screen played a looped collection of popular YouTube videos, many of which had gone viral in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, admonishing Victorians to avoid non-essential activities through the example of an illicit dinner party held that resulted in a spike in coronavirus cases in March 2020 (ABC News). This short video excerpt of the Premier’s press conference concluded with his advice not to “get on the beers”. While not on display in this instance, many visitors would have been familiar with the TikTok video remix made later in the pandemic that featured the same press conference, with Premier Andrews’s words spliced to encourage listeners to “get on the beers!” (Kutcher). We recalled the ways in which such videos provided light relief through humour at a time of grave illness and trauma: when army trucks were being summoned to carry the deceased from Northern Italian hospitals to makeshift gravesites, those of us privileged to be at home, at a remove from the ravages of the virus, shared videos of Italian mayors shouting at their constituents to “vai a casa!” (Go home!). Or of Italians walking fake dogs to have an excuse to go outside. We finished the loop with a reproduction of the viral Kitten Zoom Filter Mishap, in which in online American courtroom defendant Rod Ponton mistakenly dons a cat filter while telling the judge, ‘I am not a cat’. The extraordinary nature of living in lockdown initially appeared as an opportunity to slow down, and this pandemic induced immobility appeared to prompt a kind of “degrowth” as industries the world over paused operation and pollution levels plummeted (Gerrand). In reflection of this, we included videos in our YouTube playlist of wild animals returning to big cities, and of the waters of Venice appearing to be clear. These videos recalled how the pandemic has necessitated greater appreciation of the power of things. The spread of the novel coronavirus’s invisible variants has permanently altered the conditions and perceptions of human life on the planet, forcing us to dwell on the vitality intrinsic to materiality, and renewing awareness of human lives as taking place within a broader ecology of life forms (Bennett). Within this posthuman perspective, distinctions between life and matter are blurred, and humans are displaced from a hierarchical ontological centre. In an essay titled “The Go Slow Party”, anthropologist Michael Taussig theorises a “mastery of non-mastery” that yields to the life of the object. This yielding – a necessary response to the conditions of the pandemic – can enable greater attentiveness to the interconnectedness and enmeshment of all things, leading to broader understandings of self and of resilience. To understand how participants responded to the exhibition, we asked them to respond to the following questions in the form of open-ended comments: What if anything affected you most? Did any of the objects resonate with you? Did the exhibition provide a safe environment for you to reflect on your sense of resilience during the pandemic? Fig. 2: Research exhibition participant standing beside artwork by the Norman family: Surviving COVID in Port Melbourne, acrylic on canvas (2021), The Lockdown Lounge. Through curating the art exhibition, we engaged in what Wang et al. describe as “art as research”, whereby the artist-researcher aims to “gain a deeper understanding of what art, art creation, or an artistic installation can do or activate … either in terms of personal experiences or environmental circumstances” (15). As Wang et al. write, “the act of creating is simultaneously the act of researching”, neither of which can be distinguished from one another (15). Accordingly, the process of curating the gallery space triggered memories of living in lockdown for members of our team, including one male youth researcher who remembers: as the space gradually began to be populated with object submissions … the objects began to find their place … . We slowly developed an understanding of the specific configurations of objects and the feelings that these combinations potentially could invoke. As we negotiated where my object might be placed, I felt an odd sense of melancholy seeing my record player and guitar at the exhibition, reminiscing about the music that I used to play and listen to with my family when we were all in lockdown … . As my Bon Iver record spun, and the familiar melodies rung out into the space, I felt as if I was sharing an intimate memory with others … . It also reminded me of the times when I had felt the most uplifted, when I was with family, near and far, knowing that we all were a unit. Another of our youth researcher team members served as an assistant curator and agreed to monitor the gallery space by being there for most of the five days of the exhibition’s opening to the public. She describes her work in the gallery thus: my role involved general exhibition upkeep – setup, answering visitor inquiries and monitoring the space – which meant being in the exhibition space for around 7.5 hours a day. Although it cannot be fully compared to living through Melbourne’s lockdowns, being in a space meant to mimic that time meant that comparisons naturally arose. I can see similarities between the things that supported my resilience during the lockdowns and the things that made my time at the gallery enjoyable. Through engaging with the gallery, this researcher was reminded of how spending time engaging in hands-on tasks made physical distancing more manageable. Spending time in the exhibition space also facilitated her experience of the lockdowns and the material conditions supporting resilience. She reflects that the hands-on, creative tasks of setting up the exhibition space and helping design a brochure reminded me of how I turned to baking so I could create something using my hands … . In the beginning, I approached my time at the gallery as a requirement of my work in this project … . Looking back now, I believe I understand both the person I was those years ago, and resilience itself, a little bit better. Fig. 3: Research exhibition participant wearing an Oculus virtual reality headset, watching the film Melbourne Locked Down (van Leeuwen), The Lockdown Lounge, November 2022. As these examples demonstrate, complex assemblages of people, places, and things during the COVID-19 pandemic were, and are, “suffused with multisensory and affective feelings”; exploring the ways affect is distributed through socio-spatialities of human experience enables researchers to better unpack individuals’ COVID experiences in ways that include their surroundings (Lupton). This was further evident in the feedback received from participants who attended the exhibition. Exhibition Feedback Feedback from participants suggested that the public exhibition format enabled them to explore this tension between isolation and orientation to the greater good in a safe and inclusive way (e.g. fig. 2). For Harry (29/m/Argentinian/New Zealand), interacting with the exhibition “reminded me that I wasn’t the only one that went through it”, while Sam (40/m/Chinese Australian) resonated with “many … people’s testimonials” of how objects helped support their resilience during long periods of confinement. Sam further added that participating in the exhibition was a “pleasant, friendly experience”, and that “everyone found something to do”, speaking to the convivial and inclusive nature of the exhibition. This resonates with Chaplin’s observation that “the production and reception of visual art works are social processes” that cannot be understood with reference to aesthetic factors alone (161-2). In the quotes above, it is evident that participants’ experience of the exhibition was inherently entwined with the sociality of the exhibition, evoking a sense of connection to others who had experienced the pandemic (in Harry’s case), and other exhibition attendees, whom he observed “all found something to do”. Additionally, participants’ responses highlighted the crucial role of the “artist researcher”, whom Wang et al. describe as qualitative researchers who use “artistically inspired methods or approaches” to blend research and art to connect with participants (10). In particular, the curation of the exhibition was something participants highlighted as key to facilitating their recollections of the pandemic in ways that were relatable. Nala (19/f/East-African Australian) commented that “the room’s layout allowed for this the most”: “the room was curated so well, it encaptured [sic] all the various stages of COVID lockdown – it made me feel like I was 16 again”. Returning to Wang et al.’s description of “art as research” as a means through which artist researchers can “gain a deeper understanding of what art, art creation, or an artistic installation can do or activate” (15), participant responses suggest that the curation of Lockdown Lounge as a trauma-informed art exhibition allowed participants to re-experience the pandemic lockdowns in ways that did not re-traumatise, but enabled the past and present to coexist safely and meaningfully for participants. Conclusion: Object-Oriented Wellbeing From different sections of the community, “Objects for Everyday Resilience” collected things that tell stories about how people coped in long lockdowns. Displaying the objects and practices that sustained us through the peak of the COVID-19 health crisis helped our participants to safely reflect on their experiences of living through long lockdowns. The variety of objects submitted and displayed draws our attention to the complex nuances of resilience and its material and immaterial intersections. These contributions composed, as fig. 1 illustrates, an almost accidentally curated diorama of a typical lockdown scene, imitating not only the materiality of living room itself but something also, through the very process of contribution, of the strange collectivity that the city of Melbourne experienced during lockdown periods. Precisely partitioned within domestic zones (with important differences for many “essential workers”, residents of public housing high-rises, and other exceptions), lockdowns enforced a different and necessarily unifying rhythm: attention to daily briefings on COVID numbers, affective responses to the heaves and sighs of infection rates, mourning over a new and untameable cause of loss of life, and routine check-ins on newly isolated friends and family. In hindsight, as the city has regained – perhaps redoubled, a sign of impatience with earlier governmental languages of austerity and moderation? – its economic and hedonistic pulse, there are also signs that any lockdown collectivity – which we also acknowledge was always partial and differentiated – has dispersed into the fragmentation of social interests and differences typical of late capitalism. The fascination with “public” objects – the Northface jacket of the state premier, COVID masks and testing kits, even toilet paper rolls, serving metonymically for a shared panic over scarcity – has receded. To the point, less than two years on, of this media attention being a scarcely remembered dream. The Lockdown Lounge is an example of a regathering of experiences through a process that, through its methods, also serves as a reminder of a common sociality integral to resilience. 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