REMOTE/CONTROL, the Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai's 10th exhibition, is an investigation of the presence of technology in contemporary art today, and the fraught encounter between these art objects and today's ‘multi-medial' spectator. The use of multi-media technologies is now an international art phenomenon, at once dazzling, seductive, subversive and above all accessible. These art works have not only profoundly changed the nature of aesthetic practice and display, but have also engendered a new means of perceiving and experiencing art. Interactive and video installations put into crises the distance between the work of art and ourselves, both interactive as well as interpersonal, creating an ambivalence of intimacy and alienation that is in itself a paradox of technological development in the global community.

Featuring the work of both international and local artists, REMOTE/CONTROL is an examination of various perceptual systems, processes, narrative structures, and aesthetic strategies that focus on the question of agency. As the spectator is kinesthetically and sensorially engaged with multimedia objects, the space of the museum is altered, as is the role of the artist. The artist, artwork and spectator are caught in a complex ambit of fantasy and control, inviting us to re-examine the place of art in a technological world, and our place in relation to it.

The artists on show are: Allard van Hoorn, Alterazione Video, Sheldon Brown, David Cotterrell, Danakil, Du Zhenjun, Alexander Brandt, Dieter Jung, Hu Jieming, Gong Yan, Jin Jiangbo, Peng Huang-chih, Ku Shih-Yung, Andy Cameron & Oriol Ferrer Mesa, Stephane Sednaoui, Song Tao & B6, Thomas Chaverait, Rose Tang, Frank Plant, Heidi Voet.

Above: Altitute Zero, Hu Jieming, Interactive installation, copyright of the artist and courtesy of MoCA Shanghai.