The Inadequacy of Grammar
Gary Zhexi Zhang
The Inadequacy of Grammar
The Inadequacy of Grammar extends Gary Zhexi Zhang’s exploration of temporality in social, technological and material systems. At EPFL, he will work on a new film project examining the experiences and representations of non-linear time, in dialogue with physicists and neuroscientists.
- Envisaged collaborations: EPFL Center for Imaging, Brain Mind Institute, Crystal Growth Facility, Laboratory of Quantum Physics, Advanced Quantum Architecture Lab, Earth and Planetary Sciences Lab, Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impact, Ecological Engineering Laboratory, Laboratory for Ecohydrology.
- Facilities: Anechoic and Reverberant Chambers
Gary Zhexi Zhang
Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist, writer and occasional technologist. His recent work explores connections between cosmology, technology and economy. He recently edited a book about finance and time, Catastrophe Time ! (Strange Attractor Press, 2023), comprising economic histories, science fictions and interviews with leading climate modellers. The opera he co-wrote, Dead Cat Bounce, premiered at Somerset House in 2022. In September 2023, he presented The Tourist, a new film exploring the life of Ali Sultan Issa, a revolutionary who sought to build post-revolutionary Zanzibar in the image of China.
He is a Lecturer in Critical Studies at Goldsmiths MFA, and taught previously at Parsons School of Design. He is co-founder of design studio Foreign Objects, which received the Mozilla Creative Media Award in 2019. He has undertaken fellowships at Berggruen Institute in L.A. and Sakiya in Ramallah. In 2023, he is an R&D fellow at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai.
His writing on art, technology and economy have appeared in Frieze, ArtReview, Verge Journal of Global Asias, Journal of Cultural Economy, MIT Journal of Design and Science, among others. Recent/upcoming books and chapters include Against Reduction (chapter, MIT Press, 2021), Incomputable Earth (chapter, Bloomsbury, upcoming), Platforms: Around, In Between and Through (Singapore Biennale, 2023); Future Art Ecosystems III (with Victoria Ivanova; Serpentine, 2022).