Cyber Garden
流量花园
Special Special 快闪体验空间，浦东美术馆，上海
2021.7.8 – 2021.10.31
主办：Special Special，浦东美术馆（MAP）
2021年盛夏，由蔡文悠创立的艺术创意单位Special Special在全新开幕的浦东美术馆推出中国内地首个快闪体验空间——“Cyber Garden 流量花园”。这是一个236平方米的沉浸式装置空间，以千禧年网吧文化的怀旧感为灵感，在美术馆中开辟出一片赛博时代的花园 。
策展理念：作为花园的互联网
“Cyber Garden 流量花园”将互联网理解为一个贯穿着多条路径的无垠花园——在这里，文件需要“修剪”和“除草”，想法则需“培养”。依偎于锦簇花团中的多种数码技术，呈现了Special Special的幻想：一个浸润着模拟自然的网吧，一个分叉的、多层次的知识库，将不同的创意节点聚集在一起 。
空间设计结合了田园牧歌与赛博朋克美学，Special Special的定制家具以树脂材料塑造出盆景、仙人掌和百合花等植物形态，让观众仿佛置身于一个被数字技术滋养的奇异花园 。
空间与体验
位于空间中央的模块化工作站，鼓励观众坐下来与七个数码作品进行互动。这一设计灵感来源于Special Special自2019年开始的“Show and Tell”（展示与述说）项目——每月将系列线上展览和互动内容直接发送到用户收件箱。而在“Cyber Garden 流量花园”中，观众首次能够在环绕的、沉浸式的真实环境中，放松地体验这些作品 。
快闪空间还设有生活艺术品零售商店，模拟了Special Special在纽约的多功能艺术空间。这是上海观众首次能够浏览Special Special的俏皮生活艺术品，包括Cardan Grille（“小格子里的蜜语”）书签、Small Medium Big Ideas（“小中大的想法”）笔记本套装，以及与艺术家Benjamin Langford合作的Tubers（“可爱的块茎植物”）艺术毛毡花盆系列 。
参展艺术家与作品
展览呈现了八个数码艺术项目，邀请观众沉浸式地感受自然与合成物之间不断衍生的融合 ：
Max Bittker——《落沙游戏》（Sandspiel）
观众可将水、火、真菌和种子层叠在一起，创造一个不可预测的虚拟场景，在沙盒游戏中体验自然元素的生成与消逝 。
Laurel Schwulst——《飞行模拟》（Flight Simulator）
一个富有沉思氛围的应用，是对手机“飞行模式”的诗意再现，包含由艺术家策划的飞行娱乐系统 。
Heidi Latsky & Maya Man——《深度休憩》（Recessed）
由舞蹈程序驱动的浏览器体验，观众可以对屏幕上亲密的身体运动进行自由编排，深入体会疫情中所经历的隔离感 。
ZZYW——《事事事》（ThingThingThing）
开放式游戏系统，基于艺术家在先前工作坊中创建的3D模型，模型在游戏中参与世界构建，呈现出共存、互动和发展的状态变化 。
Will Doenlen——《火热的空气》（Hot Air）
日历应用，将快节奏高效率日常生活中的僵化结构释放，转化为更自然的存在方式 。
Lullatone & Jono Brandel——《录入的旋律》（Typatone）
采取编辑器的形式，可将观众录入的文本转译成音乐，让文字获得声音的维度 。
刘唱——《随机漫步者-遇见》（Random Walker - Encounter）
互动视频装置。两个屏幕背靠背地放置在“网吧”空间中，屏幕上逐渐显现图像，呈现另一端口摄取的视觉信息，营造出意想不到的虚拟与现实的相遇。经软件处理的色彩和形状闪烁多变，引发观众对人际社会界限的反思 。这是《随机漫步者》系列在“网吧”语境中的一次特殊呈现——当观众坐在屏幕前，看到的不仅是自己的肖像，还有另一侧陌生人的存在；算法成为连接两个陌生人的中介，在虚拟空间中创造出真实的相遇。
Sebastian Masuda——《感知共享熊》（Sense Share Bear）
全球首秀的VR虚拟现实作品，是艺术家对卡哇伊文化的又一次异想天开的再造。这个大型的VR装置邀请参观者用手与机器进行交互，创造一个五颜六色、如梦似幻的虚拟房间场景。实体空间中还有一只巨大的玩具熊，供触觉互动 。
完整艺术家名单
Max Bittker, Laurel Schwulst, Heidi Latsky, Maya Man, ZZYJW, Will Doenlen, Lullatone, Jono Brandel, 刘唱, Sebastian Masuda
现场回响
《Cultured》杂志在报道中写道，Special Special正在“完善一种国际与本土交织的独特视角”。策展项目创始人蔡文悠在采访中表示：“Special Special的灵感一直来自于我成长过程中接触到的博物馆商店。在互联网时代之前，那些商店里有当地设计师和制作者创作的独特作品。而现在，我发现许多博物馆卖的都是一样的东西。通过Special Special，我一直试图找回那种‘发现’和‘地域性’的感觉。”
关于展览中的互动性，她进一步阐释：“我一直觉得自己是个相当孤独的人，所以Special Special成为了我能够聚集一个社区的空间。在这个社区里，我总是对碰撞出的想法、聚集起来的人们感到惊喜。我试图创造的是一个可以让对话发生的空间，一个可以让两个人的思想结合在一起、创造出比一个人独处时更伟大的东西的空间。”
国内媒体报道指出，这个快闪空间“以千禧年网吧文化的怀旧感为灵感来源，通过一个236平方米的装置来激活美术馆，呈现与世界各地艺术家合作的项目” 。GQ男士网评价道：“‘Cyber Garden流量花园’将互联网理解为一个贯穿着多条路径的无垠花园……这一装置能引发我们一系列的思考，就像是园艺的隐喻如何引发人们对互联网历史的不同理解。”
开幕活动
2021年7月5日晚，上海滩餐厅与新天地店举办了“Cyber Garden 流量花园”艺术主题晚宴，艺术家蔡国强与女儿蔡文悠是这场晚宴的主角。晚宴特别设计了“Special Special Menu”，其中一道“缤纷夏季小香鱼”以烟花为灵感，向蔡国强的艺术致敬 。
展览信息
展览：Cyber Garden 流量花园
地点：浦东美术馆（上海市浦东新区滨江大道2777号）
展期：2021年7月8日 – 10月31日
主办：Special Special，浦东美术馆
创始人：蔡文悠
空间设计：Special Special
参展艺术家：Max Bittker, Laurel Schwulst, Heidi Latsky, Maya Man, ZZYJW, Will Doenlen, Lullatone, Jono Brandel, 刘唱, Sebastian Masuda
特别项目：Sense Share Bear全球首秀（Sebastian Masuda）
关联项目
所有在浦东美术馆亮相的Special Special生活艺术品，也同步在Special Special的官方微店和官网 specialspecial.com 销售 。Cyber Garden
Special Special Pop-up Experience Space, Museum of Art Pudong (MAP), Shanghai
July 8 – October 31, 2021
Presented by: Special Special, Museum of Art Pudong
In the summer of 2021, Special Special—the art and creative unit founded by Inez Suyou Cai—launched its first pop-up experience space in mainland China at the newly opened Museum of Art Pudong. Titled Cyber Garden, the 236-square-meter immersive installation drew inspiration from the nostalgia of Y2K internet café culture, creating a garden for the cyber age within the museum walls.
Curatorial Vision: The Internet as Garden
Cyber Garden understands the internet as an endless garden threaded with multiple paths—a place where files need "pruning" and "weeding," while ideas require "cultivation." Nestled among clusters of flowers, various digital technologies present Special Special's fantasy: an internet café steeped in simulated nature, a branching, multi-layered knowledge base gathering diverse creative nodes together.
The spatial design merged pastoral idyll with cyberpunk aesthetics. Special Special's custom furniture, crafted from resin, took the form of bonsai, cacti, and lilies—immersing visitors in a奇异 garden nourished by digital technology.
Space and Experience
Modular workstations at the space's center encouraged visitors to sit and interact with seven digital artworks. This design drew inspiration from Special Special's "Show and Tell" project, initiated in 2019—a monthly series of online exhibitions and interactive content delivered directly to subscribers' inboxes. At Cyber Garden, audiences could for the first time experience these works in an immersive, surround-sound physical environment at their leisure.
The pop-up also featured a lifestyle艺术品 retail shop, recreating Special Special's New York multifunctional art space. This marked the first opportunity for Shanghai audiences to browse Special Special's playful lifestyle products, including Cardan Grille bookmarks, Small Medium Big Ideas notebook sets, and Tubers—art felt planters created in collaboration with artist Benjamin Langford.
Participating Artists and Works
The exhibition presented eight digital art projects, inviting audiences to immersively experience the evolving fusion between nature and the synthetic:
Max Bittker — Sandspiel
Visitors could layer water, fire, fungus, and seeds to create unpredictable virtual scenes, experiencing the generation and disappearance of natural elements within a sandbox environment.
Laurel Schwulst — Flight Simulator
A contemplative application poetically reimagining a phone's "airplane mode," featuring an in-flight entertainment system curated by the artist.
Heidi Latsky & Maya Man — Recessed
A browser experience driven by dance programming, allowing visitors to freely choreograph intimate bodily movements on screen—reflecting on the isolation experienced during the pandemic.
ZZYW — ThingThingThing
An open-ended game system based on 3D models created by artists in previous workshops. Models participated in world-building within the game, presenting states of coexistence, interaction, and evolution.
Will Doenlen — Hot Air
A calendar application that releases the rigid structures of fast-paced, efficiency-driven daily life, transforming them into more natural modes of existence.
Lullatone & Jono Brandel — Typatone
Taking the form of a text editor, the work translates entered text into music—granting words a sonic dimension.
Liu Chang — Random Walker - Encounter
Interactive video installation. Two screens placed back-to-back in the "internet café" space gradually revealed images captured by cameras on opposite sides, creating unexpected encounters between virtual and real. Processed colors and shapes flickered and transformed, inviting reflection on the boundaries of human connection in society. This special presentation of the Random Walker series within the "internet café" context meant that when viewers sat before a screen, they saw not only their own portrait but also the presence of a stranger on the opposite side—the algorithm becoming a mediator connecting two strangers, creating real encounters within virtual space.
Sebastian Masuda — Sense Share Bear
A VR virtual reality work premiering globally, representing another whimsical reinvention of kawaii culture by the artist. This large-scale VR installation invited visitors to interact with the machine through touch, creating a colorful, dreamlike virtual room. A giant stuffed bear in the physical space offered tactile interaction.
Complete Artist List
Max Bittker, Laurel Schwulst, Heidi Latsky, Maya Man, ZZYJW, Will Doenlen, Lullatone, Jono Brandel, Liu Chang, Sebastian Masuda
Critical Response
Cultured magazine noted that Special Special was "refining a unique perspective weaving together the international and the local." Founder Inez Suyou Cai shared in interviews: "Special Special has always been inspired by the museum stores I encountered growing up. Before the internet age, those stores featured unique creations by local designers and makers. Now I find many museums selling the same things. Through Special Special, I've一直 tried to找回 that sense of 'discovery' and 'locality.'"
Regarding interactivity in the exhibition, she further explained: "I've always felt quite solitary, so Special Special has become a space where I can gather a community. I'm always惊喜 by the ideas that emerge, the people who assemble. What I'm trying to create is a space where dialogue can happen, where two people's thoughts can combine to create something greater than what one could achieve alone."
Domestic media noted that the pop-up space "drew inspiration from the nostalgia of Y2K internet café culture, activating the museum through a 236-square-meter installation presenting collaborations with artists worldwide." GQ commented: "Cyber Garden understands the internet as an endless garden threaded with multiple paths... This installation evokes a series of reflections, like how the metaphor of gardening prompts different understandings of internet history."
Opening Event
On the evening of July 5, 2021, an art-themed dinner for Cyber Garden was held at Shanghai Tang Restaurant Xintiandi, with artist Cai Guoqiang and his daughter Inez Suyou Cai as the evening's honorees. A specially designed "Special Special Menu" featured a "Summer Small香鱼" dish inspired by fireworks, paying homage to Cai Guoqiang's artistic practice.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition: Cyber Garden
Venue: Museum of Art Pudong (2777 Binjiang Avenue, Pudong New District, Shanghai)
Duration: July 8 – October 31, 2021
Presented by: Special Special, Museum of Art Pudong
Founder: Inez Suyou Cai
Spatial Design: Special Special
Participating Artists: Max Bittker, Laurel Schwulst, Heidi Latsky, Maya Man, ZZYJW, Will Doenlen, Lullatone, Jono Brandel, Liu Chang, Sebastian Masuda
Special Project: Global Premiere of Sense Share Bear (Sebastian Masuda)
Related Projects
All Special Special lifestyle艺术品 featured at the Museum of Art Pudong were simultaneously available through Special Special's official WeChat store and website specialspecial.com.