闪烁的存在
《闪烁的存在》
交互装置，算法肖像系列，艺术家书
2016
《闪烁的存在》是一个试图在参与者与肖像生成引擎之间建立亲密关系的艺术项目。这是一场关于“看见”的实验——不是人被看见，而是机器如何看见人。
每一幅肖像均由摄像头捕捉，它扮演着“画家的眼睛”；算法则充当“画家的画笔”。两者协同工作，将人的形态逐渐演化为一幅抽象的图像。肖像的最终状态由艺术家设定，但生成的过程，却由每一次相遇重新书写。
这是对肖像画传统的重构。千百年来，画家与被画者之间始终存在着单向的凝视——模特静坐，画家执笔。而在《闪烁的存在》中，观众不再是静止的客体，而是与算法共同创作的合作者。你可以静静站立，看自己的轮廓缓慢浮现；也可以移动、转身、离开——每一个动作都在改变笔触的走向，每一次中断都在生成新的图像。
时间，是这件作品的第三位作者。当你离开，屏幕上留下的痕迹会慢慢模糊、消散，很快被下一位参与者替代。没有一张肖像被永久保存，每一次观看都是一次无法复制的发生。这便是刘唱所说的“时间的纹理”——那些转瞬即逝的轮廓，那些未曾被记录的瞬间，被算法捕捉下来，又任由它们消散。
《闪烁的存在》探讨的是具象与抽象之间的边界。它重新审视经典艺术的构图与审美方法，并将其转化为一种新的抽象语言。它提出的问题是：当机器开始学习“观看”，当算法开始参与“描绘”，我们所说的“作者”究竟是谁？
该系列包含三件交互影像装置——《随机漫步者-墨》（2016）、《随机漫步者》（2016）、《野蛮生长》（2014），由这三件装置生成的肖像版画，以及一本限量20版的艺术家书《闪烁的存在》。
“程式是逻辑的，艺术是感性的。编程艺术将严格、冰冷和逻辑的过程，转化为非逻辑的、不可预测的、富有表现力的结果。我试图将两者结合在一起。”
——刘唱
作品视频：https://vimeo.com/188906729
Flickering Existence
Interactive Installations, Computational Portraiture Series, Artist Book
2016
Flickering Existence is an artwork that seeks to create an intimate experience between participants and a portraiture engine that generates portraits. It is an experiment in vision—not in how we see, but in how machines learn to see us.
Each portrait is captured by a camera that acts as the "painter's eyes." An algorithm serves as the "painter's brush." Together, they work to translate a human form into an evolving abstraction. The final state of each portrait is determined by the artist, but the process is rewritten with every encounter.
This is a radical reimagining of the portrait tradition. For centuries, the relationship between painter and sitter has been one of单向凝视: the sitter remains still, the painter renders. In Flickering Existence, the viewer is no longer a passive subject, but a co-creator. Stand still, and watch your likeness emerge. Move, turn away, walk off—each gesture redirects the brushstrokes, each interruption births a new composition.
Time becomes a third author. When the viewer departs, the portrait slowly dissolves—its marks blurring, fading, soon to be overwritten by the next presence. No image is saved. No moment repeats. This is what Liu Chang calls "the texture of time"—the fleeting contours of presence, captured by the machine and then released back into impermanence.
Flickering Existence explores the boundary between representation and abstraction. It challenges the compositional and aesthetic methods of classical art, translating them into a new language of abstraction. It asks: when machines learn to see, when algorithms learn to depict—who, then, is the author?
The series includes three interactive video installations—Random Walker - Dripping (2016), Random Walker (2016), and Wild Growth (2014)—along with portraiture prints generated from these installations, and a limited-edition artist book (20 copies) also titled Flickering Existence.
"Code is logical, art is emotional. Coding art takes strict, cold, logical processes and converts them into illogical, unpredictable, and expressive results. I want to bring the two together."
—Liu Chang
Video: https://vimeo.com/188906729