Wenjun Chen - Portfolio

Email: wenjunfoto@gmail.com

Website: chenwenjun.net

Instagram: @wwenjunii

Aliens of Me is a self-exploration based on my personal data with internet-based technologies, utilizing the web, video, virtual reality, and installation. I am using keywords from my memories shared online and figures of my health data captured by my smartwatch to reconstruct myself through virtual avatars, a story of my growth, and new bodies in which to hold these avatars and stories. This also reflects my identity as a newcomer from China, migrating to an open new world that blends analog and digital.

We are generating more and more digital data, and virtual life is becoming increasingly dominant. Personal identities are becoming interchangeable and indistinguishable between the virtual and real worlds. Through this work, I explore the inter-transformative relationship between the real and the virtual, the tangible and the intangible, the material and the immaterial, and the thing and the non-thing.

Meanwhile, technology is also extending its tendrils into the most personal spheres of humans, commoditizing personal data as a lucrative venture. I aim to engage in the claiming of sovereignty over our personal data, creating a space where personal data transcends commercial value and morphs into a playground for self-reflection, artistic expression, creativity, and exploration.

This work was initiated on GitHub and developed into a narrative video, virtual reality, WebXR, and installation.

Aliens of Me, Website, 2022-2024

The project Aliens of Me started as a website on GitHub. It is about a virtual avatar constructing his identity from my personal data, including memories shared online and health data captured by the smartwatch. Later, it developed into a narrative video and VR experience. This website includes web-based animations with JavaScript (p5.js, three.js, tone.js), AI generation, and 3D production.

Website: https://wenjunii.github.io/Lifeography/

Animation Screen Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLargONL3LhmL9U0mNeZ4XVi3PMFSFHiN2

Aliens of Me, Video, 2022-2024

A narrative video about the project Aliens of Me. It is developed from the original project on the GitHub website. It is about a virtual avatar constructing his identity from my personal data, including memories shared online and health data captured by the smartwatch.

Aliens of Me, Three-channel Animation, 2023-2024

A three-channel animation minted as an NFT about the growth of the avatars in the project with the shape generated from my health data.

Aliens of Me, Webpage, 2022-2023

A webpage shows the conversation between AI (OPT and GPT) and me in our native languages, corresponding with AI-generated images with the contents.

Webpage: https://wenjunii.github.io/Lifeography/response.html

Aliens of Me, Web-based (Data-based) Animation, 2022-2024

A web-based data visualization animation from my health data. It consists of JavaScript (three.js, tone.js) and 3D production. Audience can move around this this 3D data visualization space.

The original animation: https://wenjunii.github.io/Lifeography/data.html

Aliens of Me, Web-based (Data-based) Animation, 2023-2024

A web-based (data-based) interactive shapes and sounds generator from my health data. It consists of JavaScript (three.js, tone.js) and 3D production. Audience can move around this this 3D space.

The original animation: https://wenjunii.github.io/Lifeography/shape.html

Aliens of Me, WebXR, 2023-2024

A WebXR experience of the project Aliens of Me. It is developed from the original project on the GitHub website and the narrative video. It is about a virtual avatar constructing his identity from my personal data, including memories shared online and health data captured by the smartwatch. It is built on Mozilla Spoke.

WebXR: https://verse.loop.onland.io/PQBMpba/distant-different-dominion

Aliens of Me, VR, 2022-2024

A VR experience of the project Aliens of Me. It is developed from the original project on the GitHub website and the narrative video. It is about a virtual avatar constructing his identity from my personal data, including memories shared online and health data captured by the smartwatch. It is built on Unreal Engine.

Screen Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLargONL3LhmIkN07KAqFoEwfbGm8qxjf3

Aliens of Me, Installation, 2023-2024

A site-specific installation consists of the datasheets of my health data, a projection of the data visualization, and a virtual avatar. A self-exploration within physical and virtual spaces, as the data is constructing a live animation, a dynamic avatar, and an expanding physical body.

Aliens of Me, Installation, 2024-2025

An installation consists of data sheets of my body data captured by the smartphone, QR codes with AR animations, VR experience, and an interactive animation of an avatar. It is about an avatar reconstructing his identity based on my personal data, including memories shared online and health data captured by the smartwatch. This installation is an interplay between real and virtual with an immersive and interactive environment.

IO (I/O) Playground, Interactive Installation, Ongoing

Interactive sculpture/installation consisting of data sheets of my health data, web-based animation of data visualization (projection mapping on the data sheets), audio of generated sound with the health data, 3D printings of generated shapes with the health data, sensors and actuators with Arduino. I intend to interact my data with the audience’s data from sensors.

Hometown XR is an ongoing project that explores how personal and collective memories of “hometowns” are reshaped in the age of data and digital networks. The project examines the tension between the real and the virtual, blending oral histories, crowdsourced narratives, and open-source datasets with AI-driven generative media to construct immersive experiences that visualize memory as a living, fluid process.

Hometown XR, Projection Mapping, Ongoing

Outdoor projection mapping in a public garden in Harlem, New York. It is a real-time generative animation about dialogue of home, hometown, and belonging between memories from the Internet Archive and the artist, which is being mapped into a physical public space in the Harlem community.

On-site Video Recording: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLargONL3LhmIoOJVXQtBks_O8hZxj8HP8

Animation Screen Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLargONL3LhmKl5JEjR4nuL8b0AABGphtW

Hometown XR, Projection Mapping, Ongoing

Indoor and outdoor projection mapping in a house on Governors Island, New York. It is a real-time generative animation about dialogue of home, hometown, and belonging between memories from the Internet Archive and the artist, which is being mapped into a physical public space in a house on Governors Island. A liquid memory recall and exploration between Governors Island/New York and Guangzhou/China about water, origin, colonial, and change.

On-site Video Recording: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLargONL3LhmKwK9EbSwSHbbXMPb_-xm7j