Sex-determination system 3.0
D2305 uses new media as a kind of sex determination system. Through “embodied self-performance” and a back-and-forth creative process with different AI language models, Ning Wen keeps performing and reshaping new versions of sex, gender, the body, and identity in a decentralized Web3.0 space.
Ning Wen is not using AI just to generate images. It’s the other way around—he started by creating a series of semi-dynamic self-portraits, or cinemagraphs, and then fed his own works into the AI. He asked it to deconstruct the visuals and turn them into new prompts and texts. During this process, he kept experimenting, probing AI’s taboos, its biases, its overly politically correct rules, its language issues, and cultural misreadings. He wanted to see how AI understands the gender, roles, elements, gestures, compositions, or meanings inside these bodies.
Ning Wen is not using AI just to generate images. It’s the other way around—he started by creating a series of semi-dynamic self-portraits, or cinemagraphs, and then fed his own works into the AI. He asked it to deconstruct the visuals and turn them into new prompts and texts. During this process, he kept experimenting, probing AI’s taboos, its biases, its overly politically correct rules, its language issues, and cultural misreadings. He wanted to see how AI understands the gender, roles, elements, gestures, compositions, or meanings inside these bodies.
Since he was young, his gender and sexual orientation have been fluid. But growing up in a conservative environment, all of that was suppressed. He gradually became someone without a clear sex or gender. In the era of Web2.0, he tried performing different identities through anonymous voices and images, searching for ways to connect with his own body. But those identities were still controlled by centralized systems. They were often erased, treated like background noise. He started to wonder, what if he could break those taboos in Web3.0 using new media? Could that become a new kind of queer body?
So he gave birth to a new queer body on the blockchain. Its flesh is made of short meme-style videos. Its private key is its genetic code. It lives as a native of Web3.0, constantly looping inside boomerang videos.
Along the way, he recorded different observations around new media, bodies, and desire. Things like metaverse mind trash, self-media desire capitalism, the technological singularity, desire and neoliberalism, racial dynamics on-chain, virus carriers, AI’s forbidden rules, and the question of how microworkers experience sexual violence and redemption. In this process, he felt like he was playing every role in Gayle S. Rubin’s sex hierarchy. He kept shifting, staying in a constant state of transition.
Note: A sex determination system is what defines the development of sexual traits in living beings. Most are decided by genetics, but some are shaped by environmental or social factors. In this project, D2305 introduces an experimental version 3.0—using new media as a system to determine sex and gender.
性別決定系統 ver. 3.0
在此計畫中，寧文以新媒體視為一種「性別決定系統（Sex-determination system）」的實驗場域，透過自我肉身的扮演與不同AI語言生成模型之間的交替對話，於Web3.0這個去中心化網絡架構中，不斷操演出新的性／別、身體與身份樣態。
不同於將AI視為影像創作的工具，寧文反其道而行，先拍攝了一系列以身體為核心的自拍半動態肖像（cinemagraph），再將其影像輸入AI系統，藉此觀察機器如何反向拆解這些圖像、生成prompt、並產出新的語言文本。在這一過程中，藝術家主動觸碰並測試AI系統中的禁忌規範、文化偏見、語言邏輯、政治正確性與誤讀機制，質疑機器如何理解身體、性別、角色、動作與構圖背後的文化意義。
藝術家於區塊鏈上構築出一種新的原生身體——以迷因式短影音作為肉身承載，以私鑰作為基因序號，成為Web3.0的原住民。這些分身存在於永無止境的循環影像（boomerang loop）中，如同一場持續變形與再生的輪迴儀式。
創作過程中，寧文記錄下圍繞「新媒體、身體與慾望」的多重觀察與思考，包括：元宇宙中的思想垃圾、自媒體時代的情慾資本、科技奇點（technological singularity）、鏈上種族分類、微工經濟下的性暴力重構、以及AI道德規範中的限制與漏洞。藝術家如同一位置身蓋兒・魯賓（Gayle S. Rubin）「性階級制度」中的多重角色扮演者，不斷變形、游移於各種過渡狀態，生成一種非穩定性的身體政治敘事。
備註：性別決定系統是決定生物性徵發展的系統，大多數性別由遺傳物質決定，但也有一些非遺傳性別決定系統，如環境或社會因素所決定。D2305此計畫提出實驗以新媒體作為性別決定系統ver.3.0 。
Adult Diary
In my new video work Adult Diary, I explore the many ways new media can function as a sex determination system and a tool for building identity through nine virtual alter-egos. The project starts from a diary that asks how a non-human grows up and becomes human. I filmed a series of self-portraits that sit somewhere between still and moving images, known as cinemagraphs, and gave them to a generative AI for analysis and interpretation. I did not use AI to generate content directly. Instead, I let one AI guess the prompt behind the image, then passed that prompt to another AI to expand the visuals. This back and forth process felt like a game of catch between me and the machine, slowly shaping nine very different identities.
The video looks like an old V8 camcorder tape from childhood, but it also uses the visual language of 360 degree filming. It is divided into nine chapters, from a thought abortionist obsessed with philosophy, to a gender designer skilled in attention and desire economies, to an emotional translator who calls herself a pet communicator on the blockchain. Through these shifting roles, I explore where the boundary lies between thought and the body. Using the idea of blockchain, I imagine a way for emotional memories between humans and pets to be permanently recorded, forming emotional links that go beyond life and death.
At its core, this work is not just a technical experiment. It is a reflection on self identity, gender politics, and the digital ethics of AI.
成人日記
在新作「成人日記」錄像作品中，我試圖透過九個虛擬分身，探討新媒體作為「性別決定系統」與身份建構工具的多重可能。我以一個「非人」如何「成人」與「成為人」的日記作為創作起點，拍攝了一系列介於靜態與動態間的自我肖像影像（cinemagraph），並將這些影像交給生成式AI進行分析與解讀。過程我並非直接使用AI生成內容，而是讓AI反推出prompt，再轉交另一個AI進行影像擴展，這種反覆的過程就像我與AI之間不斷互相拋接球般，逐步生出這九個截然不同的身份。
影片像是記憶中小時候的V8舊式錄影帶，卻又結合360攝影的鏡頭視覺語言。內容被分成九個段落：從充滿哲學辯證的思想墮胎師，到精通流量與情慾資本的性別設計師，再到自稱「鏈上寵物溝通師」的情感翻譯官。透過這些身份的轉換，我探討「思想與肉身的邊界在哪裡」，也藉由區塊鏈技術的概念，將寵物與人的情感記憶永久上鏈，描繪出跨越生死界限的情感聯結。
這件作品的核心不只是技術上的實驗，也是關於自我身份認同、性別政治以及AI數位倫理的反思。
Erogenous Zone
“Disposable Perspectives”
“Reconciliation Ears for Political Correctness”
“Hormone-Allergic Nose”
“Tongue-Rolling Starter Kit”
“Auto-Frequency-Adapting Skin”
This unplugged video installation transforms viewers’ smartphones into part of a VR experience through NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. When a phone is placed near the “ingredient label” of the artwork, it triggers an immersive visual response—images shift in accordance with the viewer’s body movements, turning the body itself into a steering wheel of perception.
Continuing the persona of the “Sensory Blind Box Tester” from D2305, this work explores the sale of virtual sensations and consciousness NFTs on the blockchain. Referencing the Buddhist concepts of the Six Roots (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) and the Six Dusts (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma), the project revisits the origins of human perception and the interface between inner experience and external reality. In the contemporary context, the smartphone screen has become an inseparable organ of the human body. D2401 uses new media to reimagine the near-future relationship between the body and the senses, creating a fluid performance of perception with the device, screen, and viewer in dynamic interplay.
敏感帶
《可日拋的眼界》
《政治正確的和解專用耳朵》
《荷爾蒙過敏型鼻子》
《新手手捲舌套裝》
《自動變頻的皮膚》
這是不插電的錄像裝置，觀眾只要將手機靠近作品上的成分標籤，即可透過感應NFC（Near Field Communication），使手機變成VR作品的一部分。隨著觀者身體的移動，影像視角也隨之改變，身體成了操作畫面的方向盤。
延續《D2305》中「五官盲盒測試員」的角色，在區塊鏈上販售虛擬的感知與意識NFT。作品引用佛教中六根（眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意）與六塵（色、聲、香、味、觸、法）的概念。這是人類感知世界的起點，也是內在與外境互動的界面。在當代，手機螢幕早已成為人類身上難以切割的器官。《D2401》透過新媒體語彙，重新演繹近未來身體與感官的關係，讓裝置、手機與觀者身體共同構成一場流動的感知演出。
