Sian Fan: Downtime

As a counter to the hyper-productivity of the post-post-internet world, Downtime virtually embodies the experience of ASMR into an interactive Realtime environment. Simulating a tranquil digital landscape, filled with calming digital artefacts, the user navigates via their computer arrow keys to explore the aimless world and discover aural sensations.

The viewer is immersed in a lush landscape of sculpted pink sand dunes, that stretch as far as the eye can see. As they explore the space, they will discover various digital forms that each emit a unique ASMR inspired sound effect. Downtime acts a virtual sanctuary, a safe space to indulge in idleness. ‘Downtime’ is the opposite of productivity online, stripping out the endless windows, ads and notifications to create a virtual space to unwind and to disconnect.

Follow the link below to launch the artwork

Downtime was commissioned by Phoenix in early 2020 in response to the theme of ‘idleness’ online, curated by Anoushka Goodwin. Published at a time of global lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, this theme and the resulting artwork have taken on a new gravity as many of us have been forced to spend even more of our time occupying online spaces

Sian Fan is a mixed media artist working in London. She is currently studying a Fine Art Masters at Central Saint Martins, where she has been awarded the prestigious Mona Hatoum Scholarship.

She has exhibited internationally with venues including Tate Modern, British Council, and the ICA, as well as producing work with Channel 4, the BBC and Google. Her work combines movement, the female body and technology to explore disembodiment and human experience in the digital age. Drawing on her background in contemporary and aerial dance she suspends, fragments and augments the body via choreography and digital techniques, as a method of exposing the underlying effects of technology.

Sian explores the relationship between the physical and the virtual through animation, 3D scanning & printing, and virtual & augmented reality, employing these technologies in conjunction with the body to address the disembodied experience of being online. She is passionate about being a female and person of colour working directly with technology, which she feels are currently underrepresented. From her experiences working within technological industries she has felt a noticeable absence of female representation and is keen to promote and champion the capabilities of females working with technology.

She is interested in the experience of being human in our increasingly digitised and hyperconnected world and seeks to discover new ways for us to coexist with technology.