Night of the living hippy

BACKGROUND Night of the Living Hippy was selected for a curated exhibition as part of a showcase of 'the best media artworks from around the world and provide a platform for the lively exchange of future-focused ideas. At once ubiquitous and unnoticed, resistance to electronic art has proven futile - it now lies embedded in the heart of contemporary cultures. The Haig work is a direct reference to the oeuvre of Paul Thek, in particular, Death of a Hippy (1967). CONTRIBUTION Haig works at the intersection of visual arts and media arts in his ongoing exploration of the strangeness of everyday reality. His practice focuses on the themes of the human body, devolution, abjection, transformation and psychopathology, often seen through the lens of low cultural forms. Night of the Living Hippy plays out the idea that nothing is truly dead anymore: everything can be remixed, remashed or reconfigured. This unique research extends ways in which we can consider the aesthetic of the abject human body and its relationship to the media landscape and new and emerging technologies. As such it contributes to experimental incursions into the extensive and diverse practice of electronic media arts. SIGNIFICANCE As part of a preeminent international symposium exhibition at the University of Sydney it received high exposure in Australia and internationally. In focusing on themes of the human body, abjection, transformation and attraction/repulsion, it builds on work that Iain Haig has exhibited at prestigious venues in New York, Paris, LA, and in Australia. In his catalogue essay, Greg Shapley wrote: it works most powerfully as a metaphor for our post-medial...culture where the dead...flattened and de-contextualised by the disinterested process of digital storage, are brought back to life to serve whatever purpose the possessor deems fit (most often commercial or political).

一、背景
《活嬉皮之夜》（Night of the Living Hippy）入选一场策展展览，该展览作为“全球顶尖媒体艺术（media arts）作品展”的一部分，旨在搭建平台以促进面向未来的理念的活跃交流。电子艺术（electronic art）早已无处不在却又常被忽视，对其的抵制已被证明徒劳无功——如今它已然扎根于当代文化的核心之中。伊恩·海格（Iain Haig）的这件作品直接致敬了保罗·塞克（Paul Thek）的创作全集，尤其是其1967年的作品《嬉皮之死》（Death of a Hippy）。

二、创作贡献
海格的创作立足于视觉艺术与媒体艺术的交叉领域，持续探索日常现实中的荒诞与陌生感。其创作围绕人体、退行、卑贱（abjection）、变形与精神病理学（psychopathology）等主题展开，常以通俗文化形态为视角进行诠释。《活嬉皮之夜》演绎了这样一种理念：世间已无真正的“死亡”——一切事物均可被混编、重构与再加工。这项独特的研究拓展了我们审视卑贱化人体美学及其与媒体生态、新兴技术之间关系的路径。就此而言，该作品为电子媒体艺术丰富多元的创作实践提供了实验性的探索维度。

三、作品意义与影响
作为悉尼大学顶级国际研讨会展览的参展作品之一，该作在澳大利亚及国际范围内获得了广泛关注。该作围绕人体、卑贱、变形以及趋避心理等主题展开，延续了伊恩·海格曾在纽约、巴黎、洛杉矶及澳大利亚等地知名场馆展出的创作脉络。展览目录的序言作者格雷格·夏普利（Greg Shapley）曾写道：该作最有力地隐喻了我们所处的后媒介文化（post-medial culture）——在这种文化中，本已逝去的事物经由数字存储的无主观干预流程被扁平化、去语境化，随后重获生机，以满足持有者认定的任何用途（通常为商业或政治目的）。