CODES & CANOPIES: Art Beyond the Age of Algorithms

Suzhou MoCA, Suzhou, China
Curator: Alistair Hudson, Zhang Zikang, Anett Holzheid, Guo Xiaohui
Artists: Refik Anadol, Yunchul Kim, Liu Jiayu, Wang Yuyang, Marc Lee, Iris Qu, Shervin Saremi, Thomas Feuerstein, Anicka Yi
https://www.suzhoumoca.com/en/exhibitions/CODES-CANOPIES-Art-Beyond-the-Age-of-Algorithms

YANTO – yaw and not tip over, Suzhou MoCA, China

CODES & CANOPIES unfolds through four interrelated artistic trajectories: AI Art, Virtual Art, Bio Art, and Space Art. These trajectories are not simple classifications of medium, nor are they closed chapters within the exhibition. Rather, they offer four different ways of entering its central inquiry: in a reality increasingly shaped by algorithms, data, living systems, and space technologies, how might art rethink the formation of perception, the organization of life, and the conditions of coexistence between human and nonhuman beings?

Here, "codes" no longer refer only to programming languages or technical mechanisms. They also describe forms of organization embedded in image generation, machine learning, biological metabolism, ecological feedback, and cosmic signals. Codes shape the circulation of information and transform the ways in which reality is perceived and understood. "Canopies," in turn, refer both to the open yet sheltering structure of the exhibition space and to a shared perceptual environment in which humans, machines, living organisms, and cosmic forces become interconnected.

AI Art, Virtual Art, Bio Art, and Space Art therefore form four intersecting lines of inquiry. Moving from intelligent systems and digital interfaces to biological processes and cosmic imaginaries, they examine how codes organize perception, how environments become perceptible, and how new relations between life, technology, and the world may emerge. Rather than presenting a singular narrative of technological progress, CODES & CANOPIES seeks to reopen more complex possibilities for art, life, and futurity beyond the algorithmic age.

Exhibited Artwork

YANTO - yaw and not tip over

Mobile App as Interface for Interactive Installations

Due to accelerating acidification and industrial aquafarming, our ocean is becoming increasingly uninhabitable. Aquaculture workers and scientists now rely on genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and machine learning as potential tools to mitigate climate change. YANTO - yaw and not tip over imagines a speculative aquaculture farm 30 years from now, where artificial intelligence creates synthetic more …

Screenshot, YANTO

Chengdu Biennale

HEK, Basel

Publication

CODES & CANOPIES: Art Beyond the Age of Algorithms

MoCA - Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, Suzhou
Book, color, 300 pages, 21 x 27.5 cm
2026
Chinese, English
by Wang Xiaosong, Suzhou, China

https://www.suzhoumoca.com/en/exhibitions/CODES-CANOPIES-Art-Beyond-the-Age-of-Algorithms

At a time when algorithms are profoundly restructuring the way the world is perceived, and when technology is increasingly intervening in life, ecology and social systems, how art responds to an age continuously rewritten by data, intelligent systems and new media has become an unavoidable question for contemporary art. CODES & CANOPIES: Art Beyond the Age of Algorithms unfolds within this very context.

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