AI, Art, and the Unknown: Wang Wei-Ming’s Symbolic Journey Through the Future
Artist Wang Wei-Ming has been awarded the Gold Prize in Digital Installations & Interactive Media at the Golden Arc Design Award 2025 Season 1 for his immersive and symbol-rich work "Art Dimension VR 360° Video" exploring the rise of artificial intelligence and its philosophical, cultural, and spiritual impact on humanity.
Created in the wake of AI’s explosive growth in 2022, the installation reflects deep concerns about how rapidly advancing technology is reshaping human existence. At its core is a striking juxtaposition: Michelangelo’s Moses holding the Ten Commandments—a symbol of ancient order and moral law—placed in dialogue with the microchip, representing the future and the rise of machine consciousness.
“Technology is rewriting the norms humans have lived by for thousands of years,” Wang says. “My work questions whether we will embrace this change, resist it, or blindly follow it.”
The installation creates a virtual world where viewers confront robotic giants, AI monsters, and shifting surreal landscapes, simulating the oppression, awe, and fantasy of our increasingly digitized lives. Wang layers rich semiotic imagery throughout the space:
Unicorns, merging myth and machine, symbolize infinite imagination.
Red flower cloth and blue-and-white porcelain monsters evoke Chinese tradition clashing with tech modernity.
A robot in cruciform represents both hope and misplaced faith.
A chessboard floor, a moon overhead, and six nodding mechanical insects suggest conformity, cosmic insignificance, and theatrical absurdity.
“The world I’ve built is both familiar and deeply unsettling,” Wang explains. “It reflects a future that’s seductive yet potentially dangerous—a surrealist warning about surrendering to technology without reflection.”
By blending science, religion, tradition, and philosophy, Wang challenges viewers to ask: Is AI our greatest creation—or our greatest threat? Will it elevate humanity—or reduce us to obedient spectators in a fantasy we no longer control?
Full Interview
1.What inspired you to blend mythological imagery with futuristic elements like robots and chips in this virtual reality piece?
In 2022, artificial intelligence is getting better and better, technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, and humans are entering a new realm of survival. This made me think deeply about how the future world will change the normal life of thousands of years, so I used the Ten Commandments in the hands of classical Moses to symbolize the old system of mankind. The chip is a symbol of the future of technology.
2.What emotions or existential questions were you hoping to evoke in viewers through this immersive experience?
When humans encounter the arrival of artificial intelligence technology, will they actively embrace it or go with the flow? When we create a virtual world and let people enter this virtual space to face machine monsters and huge robots, can they feel all the oppression and weird fantasy space constantly impacting us? It's as if humans are about to lose their pure natural living area. Does technology bring unlimited convenience to people, or does it come from the massive counterattack of artificial intelligence machines? Everything remains to be proven by time!
3.Is there a specific visual symbol—like the one-eyed beast or Moses with the commandments—that carries deeper meaning for you personally?
I used a lot of semiotics in the whole work. Unicorns have always been a symbol of fantasy and mystery in the West. When it is combined with technology, it can better illustrate that technology gives people unlimited fantasy and unconstrained possibilities. Michelangelo's statue of Moses represents a classic work of art, and the world in his hands can better illustrate that humans have been living in the realm of life since the beginning of history. The two are actually very conflicting, but they follow the footsteps of human history and keep moving forward. Grandma's red flower cloth and the monster of blue and white porcelain both contain the connotation of classic traditions! The chessboard on the ground symbolizes that life is like a play, and play is like life! The big lotus behind him symbolizes everything perfect in Eastern thought. The robot appears in the form of a cross, symbolizing hope and faith in Western Christian thought, and robots will be placed with high hopes. The Roman column represents a space like a prisoner class. With the arrival of the moon, it can be further explained that humans are actually small and insignificant in the universe. The six little bugs in front keep nodding, symbolizing that humans are actually blindly obedient creatures. The whole story shows that humans are about to move towards an unknown, science fiction fantasy virtual world.
4.Was there a particular concept, such as transhumanism or digital ethics, that guided your creative direction?
My creative thinking has been constantly interweaving science, technology, religion and art, which contains both surrealist elements and more philosophical thinking.
5.What do you hope audiences will contemplate about the future of humanity after engaging with your VR world?
Through this work, I just want the audience to pay attention to whether the world of artificial intelligence will make humans blindly follow and let technology override the norms of human life while appreciating the illusory fantasy world. In the next century, robots will surely lead the human world. Will artificial intelligence make a comeback or make life better? This is what we must treat with caution. Please look forward to my next creation that combines science, technology and religious art.
