Writing a Cow: From Surveillance Data to Fiction
Writing a Cow: From Surveillance Data to Fiction
《写一头牛：从监控数据到半虚构》
Speaker: 沙爽 Sha Shuang
Language: Chinese (with real-time Translated Captions via Zoom)
8AM EDT (New York) / 1PM GMT (London) (*Attendees in other time zones, please convert to your local time)
Every cow on the farm has its own number. How much it eats, how far it walks, when it goes into heat, how much milk it gives—all of it is quietly logged by the machines. In 2021, Sha Shuang spent six months at an animal-monitoring data company in Xundian, Yunnan, working alongside a team of programmers. Months of fieldwork left her with a realization: the production system of a cattle farm and human social life aren’t so different after all—both made of bodies, labor, reproduction, care, and the daily experience of being logged and managed by one system or another. Her essay Finding the Steppes grew directly out of these field experiences. This lecture begins with that piece of semi-fiction, tracing why she moved from “monitoring cows” to “writing cows,” and how years of fieldwork among dairy cows, grasslands, milk, data, and ecological systems slowly found their way into her art practice.
𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖
SCHEDULE
Talk (60min)
Q&A (30min)
ZOOM LINK
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HIGHLIGHT
Replay: Registrants will receive a replay link valid for one month after the lecture concludes. The replay does not include the live Q&A session.
Further Resources: Registrants will have access to a Digital Reading Room for this lecture, featuring supplementary materials and references related to the lecture.
𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖𓃖
SPEAKER BIO
Sha Shuang is an artist based in Shanghai. Her practice focuses on public space, site-specific engagement, and the intricate relationships between humans, animals, the environment, and production systems. Spanning publishing, painting, moving image, installation, and social practice, her work often develops through fieldwork, interviews, workshops, and collaborative co-creation. Grounded in concrete lived experiences and local contexts, she addresses issues of standardization, fluidity, relationships, change, memory, and community. In recent years, starting from dairy cows, her research has expanded into dairy production, data monitoring, and ecosystems, translating her fieldwork into moving images, installations, publications, and public programs.