Born in China and trained in the UK, Youyang received his Master's degree in animation from the Royal College of Art in London and has exhibited his work internationally across Europe, Asia, and North & South America.
In 2019, Youyang co-founded the independent animation festival Feinaki Animation Week in Beijing, where he also teaches.
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A snippet of my hand-drawn animation 'For the Best' (2015), collected by the British Film Institute
As a traditionally trained 2D animation artist researching the field of generative AI and multi-sensory digital transformation, I am constantly in awe of the nonstop technological breakthroughs I witness, yet often look back to my pen and brushes that inspired me to make art and build my deep emotional connections with the physical touch in the first place.
Still Frame from 'For the Best'(2015), AI transformation experiment 2022
I try to create art that combines both innovative digital tools and the traditional tactile artistic mediums that speak to the multitude of daring innovations and deeply bonded emotional engagement in the continuum of creative expressions.
Clip from AI-augmented animation short 'Inside My Eyes' 2023
My recent animation film 'Inside My Eyes'(2023) based on Japanese writer Yuko Taniguchi's poem, explores an overwhelmed mind space organically painted in motion in the watercolor/ oil/ biogenic histology look only enabled by the power of AI image generation.
Still frames from 'Inside My Eyes' 2023, img2img AI-augmentation experiment
Working in a film crew as onset assistant director in Sino-U.S international coproduction 'Crazy Alien', 2017
As someone who has lived a nomadic life often traveling between distinctly different cultures, I feel like an alien body to most of the places where I live and worked, yet I believe my bilingual background and multicultural perspective equipped me to become a skilled people person who holds critical world views but can communicate with an open mind in great patience, which manifested from my diverse working experience in leading art workshops, organizing film festivals, public speaking, directing and assisting film productions.
Leading and co-instructing various art workshops in Beijing, 2018-2021
In 2020, as the operational director of Feinaki Animation Week, I was invited to curate an artist talk alongside writing an article about Chinese independent animation for the International Short Film Festival Winterthur in Switzerland, which was then published on the film critic website 'Talking Shorts'.
Being a co-founder and the operational director at Feinaki Beijing Animation Week, 2019-2020
Thank you for your patience in spending time to know me, you're most likely already my friend:)
I am grateful for all the opportunities to connect, collaborate, learn from, and grow with the community of like-minded artists, educators, and innovators.
If you have any queries in mind or feel like we might click, leave me a sweet greeting message
Thank you!
©2023