Instead of one large exhibition every three years, the project in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area unfolds as a sequence of three annual stages. In 2026, it explores how the interaction of humans, nature, and technology opens up new possibilities and changes our perception of reality.
On 23 October 2026, the exhibition "悬置的生成" — "Suspended Generation" — opened at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Museum, the second stage of the three-year project "Greater Bay Area Art and Technology Triennial." The exhibition brings together 11 groups of works from China and other countries. Interactive installations, robots, algorithms, and machine learning technologies become means of exploring a world in which humans, nature, and digital systems interact and influence one another ever more closely.
The "Exhibition Stream": Three Stages of One Programme
Instead of the usual format, in which a large exhibition takes place once every three years, the organisers use the strategy of an "exhibition stream": three thematic stages follow one another annually, in 2025, 2026, and 2027. Each is devoted to a separate aspect of the relationship between humans, the environment, and technology. Together they form a sequential investigation — from interconnections to interaction, and then to perception.
2025 — Interconnections. The first stage, "Salt Water, Turbulence, and Algorithmic Landscapes," explored the intersections of water, data, the body, geography, and cultural memory. Natural phenomena, human experience, and digital processes were regarded as parts of a shared environment in which changes in one element are reflected in the others.
2026 — Interaction. The current exhibition, "Suspended Generation," turns to the relationship between humans and technology: from robots and interactive devices to algorithms that process information and influence the digital environment. What happens when technology becomes not merely a tool in human hands but an active participant in interaction? How do our actions, decisions, and sensations change in response to its reactions? The artists explore these questions through situations of waiting, delay, and uncertainty — moments when the usual course of interaction is disrupted and new ways of connecting can emerge.
2027 — Perception. The next stage, "弥漫的感知", will continue the exploration of perception, intelligence, and consciousness. It will address how technology changes the ways we feel, understand, and come to know the world, as well as ideas about the boundaries between humans, machines, and the environment.
When Interaction Becomes a Source of the New
In the current exhibition, the investigation of interaction unfolds in three sections: "The Delayed Body," "The Threshold Body," and "Suspended Perception." What unites them is an attention to transitional states, when the usual relationships between humans and technology change and the outcome of interaction cannot always be foreseen.
A delay or an unexpected reaction of a digital system matters here not in itself. It allows us to see how a person adapts to new conditions, how their actions affect the operation of the system, and how their own experience changes in response. Interaction becomes a way of exploring the unknown: not only testing the capabilities of technologies but also discovering new forms of perception, behaviour, and connection with the surrounding world.
Art as a Space for a Technological Future
The triennial is conceived as a long-term platform at the intersection of art, science, education, and industry in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. The "exhibition stream" format makes it possible to examine technological change sequentially: not to limit oneself to demonstrating new devices, but to investigate how they affect humans, society, and nature.
The project creates conditions for dialogue between artists, engineers, and researchers. Art here does not merely display new devices or illustrate scientific achievements. It helps to investigate connections that usually remain invisible, to ask questions about a possible future, and to imagine alternative ways of interacting with technology.
The three stages of the project add up to a single line: to understand how interconnections are structured; to investigate what is born in the process of interaction; to see how all of this changes our perception of the world. This is precisely where one of the main ideas of the triennial lies: the technological future is shaped not only by new inventions but also through the relationships that arise between humans, nature, and the systems they create.
