Miao Ying: A Field Guide to Ideology (苗颖: 精神实用宝典) is the first presentation of Shanghai/New York-based artist Miao Ying in Canada. This exhibition features new iterations of her two recent projects Chinternet Plus (亲特网+, 2016) and Hardcore Digital Detox (硬核数据排毒, 2018). A first-generation internet artist in China and a dual netizen of the Chinternet and the World Wide Web, Miao Ying examines official and popular Chinese internet culture thriving behind the so-called Great Firewall.

Commenting on a recent Chinese economic strategy Internet Plus—involving the rebooting of traditional industries through cloud computing, big data, and lifestyle branding—Miao Ying’s Chinternet Plus is a parodic and critical take on the cultivation of a new, counterfeit ideology complete with promotional videos, seductive imagery, logo designs, wallpaper, and concept slogan. Its companion work Hardcore Digital Detox—a caricature of #spiritualretreatinchinternet—turns focus to the proliferation of experience economy and commodification of lifestyle in a post-materialist society.

Miao Ying: A Field Guide to Ideology is a Core Exhibition of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.