Artist: Chen Shu, Ming Yutao, DIV Lab – ShanghaiTech University

Genre: Interactive Installation

txt2img⁻¹ - compact continues the txt2img⁻¹ (Ars Electronica Campus, 2025) series, reframing text-to-image logic into a reverse choreography of execution. As an absurd system, it traps a futuristic premise—human labor serving AI—within a tactile, anachronistic form. Here, agency is inverted: the AI becomes the invisible Logos, while the human acts as the physical executor. Participants follow algorithmic prompts, shifting from author to obedient collaborator. Beneath its game-like surface, the interaction is a quiet loop of learning to satisfy an unseen, non-human logic. This unfolds a fable of labor, culminating in a collective, visible archive of this algorithmically-directed human effort.

Artist Bio:

Chen Shu is an artist and Computer Science master's student at ShanghaiTech University. His work translates abstract relationships into computational logic through interactive installations. He "plays with" established systems to reveal their latent and unforeseen possibilities. Ming Yutao is a graduate student at ShanghaiTech University, researches gamified interactive experiences integrating new technologies. DIV Lab explores intelligent design, HCI, system design, VR/AR/XR, and advancing tech-art research in smart environments and social services.