MM·ARTech+: Global Artists in Shanghai Reshaping Urban Digital Aesthetics Through Light and Technology

Shanghai, China – September 8, 2026 – A city can be more than the backdrop to an artwork; it can become part of the creative process itself. This summer, 15 digital artists from eight countries, organized into eight artist teams, gathered in Shanghai for the inaugural MM·ARTech+ (Motion Magic Art Residency + Technology). MM·ARTech+ is a residency program that welcomes artists from the world to Shanghai, offering time and space to experience the city, engage with its culture, and respond to it using their own artistic practices. During the two-month program, the artists explored the theme 'In Shanghai' through urban observation, cultural experiences, technological experimentation, and cross-cultural interaction.Initiated by Motion Magic, a digital innovation company under Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the residency officially launched at Motion Magic Space in Shanghai on August 3. Its first edition focuses on projection mapping, encouraging artists to work with moving images, light, and sound while transforming their experiences of Shanghai into digital artworks with international resonance. At the start of the residency, the artists attended project orientations, technical discussions, and team presentations introducing the creative theme, production process, and final presentation site. Bringing together creators from different cultural and professional backgrounds, the program provides a shared environment where participants can share artistic approaches, experiment with new technologies, and learn from one another.During the residency, Shanghai is approached not simply as a subject to document, but as a place for research, dialogue, and creation. A series of city visits, cultural activities and art-space tours has brought the artists into direct contact with the city's architecture, public spaces and everyday life. During a visit to TANK Shanghai, the artists explored a contemporary art center transformed from former industrial oil tanks on the Huangpu River waterfront. The tanks' monumental scale, curved architecture, material character and distinctive acoustics offered a direct sense of the site where their works will eventually be presented. The visit also encouraged the artists to consider how digital imagery, light and sound can respond directly to physical architecture. Elsewhere in Shanghai, the artists looked for creative references in the city's streets, neighborhoods, buildings and daily rhythms. Historical memory and contemporary urban life, traditional culture and digital technology, as well as personal experience and shared spaces, continually intersect across the city. Rather than conventional sightseeing, these visits form part of a place-based research process built around walking, observing, listening and conversation. The residency's Chinese intangible cultural heritage activities have offered another perspective on local culture. Through demonstrations, explanations, and hands-on participation, the artists explored the materials, processes, and cultural memories embedded in traditional craftsmanship. They also gained insight into how these practices are preserved, passed on and reinterpreted in contemporary life. The time, patience and physical engagement involved in making something by hand provided a new creative experience from working with screens and software. For artists whose practices are grounded in digital media, these experiences opened new ways to think about texture, movement, rhythm, and the relationship between tradition and technological innovation. These encounters are gradually blending into artists' creative processes. Architectural forms, street colors, craft textures, and the sounds and rhythms of everyday life in Shanghai are being transformed into projected imagery, animation, and sound. By having ongoing exchange and cooperation, the artists refine their work while retaining their individual perspectives and responding to the city's distinctive cultural identity. The works developed during the residency will be presented to the public at TANK Shanghai as part of the 2026 Enlightening Xuhui in Light from September 19 to October 7, 2026. The exhibition will cover Tanks 1 through 4 and feature seven semicircular projection surfaces. Each surface will carry an individual artistic perspective, while the seven spaces will come together as a connected immersive experience. Projection, light and sound will interact with the curved surfaces of the tanks, making the architecture itself an active part of the artworks. The presentation will bring the experiments and ideas developed during the residency into the public realm, inviting audiences to experience new connections between digital art, industrial heritage and urban space. About MM·ARTech MM·ARTech+ aims to establish an ongoing international residency platform for digital and new-media art. By bringing artists from different cultures and disciplines together in Shanghai, the program supports research, experimentation, and collaboration while building lasting connections between global creators and local cultural communities. When artists from around the world truly enter a city's life, cultural dialogue becomes more than an abstract idea. It happens in a visit to an art space, an encounter with a traditional craft, a conversation between creators, and every moment when everyday life is seen from a new perspective. IG profile: https://www.instagram.com/mm_artech/ Media ContactCompany Name: Motion MagicContact Person: Enze WangEmail: Send EmailCountry: ChinaWebsite: https://www.mmartech.art/residency.html