SHANGHAI.- The Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai presents the exhibit “Animamix Art” on view through May 22, 2006. With the development of present-day digital technology, the forms of cartoons, comics, and animated films have become much more complex, and their distribution channels increasingly diverse. All kinds of simplified visual forms have become visual symbols, transmitted in large quantities, and they comprise the separate systems of identity for different cultures and regions. As these continue to transmit, they take root and become bits of the code with which youth cultures from around the world communicate. No longer are they parts of the collective identity of a single era or single ethnic group. Instead, they are like the communication channels through which people seek to express their thoughts or simulate what fires their imaginations.

The popularity of Animamix Art (Animation + Comics), under the influence of the rapidly self-renewing digital environment, creates fast and unique permutations in visual codes. These codes, which increase exponentially, generate a new digital image dimension that can be named the ‘Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix'. Artists of the new generation view forms such as cartoons, comics, and animations as options in a composite media environment. They have gone beyond the rigid impressions that society may once have had toward these visual forms, and they freely draw from them, reflect them in their own lives, and imbue them with a deeper layer of textual meaning.

From the last century, the lovable expressions as shown in cartoons, animation, and comic, as well as the depiction of characters, through high definition fluorescent lights and decorative images, interweave to create spectacular imaginations that are deeply impressed upon children's minds. These visual symbols thus become part of the collective memory of each generation. Originally pioneered by Walt Disney or Warner Brothers, Animamix in popular culture in the end of the 20th century gradually fell under the dominance of Japan. Upon entering the new century, it is even more obvious to see Asia as the explosive power in youth culture. The new aesthetics of this colorful world is forming, and its concepts are being explored in <>, which pinpoints the phenomenon of this new aesthetics and exemplifies it through original artworks from over thirty countries. Through exhibition, comparison, discussion and further research, The Neo-Aesthetics of Animamix as displayed by the current exhibit will be the definitive new key word created from the Asian perspective, to characterize this new visual trend that continuously seeks change, renewal, and innovation.

The emerging Animamix aesthetics have appeared in all fields of art in this new century. Unlike the Pop artists of the last century who only directly appropriate the visual symbols of Animamix art, these seemingly animamized styles are the archetypes of artists' creation. The 21st century's new generation of Animamix artists are not merely producers of animation and comics for the creative industry; rather, Animamix itself is manifest in all aspects of the creative industry. The works in <> embody the new Animamix culture while simultaneously demonstrating Animamix's deep entrenchment within the entire creative praxis. Animamix artists are themselves completely immersed in the aesthetic of Animamix. The deep-rooted heterogeneity of form and ideas in Animamix art can therefore be seen to be a prototype.

The characteristics of the ultra new vision of 21st century animamixes are displayed in four directions: first, the worship of aesthetics of youth; second, the rich narrative texts in animamix aesthetics; third, the Ultra New Vision of colored light; fourth, the aesthetics of applied arts driven by the Animamix industry.

The abundant diversified Animamix images in popular culture, whether human figures or animal characters, are all forms that will never glow old. For example, Disney's Mickey Mouse is already 75 years old, yet it is still as lovely as it was at its creation and has been loved by children of different generations. However, celebrities who were famous 75 years ago, even if they are still alive, must live in different situations with totally different appearances. The Animamix Age's collective memory of ageless images, under subtle influences, has formed the aesthetics of youth in the new age of the 21st century.

The pursuit of an idealized beauty of youth is no longer the problem of the characterization of virtual figures in animations, cartoons or comics. Instead, it has become the psychological goal to realize the beauty of artificial ideals in real life. Although Europe and America had an early start in cosmetology, nowadays Asia, especially countries with developed animamix cultures such as Japan and Korea, has embraced the popularity of artificial cosmetology and has gone far beyond the development in Europe and America. Today, because of the irresistible trend of anti-aging, more and more people want to keep a young and ageless appearance. Man or woman, old or young, can all find a reason to walk into surgery. The pursuit of the beauty of artificial characters is, of course, made possible by science and technology and led by media images.

The aesthetics of Animamix art, led by the U.S. and Japan in the last century, was full of strange and changeable narrative texts that gave the display of images themselves a strong narrative character. Think of modern art that appeared at the end of the 19th century it developed towards the abstract style at the beginning of the last century. Even literary works that give priority to narrative language cannot avoid showing off the abstract nature of connotations and structure, which made it harder to distinguish the panoramic meaning of the words.

Yet under the digitalized environment of the 21st century, the changes to the narrative environment have become even more interesting. More and more information will be communicated via imaged language. Therefore, sometimes even in a small image symbol there exists multiple layers of textural meanings such as hypothesis, imagination, legend and metaphor. The personified characters in cartoons, animations and comics, and the exaggerated aesthetics of transformation evolved as a result of combining with narration, and thus will become the mainstream of the aesthetics of characterization in this century--just as Abstract Art lead the aesthetics of the 20th century.

In the last century, electric media acted as the media of image broadcasting. Colorful lights are released as sounds flow and abound in space. This is a means of expression that equals the way of painting with pigment on canvas. The common experience of humans in this new century is that children of different races and different nations all grow up in front of the television and the computer. In the visual realm, the feeling and reaction to colored light pixels images are naturally very different from those in response to graphics synthesized by color powder and printed ink. Therefore, what is seen on the screen are fluorescent colors or contrastive color dots, which are then put together to form a splendid and dazzling color vision. Such marvelous colorful visual effects are one of the distinct features of this Ultra New Vision.

While traditional art creation can be independently finished in a small workshop, the formation of Animamix art often needs professional division of labor and a team spirit, which always involves a great amount of human, material and financial resources. Therefore, cross-over integration is a unique phenomenon of animamix culture. For example, the derivatives brought by American and Japanese animamix industries have covered almost all aspects of life, from clothes and food to accommodation