Juntao Yang is a critic, curator, and artist.
Yang's critical writings and artistic practices focus on the traces of the operations of micro power in the specific field of visual and material culture, the visible or invisible conflicts and violence in daily existence, and the organization and fluid of the proxy of power. Yang is committed to resorting to Speech, sometimes hysterically, counteracts the silent power of ideology and the pervasive political apathy. Yang's current research focuses on planetary cinema and geological thinking, as well as toxicity and catastrophe media. Yang is currently based in New York and Nanjing.
Yang's critical writings and artistic practices focus on the traces of the operations of micro power in the specific field of visual and material culture, the visible or invisible conflicts and violence in daily existence, and the organization and fluid of the proxy of power. Yang is committed to resorting to Speech, sometimes hysterically, counteracts the silent power of ideology and the pervasive political apathy. Yang's current research focuses on planetary cinema and geological thinking, as well as toxicity and catastrophe media. Yang is currently based in New York and Nanjing.
Education
MA in Film and Media Studies ( Emergent Media Studies ), School of the Arts, Columbia University, USA, 2024-2026
BA in Drama and Film-and-Television Literature, School of Arts, Wuhan University, China, 2020-2024
MA in Film and Media Studies ( Emergent Media Studies ), School of the Arts, Columbia University, USA, 2024-2026
BA in Drama and Film-and-Television Literature, School of Arts, Wuhan University, China, 2020-2024
Awards
Best Short Film Award & Best Editing Award for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Perfect Tense Short Film Festival in 20th Anniversary Celebration of the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, 2024
First Prize for Papar, The 1st "Outstanding Academic Paper Award for China Eastern Media Art", 2024
Third Prize for Paper, The 6th 'Wang Guangqi Cup' National College Student Paper Competition in Art Disciplines, 2024
Third Prize for Conference Paper, The 5th China-ASEAN University Postgraduate Forum on Art, 2024
Film & Media Studies Program Scholarship, School of the Arts, Columbia University, 2024
Honor for Outstanding Participants, "Chinese Cinema: Histories, Methods and Ecologies" Summer School, School of Film, Xiamen University, 2024
Accommodation Scholarship, Duemila30 International Film Festival, 2024
Best Experimental Film (Kurt Kren’s Scratched Glasses) for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, International Film Festival of Audiovisual Theory Students, 2023
Best Experimental Short Film Nomination for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Ningbo Short Film Festival, 2023
Honourable Mention for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Varsity Film Expo, 2023
Best AI Short for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Shanghai International Short Week, 2023
Best Short Film Award & Best Editing Award for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Perfect Tense Short Film Festival in 20th Anniversary Celebration of the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, 2024
First Prize for Papar, The 1st "Outstanding Academic Paper Award for China Eastern Media Art", 2024
Third Prize for Paper, The 6th 'Wang Guangqi Cup' National College Student Paper Competition in Art Disciplines, 2024
Third Prize for Conference Paper, The 5th China-ASEAN University Postgraduate Forum on Art, 2024
Film & Media Studies Program Scholarship, School of the Arts, Columbia University, 2024
Honor for Outstanding Participants, "Chinese Cinema: Histories, Methods and Ecologies" Summer School, School of Film, Xiamen University, 2024
Accommodation Scholarship, Duemila30 International Film Festival, 2024
Best Experimental Film (Kurt Kren’s Scratched Glasses) for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, International Film Festival of Audiovisual Theory Students, 2023
Best Experimental Short Film Nomination for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Ningbo Short Film Festival, 2023
Honourable Mention for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Varsity Film Expo, 2023
Best AI Short for Light and Cold Conversations: Atlantic, Algorithms and Visibility, Shanghai International Short Week, 2023
Conferences & Workshops
Big Stuff 2025, Theme: "Skills and Machines: A Living Partnership", Big Stuff Heritage community, Australia, 2025/10
Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science 2025, Interdisciplinary Conference, Slovenia, 2025/9
The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage Congress 2025, Theme: "Heritage in action: Legacies of industry in future making", Sweden, 2025/8
SEAA-SNU Anthropology 2025 Conference, Theme: "Shaping Futures: East Asia as Practice", Seoul National University, South Korea, 2025/7
The Society for Industrial Archeology's 53rd Annual Conference, USA, 2025/5
The 20th annual Cinema and Media Studies Graduate Student Conference, Theme: "Failing Media", The University of Chicago, USA, 2025/4
Beijing International Film Festival · The 32nd College Student Film Festival: 2025 International Young Scholars Conference, Beijing Normal University, China, 2025/4
Mediated Futures: Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Conference on Environment, Space, Future, and Media in Southeast and East Asian Cultural and Art Practices, University of California, Irvine, USA, 2025/4
6th Media Materiality Forum, Theme: "Digital Intelligence, Cosmotechnics, and Planetary Future", Tsinghua University, China, 2025/3
Common Ground Graduate Conference 2025, Theme: "Media Studies in/at/from the Margins", Indiana University Bloomington, USA, 2025/3
2025 NYU Cinema Studies Student Conference, Theme: "Template", New York University, USA, 2025/2 - 2025/3
The 16th Annual CUHK Anthropology Postgraduate Student Forum, Theme: "Disturbance and Reverberation", The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2025/2
The 2nd Gansu Graduate Student Forum on Journalism and Communication, Lanzhou University, China, 2025/1
The 16th Anhui Graduate Student Forum on Journalism and Communication, Theme: "Transmutation · Integration · Innovation: Media Boundaries and Communication Imagination in the Age of Digital Intelligence", Anhui University, China, 2024/12
International Symposium on the Development of Artistic Disciplines in the Era of Digital Intelligence, Sub-forum Theme: "Art Media, Art Institutions and Art Landscape in the Era of Digital Intelligence", Wuhan University of Technology, China, 2024/12
2024 China Eastern Media Art Forum, Forum Topic: "Film and New Audiovisual Art in the Context of Digitization", Sub-forum Theme: "New Advances in Film and Television Media Theory in the Age of Digital Intelligence", Nanjing University, China, 2024/12
2024 Annual Academic Conference of Zhejiang Communication Association, Forum Topic: "Global Connectivity: Imagining Communities in the Digital Era", NingboTech University, China, 2024/12
The 1st Digital Intelligence Cinema Forum, Forum Topic: "Digital Intelligence Cinema: New Technologies · New Methods · New Aesthetics", Sub-forum Theme: "Theories: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Other Related Issues in Digital Intelligence Cinema", Chongqing University, China, 2024/12
The 6th "Youth and Visual Media" Postgraduate Academic Forum, Forum Topic: "Cross-boundary and Future of Cinema", Fujian Normal University, China, 2024/11
The 1st Eco-cinema Theory and Creation Research Forum, Southwest Petroleum University, China, 2024/11
The 5th China-ASEAN University Postgraduate Forum on Art, Forum Topic: Paradigm Transformation and Discourse Innovation of Art Research in the Digital Intelligence Era, Guangxi Art University, China, 2024/10
The 12th Ecological Literature Annual Conference Across the Taiwan Strait & Academic Forum on Eco-criticism and Eco-literature in the Context of Posthumanism, Forum Topic: "Anthropocene and Posthumanism Criticism", Jimei University, China, 2024/10
"Chinese Cinema: Histories, Methods and Ecologies" Summer School, School of Film, Xiamen University, China, 2024/7
The 8th "Inspiration Booster" Creative Camp of Contemporary Art Design, XLY MoMA, China, 2024/6 - 2024/7
Exhibitions (selection)
City in the Mirror: The Creative Narratives of AIGC's Future Imagery, Center for Digital Innovation and Humanities Education, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, 2025
Notes, solitude or the canceled, Blanchot airdrops through the wavy lines that advance in parallel, Cooling Gallery, Nanjing, China, 2024
Perceiving: The Body of Group Ritual, and the Resonant Memories, Acute Angle Gallery, Guangzhou, China, 2024
Synthetic Wilderness, John Molly Gallery, New York, USA, 2024
Parallel and Intersection, In Gallery, Taiyuan, China, 2024
Random Inspection, Tang Museum · Project Z, Dongguan, China, 2024
Beyond System, Arbre Art Centre, Shenzhen, China, 2024
Unclaasifiable, New Bridge Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2024
Self, as the Narrated, as the Others, Assorted Objects Experimental Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2024
Flow Landscape, H&Art Gallery, Shenyang, China, 2024
Conflicts Within and Without, SNAP, Shanghai, China, 2024
Mending Nature, Kongshan Art Gallery, Hangzhou, China, 2024
2024 Nanjing D9Lock Art Festival: Fusion, Harmony, Coexistence, Growth, D9Lock, Nanjing, China, 2024
Within Iceless Age, theBlanc, New York, USA, 2024
Immersion, Lockwood Annexe 5, Goldsmiths, London, UK, 2024
Silent Field, Dongshengli NO.13, Suzhou, China, 2024
GOOGOL, Online ( Powerer by New Art City ), 2024
The Logic of Sensation, Ivory Gate Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2024
Language Babel, Art Lift Art Space, Shenyang, China, 2024
Together For Future, Qingdao Art Museum, Qingdao, China, 2024
Film Festivals (selection)
FESTIVAL ANGAELICA, USA, 2025 - Official Selection
Kuala Lumpur International Film Awards, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2025 - Official Selection
Unfolding Dreams Cinema Showcase, Chengdu, China, 2024 - Official Selection
Perfect Tense Short Film Festival in 20th Anniversary Celebration of the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China, 2024 - Best Short Film Award & Best Editing Award
MUST Chinese Youth Film Festival and Golden Rooster Film Exhibition (Macao), Macao, China, 2024 - Official Selection
British University International Students Film Festival, New Cairo, Egypt, 2024 - Official Selection
La Sur Real Film Festival, Berlin, German, 2024 - Official Selection
Origin Western Film Festival, Xi'an, China, 2024 - Official Selection
Beijing International Film Festival · Beijing College Student Film Festival, Beijing, China, 2024 - Official Selection
He Dong Auteur Film Festival, Yuncheng, China, 2024 - Official Selection
Duemila30 International Film Festival, Milan, Italy, 2024 - Official Selection
Frome International Climate Film Festival, Frome, UK, 2024 - Official Selection
International Film Festival of Audiovisual Theory Students, Prague, Czech, 2023 - Best Experimental Film (Kurt Kren’s Scratched Glasses)
Varsity Film Expo, Nairobi, Kenya, 2023 - Honourable Mention
International Alternative Media Film Festival, Mexico City, Mexico, 2023 - Official Selection
AIU Kuwait International Film Festival, Jahra, Kuwait, 2023 - Official Selection
Ningbo Short Film Festival, Ningbo, China, 2023 - Best Experimental Short Film Nomination
Xi Ying Light My Fire Young Film Festival, Xi'an, China, 2023 - Official Selection
HiShorts! Film Festival, Xiamen, China, 2023 - Official Selection
Shishan Film Festival, Chengdu, China, 2023 - Official Selection
Shanghai International Short Week, Shanghai, China, 2023 - Best AI Short
Screenings
"Memorias ocultas: territorios y cuerpos que gritan", "Entre los seres y la tierra, fuego"Seis cortometrajes, Faculty of Arts of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, 2025
"Multi-screen Images" Short Film Theme Screening, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 2025
Wuhan University Graduate Student Academic Science and Technology Festival “Distorted Imagination: Technological Rethinking under the Annotation of Cinema”, School of Arts, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, 2024
Experimental Film Night, The Delta INST + GODOWN, Hangzhou, China, 2024
ONED Film Festival China Touring Screening Program, Lanzhou / Suzhou / Shanghai / Tianjin / Yangshuo / Yichang / Chengdu, China, 2024
The 8th abC Art Book Fair, OōEli, Hangzhou, China, 2023
Jetty Screening, Dali, China, 2023
C-POP Theatre, Beijing, China, 2023
Residencies
Nanshan Artist Community, Chongqing, China | 2024/5/25 - 2024/6/14
Migratory Bird 300, Aranya Theatre Festival, Qinhuangdao, China | 2023/6/8 - 2023/6/21
Nanshan Artist Community, Chongqing, China | 2024/5/25 - 2024/6/14
Migratory Bird 300, Aranya Theatre Festival, Qinhuangdao, China | 2023/6/8 - 2023/6/21
Teaching Experience
"Texture of the Earth and Skin We're In: Geological Thinking, Anthropocene Cinema, and the Imaginations Beyond Humanbeing" courses, Radiance Academy, online, 2024 (at high school & undergraduate levels, click here for the syllabus)
"Texture of the Earth and Skin We're In: Geological Thinking, Anthropocene Cinema, and the Imaginations Beyond Humanbeing" courses, Radiance Academy, online, 2024 (at high school & undergraduate levels, click here for the syllabus)
Talks & Interviews
Panel Talk, Thematic Screening of Multi-Screen Video Short Films, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, 2025
Panel Talk, Wuhan University Graduate Student Academic Science and Technology Festival "Distorted Imagination: Technological Rethinking under the Annotation of Cinema”, School of Arts, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 202
Artists Interview, 044 ART STUDIO, Online, 2024
Artists Interview, Jiangsu Business Daily, Nanjing, 2024
Artist Panel Talk, GOOGOL, Online, 2024
Artist Interview, "Breathe With the Plants", Xì | Collective, 2024
Artist talk, Wuhan Photography Art Centre, Wuhan, China, 2023
Invited lecture, "How did it start?" The First Round Table of the Occulf, Umay Art Project, Online, 2023
Invited Lecture, Advance Art Museum, Changsha, China, 2023
Artist Interview, "Independent Artists, in Nanjing", Nanjing Cultural Life Guide, 2023
Artist talk, C-POP Theatre, Beijing, China, 2023
Panel Talk, Thematic Screening of Multi-Screen Video Short Films, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, 2025
Panel Talk, Wuhan University Graduate Student Academic Science and Technology Festival "Distorted Imagination: Technological Rethinking under the Annotation of Cinema”, School of Arts, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 202
Artists Interview, 044 ART STUDIO, Online, 2024
Artists Interview, Jiangsu Business Daily, Nanjing, 2024
Artist Panel Talk, GOOGOL, Online, 2024
Artist Interview, "Breathe With the Plants", Xì | Collective, 2024
Artist talk, Wuhan Photography Art Centre, Wuhan, China, 2023
Invited lecture, "How did it start?" The First Round Table of the Occulf, Umay Art Project, Online, 2023
Invited Lecture, Advance Art Museum, Changsha, China, 2023
Artist Interview, "Independent Artists, in Nanjing", Nanjing Cultural Life Guide, 2023
Artist talk, C-POP Theatre, Beijing, China, 2023
Professional Affiliations
China Film Critics Association, Motion Pictures and Technologies Committee (CFCA)
China Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineering (CSMPTE)
China Science Film and Video Association (CSFVA)
Hubei Provincial Film Artists Association, Youth Committees
American Psychological Association (APA)
Chinese Society for Environmental Science (CSES)
Geological Society of China (GSC)
China Film Critics Association, Motion Pictures and Technologies Committee (CFCA)
China Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineering (CSMPTE)
China Science Film and Video Association (CSFVA)
Hubei Provincial Film Artists Association, Youth Committees
American Psychological Association (APA)
Chinese Society for Environmental Science (CSES)
Geological Society of China (GSC)
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