Ailin Xu














































































Ashes of Speed is a response to this condition — a quiet resistance to the culture of acceleration. Rooted in both cultural observation and personal emotion, the work uses a slow, amplified audiovisual language to interrupt the rhythm of speed. It seeks to carve out a moment of contemplation amidst the non-stop momentum of modern life.


































GhostWeave is a speculative design envisioning a future dominated by digital totalitarianism and extreme surveillance. It explores the potential consequences of this reality, where personal privacy is under threat. In response, GhostWeave introduces innovative solutions: 'CryptaSphere Haven,' providing trace-free internet access, and 'GuardianMask,' protecting facial bio-information. This speculative design serves as a provocation, urging society to contemplate the implications of unchecked surveillance and offering tangible solutions to safeguard individual liberties in the digital era.
Digital surveillance technology is maturing and penetrating into the lives of individuals, facilitating their lives while also being controlled by Internet companies, creating a potentially dominant digital totalitarianism in a low-cost manner. Gradually, people are being "tamed" by surveillance, individual choices are being limited and influenced, private content is being exposed and pried into, and the right to freedom is being challenged.

Digital nomads in various regions have formed a
personal privacy organisation called "GhostWeave" to promote the "CryptaSphere Haven" product. Using independent signal transmission technology to safeguard the privacy of users, it creates a small space that blocks any signals from the outside world, thus blocking surveillance, and provides a short-term sanctuary for those who need it.































































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DOLDRUMS






















                                                         
  






In our rapid-paced society, we seldom embrace tranquility or gaze skyward like we did as kids. Lost in the pursuit of significance, we avoid idleness, drowning in digital distractions. Yet, boredom isn't our foe; it's a realm of reflection and innovation. Embracing it lets our minds rest, refocus, and create.

DOLDRUMS is an interactive installation, one that prompts the viewer to confront the relentless pursuit of productivity by simulating moments of deliberate boredom. It provides a brief respite from the constant activity, encouraging introspection and a deeper connection to one's thoughts and emotions.






































                                                         
  






Hitchhiking culture, a rising social trend among young Chinese, has become a buzzword through social media. It has sparked discussions and controversies, with instances of exploiting these vague relationships for economic gains, as well as cases of deception under this pretext.

Echoes of Ephemera is a VR narrative experience inspired by the burgeoning trend of Hitchhiking Culture in contemporary China. This immersive journey explores three distinct scenes—'Ethereal Feasts', 'Companion Conveyor', and 'Desolation Mound'. Participants step into the role of a companion, experiencing the process of being utilized and discarded. This poignant exploration prompts reflection on redefining emotional connections in a society valuing efficiency.


































































REVERIE





Reverie is a live visual performance rooted in psytrance music, inspired by meditative journeys into the forest. The work begins in moments of stillness—the gentle collision of leaves, the brush of a butterfly’s wings against the ear, the subtle resonance of mountain air. The forest becomes a site of existence: a space where social structures dissolve, the grip of time loosens, and the individual returns to the pure immediacy of perception. Each visual sequence questions the nature of presence—are we mere observers, or an inseparable part of the unfolding scene?
                                                         
  














































Ailin Xu (b. 2002) is a multidisciplinary artist from China. Her practice spans video, installation, photography, and graphic design, moving fluidly across diverse media to employ a delicate yet poetic visual language in responding to the complex and nuanced relationship between technology and humanity.

Ailin’s works investigate the ways technological systems mediate human society and reconfigure our experience of the natural world. Attuned to the overlooked and the ephemeral, Ailin draws attention to the fleeting gestures and social undercurrents that shape contemporary life—an unspoken rule, an unconscious habit, a forgotten object. Through the lens of visual storytelling, these moments are re-surfaced and reframed, not as resolved narratives, but as open spaces for perception, questioning, and reflection. In doing so, her practice constructs immersive encounters that invite audiences to navigate the shifting terrain between the sensory and the conceptual.
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Education

Royal College of Art   MA
Information Experience Design
2025

Central Academy of Fine Art    BA
Future Media
2020-2024







Exhibitions

2025
 · Ashes of Speed, TV Centre, London, UK
 · Ashes of Speed, RCA White City Garden House, London, UK


2024 
 · Illusion Isle, CAFA Museum, Beijing, China