Information — Wendi Yan

wend
verb
go in a specified direction, typically slowly or by an indirect route.

At the heart of Wendi's inquiries is a curiosity towards the "scientific self," and how it changes from the deep past to the far future. As objectivity and selfhood shift through time and culture, what has been enlisted into the epistemological project of charting and configuring heaven and earth? Specifically, Wendi is curious about how the scientific self will change through decentralization and deprofessionalization of sciences, as well as experimental practices outside the bounds of the laboratory, at the planetary scale.

Wendi Yan (b. 1999, Beijing) builds research-based worlds about alternative sciences through game engine, film and sculptures. Inspired by folktale traditions, Wendi brings historical storytelling to future-oriented simulations, making art as constructive philosophy and critical belief. Imagining worlds of esoteric progress, she models alternative scientific devices, animates technological creatures, and makes videos and games that inhabit other laws of nature, other geometries of history, other methods of knowing, other virtues of epistemes, and other ways of seeing life.

Wendi holds an A.B. in History of Science from Princeton University, where she won the Horace H. Wilson ’25 Senior Thesis Prize in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a M.S. in Fiction and Entertainment from SCI-Arc. She has been supported by Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Residency, Berggruen Institute, Cosmos Ventures and the Ethereum Foundation. Her work has been published by WeTransfer, Wallpaper, Coeval Magazine and Asimov Press. She has given talks at X Museum, Trust, and Gray Area Festival. Wendi was an inaugural member of the Steve Jobs Archive Fellowship (2023-4).

Currently based in Los Angeles, Wendi is a New Inc Y11 member in Creative Science, and a finalist for the 6th VH Award by Hyundai Motor Group.

CV
Headshots [1] [2] by Jessica Chou