Jiayi Refelction

 What really stood out to me about Jiayi Young’s work is how she takes digital things that usually just live on our phones or online and turns them into something physical. At first, that might not sound like a big deal, especially in an art show where everything is physical anyway. But with Jiayi’s work, it feels different. She’s not just putting tech-related themes into art, she’s literally building objects and installations that make you experience the digital world in a totally new way.

One piece that I thought was really cool involved Twitter hashtags. Instead of showing the data on a screen like most people would, she built this thing with liquid and clicking sounds that represented how often the hashtags were used. It sounds weird, but it actually made something kind of abstract feel real and alive. I never really thought about how often we interact with invisible systems online until I saw it turned into something you can see and hear.

She also had this piece where she printed out screenshots from her phone's camera roll, and put them on the wall with handwritten notes. It was super simple, but it felt really personal. Instead of scrolling through a screen, you’re kind of walking through her life. It made me think about how different it feels to look at photos on paper versus on a phone. Even with her graphs and charts, printing them out instead of displaying them on a monitor totally changed the vibe.

What’s interesting is that she’s not just showing us data for the sake of it. She’s also asking questions about what that data means and who controls it. In her Tracking X project, she looks at how social media works and how people real or bots spread messages online. She mentions that this kind of tracking could help with stuff like public health or political campaigns, which is kind of wild. It makes you wonder where the line is between helping people understand the world and using data to influence them.

Her work  doesn’t feel cold or overly technical, even though it’s based on things like algorithms and social media patterns, which interested me heavily. There’s a kind of sense of familiarity in how she presents everything but also something really new and outstanding about it. Her work isn’t just about information, it’s about emotion, context, and how people connect.

I think it would be interesting if she did more with audience participation, like letting people submit their own data to become part of the artwork. That first thing first will allow interaction between audience and the art, create bigger resource for her to work with and open up even more questions about privacy and identity, all of which making the experience even more personal.

In the end, Jiayi’s art made me think about how much of our lives are shaped by invisible systems and how powerful it can be to make those systems visible. She also reminded us that data isn't just numbers. It’s tied to people, choices, and stories. And when it’s shown through art, we get to feel that in a very special and reflective way.