Yang Feng

Profile

My doctoral research studies how the digital changes the ways of engaging and participating with/in art for and beyond humans. I am particularly interested in the evolving intersections between art and science, and the expansion of digital participation across multiple domains, which characterises today’s context. In examining this ever-changing contemporary landscape, where the boundaries between artist and participant, human and nonhuman, art and science are increasingly blurred and distilled, I seek to reconsider the roles of both art and the artist from the perspective of an art historian/critic.

Conferences

Science and Participation in the Anglophone World, University of Lille, 2026

Visual Logics and New Aesthetics of Protest, Université Grenoble Alpes, 2026

Power for the People: Art, Protest, and the Archives of Activism, Henry Moore Institute and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, 2025

Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges:Interdisciplinary Creativity in Arts and Technology, Ionian University, Greece, 2025

Virtual Spaces and New Horizons: Humanities in the Digital Age, SOAS-Tsinghua Symposium, UK-China Humanities Alliance International Forum Serises: World Maps and World Cultures, 2025

Research Activity

Participation Right Now: In-Conversation Event
Organiser and Host: Yang Feng

Participation Right Now is an interdisciplinary research event organised and hosted by myseld. It examines the expanding role of participatory practices across cultural and scientific domains. Bringing together scholars from museum studies (Dr. Helen Graham), curatorial practice(Dr. Emily Gray), and design (Siyuan Zhao), the event explores the historical development, current conditions, and future trajectories of participation. Through a roundtable discussion, it critically reflects on the assumptions and challenges underlying the institutionalisation of participatory approaches.

Awards

AHC Faculty Interdisciplinary Research Support Awards, 2025-2026

AHC Faculty Research Dissemination Award, 2025-2026 (x2)

Research interests

• The proliferation and transformation of digital participation

• Participatory and socially engaged art

• Interrelations between artists, participants, and machines

• Nonhuman agency and posthuman perspectives

• Democracy and participation in art and society

Qualifications

• MA History of Art (Modern and Contemporary Art) with Distinction, University of York
• BA History of Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, China