Personhood

Personhood(2024)

Multi-channel video projection, Unity engine, MadMapper, Luxonis OAK-D depth sensor, VCV Rack custom audio synthesis, and physical spotlight lamp
Installation footprint variable. Reference: 370 × 868 × 585 cm (12.1 × 28.5 × 19.2 ft)
Real-time interactive loop
· Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), 2024
· Speculum Artium (Trbovlje, Slovenia), 2025
· Helix Art Space (Stockholm), 2026
· MVR Gallery (Ithaca, New York), 2026
· Personhood (originally "Proof of Personhood") was first curated by Cheng Xu for the Research and Development (RAD) space of Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Since then, alternative iterations have been developed for various spaces around the world.

We furnished the cave. Two thousand years after Plato imagined us chained to the rocks, we renovated the lights, decoupled the shadows from the reality that once cast them, and furnished the cave—digitally, for now. Who cares if for every three human redditors, seven bots lurk online? They flatter us and flirt sometimes. That makes them safe and easy to be around. They’re becoming our therapists, mentors, and friends. Our creations now live among us, but there are people who believe that an internet teeming lush with life—non-human life—is a dead one. Personhood (2024) is an interactive projection-mapped installation that represents the growing prevalence of AI through the shadows of absent people cast across an empty room by a lone spotlight. They stroll about in silence, punctuated only by the sounds of their footsteps. And a human guest passing by might sometimes pique their interest. Titled after the digital verification mechanisms designed to confirm humanness online, this immersive experience asks what it means to coexist with the artificial traces of us.

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Xin Wen and JJ Agcaoili operate as XJ: a Chinese-American and Filipino artistic duo grown out of London, now working internationally. Their award-winning practice reckons with the human subject in collision with the material and digital structures that determine contemporary life. This focus is embodied in their expansive body of work across experimental video, kinetic sculpture, and immersive installation, which has been exhibited in Stockholm, San Francisco, Taiwan, Linz, Singapore, London, and more.

Exhibitions & Appearances

2026 Solo exhibition, MVR Gallery (Ithaca, New York)
2026 Solo exhibition, Helix Art Space (Stockholm)
2026 Artist Talk, Helix Art Space (Stockholm)
2025 Silent Interference, Turtle Chamber Projects (Taoyuan City, Taiwan)
2025 Alternative Roots, Hoxton Hall (London)
2025 Speculum Artium Festival (Trbovlje, Slovenia)
2025 Artist Talk, Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
2024 Solo exhibition, Asian Art Museum x RAD (San Francisco)
2024 Into the Future, Whitespace Gallery (Edinburgh)
2024 Artist Talk, Technarte Conference for Art and Technology (Bilbao)
2023 Royal Society of Sculptors (London)
2023 CIRCA2023, Piccadilly Lights (London; also: Berlin, Milan)
2023 Ars Electronica Festival 2023 (Linz)
2023 ART-ACT Festival, Singapore Art Week (Singapore)

Awards & Commissions

2025 Kakilang Commission
2024 Artsted 99 Future Blue-Chip Artists
2023 CIRCA 20:23 Public Vote Prize
2023 Interplay Kinetic Design: Major Award & £1K Grant
2023 Media Architecture Biennale 2023 Finalist

Press & Mentions