Earlier studio notes

Born in China and trained in the UK, Youyang received his Master's degree in animation from the Royal College of Art in London and has exhibited his work internationally across Europe, Asia, and North & South America. 

In 2019 he co-founded Feinaki Beijing Animation Week, an independent animation festival. He teaches, curates and organises between China and the United States.

As a traditionally trained 2D animation artist researching the field of generative AI and multi-sensory digital transformation, I am constantly in awe of the nonstop technological breakthroughs I witness, yet often look back to my pen and brushes that inspired me to make art and build my deep emotional connections with the physical touch in the first place. 

I try to create art that combines both innovative digital tools and the traditional tactile artistic mediums that speak to the multitude of daring innovations and deeply bonded emotional engagement in the continuum of creative expressions. 

A second film followed the same year. Begin with Pieces (2023) takes another Yuko Taniguchi poem into a synesthetic mind-space, recited by the adolescents of the Creativity Camp Study and premiered at the Weisman Art Museum.

As someone who has lived a nomadic life often traveling between distinctly different cultures, I feel like an alien body to most of the places where I live and worked, yet I believe my bilingual background and multicultural perspective equipped me to become a skilled people person who holds critical world views but can communicate with an open mind in great patience, which manifested from my diverse working experience in leading art workshops, organizing film festivals, public speaking, directing and assisting film productions.