Artist Xiao Di: Use "behemoth" to detonate traffic and inject "soul" into cultural tourism projects
At present, with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the internal requirements of industrial upgrading, the cultural and tourism industries are accelerating their integration and mutual promotion. The "14th Five-Year Plan for Cultural and Tourism Development" proposes to enrich the supply of high-quality tourism products, innovate the tourism product system, optimize the structure of tourism products, and improve the supply capacity and level. In recent years, a number of unique cultural and tourism products have emerged, bringing new opportunities for industrial development.
Recently, Southern Metropolis Daily launched a series of plans for the "Bay Area Meeting Room·Dialogue on New Cultural Tourism". Through in-depth exchanges with scholars and elites in the cultural and tourism industry, it sorted out the opportunities and challenges facing the industry and looked forward to the broad prospects for the future development of the industry. The report in this issue goes into the "Monster Art" created by the mechanical installation artist Xiao Di, and deeply understands the mystery of its promotion of the development of the cultural tourism industry.
Finding the Source of Creation from Traditional Culture
Build all kinds of monster devices
Hope to build "Shan Hai Jing" "behemoth universe"
In August 2022, a "polar bear" with a length of 16.5 meters, a width of 5.5 meters, and a standing height of up to 10 meters officially landed in Shanghai, attracting the attention of many tourists. Its name is "Winter", and its designer is Xiao Di, a member of the All-China Youth Federation and mechanical installation artist.
Polar Bear Behemoth "Winter"
"Its design and production period is as long as 10 months, and there are more than 3,000 design drawings alone." Xiao Di introduced that the design team repeatedly debugged each component of "Winter", and finally the function Walking, jumping, bowing, shaking the head, swinging ears and other movements can be realized on the ground, so that the expression and posture of "Dong" are vivid. In order to maximize the artistic effect, part of the facial decoration of "Winter" is even made of 24K pure gold.
An installation like "Winter" is just one of the works created by Xiao Di since he has been creating monster installations for 7 years. Opening Xiaodi's Douyin account, giant beast devices with different shapes came into view. Similar to "Winter", these giant beast installations do not deliberately simulate the real appearance of animals in nature, but are presented in the form of mechs. Through fine assembly and debugging, their movements and postures are lifelike.
Xiao Di accepts an exclusive interview with reporters from Nandu
In terms of species, Xiao Di’s giant animal installations include bears, tigers, horses, mammoths and other animals, among which animals with strong Chinese traditional culture such as phoenix and unicorn occupy a considerable proportion. Xiao Di said that traditional Chinese culture is an important source of themes for his creations: "I have read "Shan Hai Jing" many times. On the one hand, I feel that the imagination of the ancients is very rich, and a lot of content can be used for creation. Many myths and legends actually entrust the ancients' yearning for a better life, and creating works based on this theme is actually the continuation of our modern people's yearning for this kind of yearning."
With this longing and love for traditional Chinese culture, Xiao Di has created a batch of monster installations with the characteristics of "national fashion". During the National Day holiday in 2019, the "Chinese Giant Horse" created by Xiao Di participated in the parade of local scenic spots in Kaifeng, Henan Province. "A" officially landed in Ji'an, Jiangxi. During the rehearsal stage of the performance, it has already attracted nearly 10,000 tourists.
"Phoenix Mecha" built by Xiao Di
Xiao Di’s “Kirin Golden Glass” (front) and “Jinling Exorcising Evil” (back)
Xiao Di expressed that he hopes that through the accumulation of such works, he can gradually create a "behemoth universe" based on "Shan Hai Jing". "Imagine that there is a universe of giant beasts in a parallel world, and there are connections between these giant beasts. The "Shan Hai Jing" is a corresponding map left by the ancients." He said that it has already landed in Xiangyang, Hubei. "Kirin Golden Glass" is created based on "Shan Hai Jing", and then I will select a group of mythical beasts from "Shan Hai Jing" and create them.
Propose the artistic concept of "Screaming Aesthetics"
Bringing Fantastic Experiences to Tourists
Further return to the essence of cultural tourism
In the process of creating the Behemoth installation, by summarizing the experience, Xiao Di gradually refined a set of methodology that focuses on vision, attracts the audience's attention and enriches their aesthetic experience, which he calls "Screaming Aesthetics".
Xiao Di introduced that "scream aesthetics" mainly includes three components: the sense of miracle, the sense of life and the sense of beauty. “Visitors will be amazed when they suddenly see such a huge beast, and feel that it doesn’t seem to come from the real world. A living thing is a sense of life; a giant beast has a unique shape, which is an organic combination of machinery and culture, which is a sense of beauty.”
"Kirin Golden Glass" created by Xiao Di
Xiao Di and "Jinling Exorcising Evil"
By making full use of the "screaming aesthetics", Xiao Di's giant beast installations for many tourist attractions across the country have not only gained the love of tourists, but also been recognized by the scenic spots. What role can "screaming aesthetics" play in the overall development of the cultural and tourism industry?
Xiao Di said that with the further development of the cultural tourism industry, the age group of tourists is showing a trend of younger age, and the purpose of tourism has gradually changed from simply pursuing the novelty of the environment and scenes to paying more attention to spiritual and emotional links. This also puts forward higher requirements for the construction of scenic spots. "Whether it is Disneyland or Universal Studios, they use various means to bring tourists a fantastic experience. By using giant beast installations, we can also bring this kind of experience to tourists. The direction we are pursuing it's the same."
Xiao Di accepts an exclusive interview with reporters from Nandu
Xiao Di believes that this pursuit of experience can be seen as a return to the essence of cultural tourism. "For tourists, the most direct purpose of tourism is to see things that are usually invisible; for the industry, cultural tourism itself is an offline traffic business." He believes that "screaming aesthetics" creates Behemoth installations, coupled with supporting means such as parades, can quickly occupy the minds of tourists and enhance the experience of tourists. At the same time, the promotion through self-media channels is also conducive to driving potential passenger flow and further converting it into commercial profits.
Use cultural IP to inject power into new cultural tourism
Fast and efficient construction of cultural tourism projects
Provide a new starting point for revitalizing fixed assets
In Xiaodi's view, using various technological means to build hardware facilities is just one of the ways to bring fantasy experience to tourists. How to further create a carrier that can carry tourists' pursuit of uniqueness and interest in scenic spots? In this regard, Xiao Di gave the answer of "cultural IP".
In mid-June 2022, the "Xiongdong Street" project created by Xiao Di will start business in Dalian. Through the transformation of the abandoned factory buildings, the project has created a themed block of amusement and dining around the giant animal installation "Giant Bear Beibei", which has attracted more than 250,000 passengers so far. As the main installation of "Bear Cave Street", Xiao Di started to create "Giant Bear Beibei" in 2020, and simultaneously constructed and improved the background settings of "Giant Bear Beibei", making it gradually become a complete IP.
"Giant Bear Beibei" created by Xiao Di
Xiao Di introduced: "We made comics for 'Giant Bear Beibei', created a corresponding background story for it, and opened a special Douyin account for it. We hope that through these methods, we will attract corresponding traffic to 'Bear Bear' On this basis, a series of publicity and activities will be carried out.” It is understood that since its opening, “Bear Cave Street” has successfully held roller skating festivals, animation festivals and other activities, attracting the attention of many young people. focus on.
The reason why he pays so much attention to the creation of IP comes from Xiao Di's judgment on the cultural tourism industry. "The epidemic has accelerated the transformation process of the cultural tourism industry. The previous construction mode of heavy investment and extensive development of cultural tourism projects will be gradually eliminated and replaced by an intensive and refined construction mode. If there is not so much money to build and purchase Without hardware facilities, the project has to consider how to tell a good story and optimize services, which also prompts people to gradually increase the importance of intangible assets such as IP."
The Douyin account of "Giant Bear Beibei" has tens of millions of views
Gathering popularity with IP, targeting target groups and formulating corresponding operation strategies are Xiaodi's attempts to operate cultural and tourism block projects. What impact can this model bring to the revitalization of existing fixed assets in urban space? Xiao Di believes that one of the most significant impacts is to improve the efficiency of project construction.
"Compared with foreign countries, we started late in building local IP, but in the self-media era, we have seen a lot of original content gain a lot of attention in a short period of time at a relatively low cost, which also reminds us that building IP In fact, the process can also be accelerated.” In Xiao Di’s view, by clarifying the project’s positioning and quickly creating IP, it is conducive to its rapid implementation and application, which in turn will drive popularity and speed up the overall construction process of the project.
"This kind of intangible assets is actually the soul of a cultural tourism project. Only when we start to pay attention to intangible assets, the distance between our cultural tourism industry and developed countries will become smaller and smaller, and we will be able to truly enter the cultural tourism industry. ranks among the developed countries," Shordy said.