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Artist Xu Bing©Xu Bing Studio

"Book from the Ground NFT, or we call it MetaWords more precisely, is not a finished work, it is constantly growing. Everyone who buys MetaWords NFT not only owns a collection of characters, but participates in a metaverse language experiments."

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In the Meta era, Dishu is an opportunity to upgrade the Metalanguage

We noticed that the MetaWords project started much earlier than the Facebook rebrand. In this regard, Xu Bing said with a smile: "It may be just a coincidence that they are both MetaWords."

At that time, it was summarized by Xu Bing as a period of "living between regions". Xu Bing, who frequently commutes between his New York studio and various curatorial locations around the world, spends most of his time at the airport. Before the iPhone was invented, airports were almost a microcosm of globalization. During the waiting period, a large number of identification signs filled the airport attracted Xu Bing's attention.

"At that time, I observed the signs in the airport, and in such a global time and space, they could communicate so efficiently and super-locally. I was very excited and started to collect these signs."

As a conceptual artist, Xu Bing has a certain innate sensitivity to "growing materials". "I think these symbols have great vitality and extensibility." On the one hand, this kind of vitality comes from the efficiency of the information conveyed by the symbols, and on the other hand, it also benefits from the rapid progress of standardized industrial production, which allows more symbols to be incorporated into the super-regional consensus system.

"Book from the Ground" tells the life of a white-collar "Xiao Hei" from 9 to 5 with the symbols throughout the book. Regardless of the cultural background of the readers, as long as they are involved in contemporary life, they can understand this book. In other words, as a natural person who is familiar with modern life, he can understand this story without any other language medium—for example, first translate into Chinese. If you go one step further and are an emoji lover, then you can read Xiao Hei's life almost at a glance, and make a knowing smile.

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Text of "Book from the Ground"©Xu Bing Studio

The mainland Chinese version of "Book from the Ground" (the use of the word "version" is also somewhat inappropriate. Because in fact, no matter which country or region the "Book from the Ground" is published, it is the same except for the statutory publication information.) by Guangxi Normal University Publishing house. Xu Bing specifically requested that the statutory publication information be printed on the translucent girdle, so that at least the book itself can be guaranteed to be "wordless". But the only regret is that the information on the shelves classifies "Book from the Ground" as "art"-"I prefer to classify it as a novel", Xu Bing said in a previous interview.

But in any case, the expressive power of "Book from the Ground" as a special language has been verified. Since then, Xu Bing has curated exhibitions with the theme of "Book from the Ground" many times, stacking "Book from the Ground" into a Tower of Babel, or creating a three-dimensional book version of "Book from the Ground", constantly enriching the connotation of "Book from the Ground".

"Over the years, the expressive power of "Book from the Ground" has continued to expand with the addition of more symbols. But what excites me is that the metaverse era has brought "Book from the Ground" to a stage of more rapid development and application. Just as materials allow art to have new possibilities for expression, the metaverse is the testing ground for the rapid growth of books from the ground, and the excellent soil for the growth of books from the ground."

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Exhibition site of Xu Bing at Shanghai Pudong Art Museum©Xu Bing Studio

It is precisely such an opportunity that "Book from the Ground" has received a new growth force and evolved into MetaWords. This is a large-scale expansion of the language system of "Book from the Ground". More importantly, this ray of light from the metaverse illuminates another identity of Book from the Earth/MetaWords—the language infrastructure of the Meta era.

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Not long ago, Lion Holdings Group, the parent company of Flying Lion Studios, the publisher of MetaWords, released its metaverse project "Lion World" in a high-profile manner. This Nasdaq-listed company focuses on providing Chinese investors with a wide range of products and services, especially in NFT casting, distribution and trading services.

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MetaWords official website: metawords.io

Collection players close to Flying Lions Studio revealed that another main reason why the industry is looking forward to MetaWords is that "it has many innovative ways of playing". In this regard, Xu Bing said that the reason for exclusively authorizing Feishi Studio to issue MetaWords NFT is also that "Lion Group is better at bringing more communities into the MetaWords universe."

"Play is a word you can use. For me, it is the openness of MetaWords." Xu Bing said.

At present, "Book from the Ground" already contains nearly 1,000 identification symbols. More symbols can be collected and supplemented by Xu Bing's team, or created by the aborigines of the Metaverse. "I prefer the latter, which is closer to the pursuit of 'convention' and 'universal common language'."

In the elaboration of "Book from the Ground", "Putian Tongwen" is a high-frequency word. Obviously, if there is a universal possibility in modern society, it must be the system of signs. We have experienced "Esperanto", a fabricated language that needs to be relearned is destined to be difficult to achieve the ideal of universal language. But the identification symbol is different, it is existing, not created; it has been agreed, not constructed. The habit of reading pictures on mobile media further lowers the cognitive threshold of identification symbols—if you haven’t taken reading symbols as a daily routine.

Xu Bing hopes that with the help of Flying Lion Studio, more aborigines from the multiverse will participate in this infrastructure construction movement. To a large extent, this is also the original intention of Xu Bing and Flying Lion Studio to explore the NFT of the Earth Book.

In the MetaWords project, the auction transaction of Xu Bing's "Book from the Ground" characters is only one of the basic subsets. Xu Bing revealed in an exclusive interview that he and Feishi Studio have developed a "creation tool" that allows players to easily use MetaWords to create their own expressions and works. Of course, in order to ensure that the characters are aesthetically and logically consistent, the characters created by the players need to be reviewed and verified by Xu Bing’s studio, and then the players can auction the characters they create on the Lion NFT platform, which is similar to the existing characters in "Book from the Ground". The characters are the same.

"Oracle bone inscriptions use more than 260 symbols to complete various narrative scenes of sacrifice, divination, and history writing, while modern identification symbols are much more."

Therefore, we might as well understand MetaWords as a kind of language infrastructure in the metaverse era. Using this infrastructure, an "art explosion" belonging to the public began in the metaverse.

The following are some transcripts of the interview with Xu Bing:

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From "Xu Bingtian Book Number" to "Dishu NFT", technology seems to be the blind catalyst in your creation. In your opinion, what is the relationship between technology and art?

There are many perspectives to explain the relationship between technology and art, which is a fundamental question. But from the perspective of my creative practice, what I care about and pay attention to is the influence of material technology on art.

In a word, the evolution of technology or materials has changed the expression of art. The earliest calligraphy was on bamboo slips, and the official script style appeared. Later, with papermaking, calligraphy has more expressive methods, because the emotions conveyed by brushstrokes on paper can be clearly felt. Now, in the era of screen reading, there are few useful options to express emotions with paper and brush strokes. The material turned into bit symbols, so now we just have to choose the font. Isometric or serif, or handwriting, is also a kind of emotional communication on the screen.

Only by disrupting the order can a certain looseness be created. In a loose environment, opportunities for creation and development emerge.

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What is the relationship between MetaWords and Book from the Ground? What is the difference between Book of Earth NFT and other artwork NFT?

MetaWords is a metalanguage experimental project based on "Book from the Ground" that I authorized the Lion Group's Flying Lion Studio. MetaWords is the language of the metaverse era. You may recall that Facebook recently changed its name to Meta. In fact, our name is much earlier than Facebook. As a language system, MetaWords must have a larger capacity than the book "Book from the Ground: From Point to Point". But its essence is born out of "Book from the Ground", it is a sign language.

You feel that the Book of Earth NFT is different from other artwork NFTs. I think it may be necessary to return to the relationship between art and technology. "Book from the Ground" is a project I started in 2003. Over the years, the expressive power of "Book from the Ground" has continued to expand with the addition of more symbols. But I think it wasn't until the metaverse era that "Book from the Ground" really had a place to mature. Just as materials allow art to have new possibilities for expression, the Metaverse is the testing ground for the rapid growth of Earth Books and the best growth soil for Earth Books.

Back to your question, maybe the ground book NFT feels different from other digital collections, because the ground book NFT or what we call it more precisely MetaWords is not a finished work. It is constantly growing. Everyone who buys the NFT of the land book not only owns a collection of characters, but participates in a language experiment in the metaverse.

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"Book from the Ground" is a project you started in 2003. This year, "Book from the Ground" also comes of age. In the past 18 years, we have experienced from globalization to anti-globalization, and jumped from the mobile era to the metaverse era. What is your new understanding of "Book from the Ground"?

You mentioned from globalization to anti-globalization, but I think the direction of the world is helping me to add the meaning and value of "Book from the Ground". The consistency of industrial civilization production has established the consensus of identification symbols all over the world. In the mobile era, the core is to read symbols. You turn on your phone and all you see are symbols. These are the basis of the language of "Book from the Ground".

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What are your expectations for the Metaverse? What will art in the metaverse era look like?

What is contemporary art (things that cannot be classified in the old concept). The metaverse has the characteristics of contemporary art. In the era of the metaverse, it is meaningless to say what art is, and it is meaningless to analyze the metaverse with old concepts.

The Metaverse further expands the concept of globalization. In the past few years, we have seen some ebb tides of globalization, but I believe that this reverse trend will only be a very short historical stage, or it will be replaced by other forms. I look forward to Metaverse being such an opportunity to let us see the value of globalization again, and even encourage everyone to further embrace globalization.