The dispositif of the virtual
Virtuality not as a place but as an apparatus — how digital dispositifs frame what can appear, be perceived, and be acted on.
Doctoral researcher · digital arts practitioner
I study how digital dispositifs structure the virtual — the apparatus through which perception, subjectivity, and the field of the possible take form.
Jingwen Li is a doctoral researcher at the Institute for Arts and Media, University of Potsdam. Her dissertation, The Dispositif of the Virtual: Transformations of Digital Art Practice in Virtual Space, examines virtuality as a contested field of possibility — shaped by digital dispositifs that structure perception, subjectivity, and aesthetic experience.
Her research sits at the intersections of virtuality, XR-based artistic practices, and media theory, with case studies at the interface of game engines, digital performance, and political imagination. She holds an M.A. in Media Studies from Humboldt University Berlin, where she researched exhibition practices and digitality. Alongside her academic work, she is engaged in research-based artistic creation and practice.
Three axes
Virtuality not as a place but as an apparatus — how digital dispositifs frame what can appear, be perceived, and be acted on.
Artistic practice at the interface of game engines and digital performance, where the rendering pipeline becomes a site of political imagination.
How exhibition and display reorganize around the digital — from the M.A. research onward.
Selected projects — newest first
[填写] Short description of the project — medium, context, where it was shown.
[填写] Production with Papertiger Studio, dir. Tian Gebing — Die Theater Chemnitz & Humboldt Forum Berlin. Your role + one line on the work.
[填写] Five-day arts festival (1–5 July) — performances, film, food. Your role as organizer.
Education & selected
Institute for Arts and Media. Dissertation: The Dispositif of the Virtual.
Research on exhibition practices and digitality.
© Jingwen Li · lijingwen.de
Built on a visible coordinate system — the apparatus, made legible.