「🏌⌒. ➰⛳️ 000 」Before the living room starts a diary

客厅开始写日记之前

The living room decides to start a diary. But grappling with procrastination and the task of organizing a multitude of unformed abstract clumps, it invites us to share a few words, to make the initial strokes ahead. We are Deer and xūan, two human-shaped beings residing in this living room, and who have curated the online space >3<3=3. If you wish to trace our footsteps elsewhere, you can find us on Instagram at @2d_2.5d_3d and Somersault, or reach out to us via email at 2d.2.5d.3d.333@gmail.com.

客厅决定开始写日记，但由于拖延和收拾大量未成形的抽象团状物，它邀请我们先说几句，先画几笔。这里是Deer和xūan，我们是栖居在客厅里的两个人类形态的生物，我们策划了线上空间>3<3=3，如果你想在别的地方找到我们的踪迹，可以前往ig@2d_2.5d_3d和Somersault，或邮箱2d.2.5d.3d.333@gmail.com。

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       🌳          🌲           🌳🌳                🌲
🌲       🌳   🦌                🌳      🌲 
                🌳        🌲      Deer        🌳

As more and more people gather in this living room, the energy and the marvelous ambiance it creates become increasingly evident. This is the essence of the space, not something brought by the host. Coincidentally, I've been reading a book recently titled "Generous Structures - Casco Issues XII". There's a line in it that I think perfectly describes this living room: "It is a space that accommodates heterogeneous forms of reflection and practice, allowing them to interact with each other."

Our living room is just such a "generous structure." It can accommodate no one, one person, two people, three people, or a group. The activities that occur here are diverse, mixing various elements, generating different behaviors and energies.

As Rupert Spira, the British spiritual teacher, metaphorically says, imagine this as a living room that allows anything to happen, to come in and go out.

This living room is just such a place, filled with voids, various visible objects, and invisible energies.

*Different energy combinations in the living room

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                                            ౨ৎuan
                                           

#You and I, in the Living Room
客厅有你也有我

kè tīng
客厅
Living room/ Drawing room/ Sitting room/ Reception room

                      🪟                 🪟  🕷️
            🪴                                🕸️
           💡           ▫️      ▪️
                        ▫️    🟡           🛋️
                            ▫️   ▫️
           🎍                              📽️🎮
                                
          ⚒️🍀
          🎨🎲                    🪑 🪑
          🪡✏️                     🍽️  🥣   🫖
         💅🍠                                  ☕️      
                                         🍲

                                                     🍳
                                                    🔥
         🧹                           🚰🧽

                      🚪

This is an image of our family living room, which I believe to be a slice of >3<3=3. At the end of 2023, we planned >3<3=3 and its first online exhibition "Somersault" in this living room. We created an indoor playground and virtual living room on New Art City, where we invited 19 independent creators to gather their alternative insights on cuteness.

这是我们家客厅的图像，我想它是>3<3=3的一块切片。2023年底我们在这间客厅里筹划了>3<3=3和它的第一次线上展览“Somersault”，我们在New Art City上搭建了一个像翻斗乐一样的室内游乐园和虚拟客厅，邀请了19名独立创作者将对于可爱的非常规见解聚集其中。

Most of the time, we enjoyed hosting friends more than visiting them as guests, and this preference or action gradually extended from a physical to a timeless dimension, feeding back energy into our physical space. Initially, we dined with our friends, held workshops, played games, and discussed design in the living room. After the first online exhibition, our living room encountered more unexpected encounters and wonderful experiences. We then realized >3<3=3 could be an online living room, potentially a studio, playground, or online gallery. We kept doing what we do, but wanted to explore more open possibilities collaboratively and experimentally with every emerging creator entering the living room.

As independent creators, we are scattered across different corners of the globe, but we always find each other. The living room will embrace you and me, witnessing everything that happens.

比起拜访别人，我们的共识是喜欢当招待朋友的人，而且这种行动逐渐从物理意义蔓延到了不限时空的维度，并再次将能量回馈到我们的物理空间。起初我们和朋友们在客厅里吃饭、做各种workshop、玩游戏、聊设计，第一次展览之后，我们的客厅迎来了更多意想不到的相遇和美妙体验。那个时候我们意识到>3<3=3可能是一间线上客厅，它有可能成为一间studio和playground、一间线上gallery，我们还是做着我们自己，但想和进入客厅的每一个emerging的创作者共同地、实验某种更开放的可能性。

作为独立创作者，我们离散在地球不同的角落，但我们总能找到彼此，客厅会包容你我，会见证发生在我们身上的一切。

#Question: How to Become a Living Room?
提问：如何成为客厅？

I've found that when using disparate visual elements to construct my living room, it's hard to discern its true shape. Each element is confined to the same size, and the life trajectories within this space are standardized into universal symbols. Yet, living room life seems just like this: fragmented. Sometimes you stand, sit, lie down, daydream, or do something. Sometimes it feels like anything could happen here.

I've been pondering this question recently: How to become a living room? When I enter "客厅" in simplified Chinese search engines, many results advocate a "de-living room" style. However, all thumbnails show a convergence, with only the TV wall replaced by a large bookshelf wall. This so-called "de-living room" is just a minor rebellion against the conventional living room form, without any fundamental difference. I don't understand why this term emerged, just like all other "trend".

Once in Paris for a tattoo, the artist's living room, like other Parisian residences, was small. It had no lights, instead, a balloon fish dangled down. I don't know its species, but as I lay on the tattoo bed, watching it slowly rotate and float, I suddenly felt that the Barbican was like a giant living room. People come and go, each stay shaping the space. The living room takes the shape of everyone's wanderings.

Last year, I briefly returned to Shanghai.Back home I found that my father had bought a inflatable camping mattress for the living room. I laughed at this uncanny consent, arranging the living room in such ridiculous way. I took out my camping chair from the dusty room, and my mother immediately sat down. Everything felt so natural. Do you know what's happening in our living room? It's full of randomness. There might be the smell of food and the sound of games, people drawing or getting tattoos, a dog resting on the sofa, friends sleeping in caterpillar sleeping bags, nights of sewing handmade books... Do you know what's happening in our living room? Virtual avatars float back and forth, illustrations rotate, videos loop, surrounded by musical notes and translucent sculptures, sweet words and intense debates without cease...

I've scanned my living room to savour the past, present, and future moments here. From various angles, lying down, standing up, rotating, I observe it. How to become a living room? This question occupies me, with more emerging questions than answers.

What colour is the living room? What scent is the living room? Is the living room for us or for outsiders? What does the living room look like at dawn? What's on the living room ceiling? What defines a living room?... Is it the living room in "Black Books" with sandwiches stuck to the ceiling? The living room in "Tokyo Story" where the wind slowly stops? The living room in "Eat Drink Man Woman," centred around the round dining table and mundane daily life? The living room in "The Spanish Apartment," a mixture of culture, friendship, love, and urban life? With so many references, but what is the subject of "How to become a living room?" Is it the living room, or is it us?

If it's us, George Perec's idea in "Species of Spaces and other pieces" comes to my mind: "a space without a function." It's not multifunctional, not unusable, nor a space to free up other spaces. It's non-functional. I believe >3<3=3 is just like that, a useless online space. We hope it remains useless.

我发现当使用零散的视觉元素搭建我的客厅时，你很难看出它真正的形状，每一个元素都被限制成相同的大小，在这个空间里的生活轨迹被规范为一颗颗普世的符号，但客厅的生活好像就是这样的零碎，有的时候你在站着，在某一处坐着、躺着、发呆、做些什么，有的时候你觉得所有事情都可以在这里发生。

最近我一直在思考这个问题：如何成为客厅？当我在简中搜索引擎上输入“客厅”时，我发现很多人在普及一种“去客厅化”的装修风格，但所有的缩略图都呈现出一种趋同性，只是电视墙被替换成了一大面书架墙，最后发现所谓“去客厅化”只是小小反抗电视墙规训下的客厅形态，却没有本质上的差别，我不懂这个词形成的原因，就像所有其他的“趋势”一样。

有一次我去巴黎文身，文身师的客厅就像巴黎的其他住宅一样狭小，她的客厅没有灯，取而代之是一只垂下来的气球鱼，我不知道那是什么品种，但是当我躺在文身床上的时候，看着它一直慢慢地旋转、漂浮，游啊游。我突然觉得barbican也像一个巨型的客厅，人们进进出出，用各自停留的时间构建起这个空间，客厅有每个人游荡的形状。

去年短暂地回了一下上海，回家发现爸爸买了一张露营用充气床垫放在客厅，我大笑，有时候难以否认DNA的作用，我们竟能有这种该死的默契，胡乱地安置客厅。我将我的露营椅从积灰的房间里展开，妈妈马上坐了上去，一切那么自然。你们会知道我的客厅里正在发生什么吗？它一样充满了随机性。会有饭菜的香味和游戏的声音，会有在画画或文身的人和趴在沙发上安睡的小狗，会有睡在毛毛虫睡袋里的朋友和缝手工书的夜晚……你们会知道我的客厅里正在发生什么吗？会有漂浮的虚拟化身来回地飞，插画在旋转，影像在循环，会被音符和半透明的雕塑围绕，甜言蜜语和激烈的争论同时没有休止……

我把我的客厅扫描下来，回味发生过、正在发生和即将发生的时刻，从各个角度横着、竖着、歇着、转动着观察它。如何成为客厅？ 我被这个问题占据了，脑内不断地有问题出现，比答案多得多。

什么颜色是客厅？什么味道是客厅？客厅是为我们自己还是为外部？客厅的凌晨是什么样的？客厅的天花板上有什么？客厅的定义是什么？……是《布莱克书店》里天花板上粘着三明治的客厅？《东京物语》里吹过的风都慢慢停下的客厅？《饮食男女》里围绕着圆形饭桌和琐碎日常的客厅？《西班牙公寓》里杂糅着文化、友谊、爱和都市的客厅？面对那么多reference，但“如何成为客厅？”的主语到底是谁？是客厅，还是我们？

如果是我们的话，我想到George Perec在《Species of Spaces and other pieces》书中提到的设想：“一个无用的空间”，它不是多功能的，不是无法被使用的，也不是用来释放其他空间的空间，它是非功能的。我认为>3<3=3就是这样的，一个毫无用处的线上空间，我们希望它毫无用处。