Who will seize this art feast in Hengqin, aiming at the trillion-dollar new blue ocean of digital art?

The French writer Flaubert said: "Science and art always part ways at the foot of the mountain, and finally meet again at the summit."

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the definition of art, and the metaverse has opened the boundaries of imagination. Today, China's digital art has formed a complete industry chain that includes creation, technology, trading, and application.

According to a prediction by Zhongyan Puhua, the scale of China's digital art trading industry is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of over 30% from 2025 to 2030, exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan by 2030. The core drivers supporting this growth include the explosion of NFT transactions, the implementation of metaverse scenarios, and the widespread adoption of AIGC creation, among others.

On May 26, the "Hengqin-Macau International Digital Art Expo" themed "Reunion on the Summit" opened at the Hengqin Cultural and Arts Center. A reporter from Southern Finance Media noted on site that this expo brought together smart device manufacturers, cutting-edge software service providers, and leaders in the digital field, creating an international platform for the cross-border integration of technology and art through themed exhibitions, high-end forums, and digital art competitions.

Why has the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone (hereinafter referred to as "cooperation zone") become the "international parlor" for digital art? In the new era, how can art further integrate with technology?

(Exhibits of the "Hengqin-Macau International Digital Art Expo", photo by Peng Minjing)

Create a digital art "International Salon"

Nie Xinping, Deputy Secretary of the Hengqin Working Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee, Director of the Hengqin Office of the Province, and Deputy Director of the Executive Committee of the Cooperation Zone, stated that in recent years, Hengqin has relied on its policy advantages, geographical advantages, and innovation ecology to actively lay out in cutting-edge fields such as digital economy and artificial intelligence, providing fertile soil for the deep cultivation and budding of digital art.

"I hope that this expo can become a platform and benchmark to showcase the charm of digital art and promote exchanges and cooperation, attract a number of outstanding digital art enterprises and talents to settle in Hengqin, promote the deep integration of digital art and cultural tourism industry in Hengqin, and help the construction of Hengqin International Leisure Tourism Island. Nie Xinping said.

Through the open genes and innovative vitality of Hengqin, it is expected that Hengqin will build a bridge and platform for digital art that transcends the virtual and the real, connecting China and the world.

The deputy general manager of Nanguang (Group) Co., Ltd., Song Xiaodong, stated that the purpose of creating this international digital art event is to build a platform for displaying and exchanging art and technology, tradition and future, China and the world in Hengqin, this "City of Innovation". This aims to promote Hengqin as the "international salon" for digital art and inject new momentum into the cultural industry of the Greater Bay Area and even the world.

"We will take this expo as a starting point to continuously deepen the cooperation between Hengqin and Macao, and strive to promote digital art as a new calling card for cultural IP in the Greater Bay Area, exploring new paths for the globalization of Chinese culture." Song Xiaodong told reporters from Southern Finance All-Media that currently, both Macao and Hengqin are vigorously developing the technology and cultural industries. Exhibitions are a high-quality platform for gathering resources and attracting investment, and it is hoped that the expo will allow Macao's policies and Hengqin's industrial development measures to be recognized by more technology companies and cultural artists, further making good use of Hengqin and Macao's systems, and fully leveraging Macao's platform, Hengqin's space, and international resources to achieve shared development.

"After the emergence of generative AI based on large language models, I have found that it has a strong awakening and driving ability for the young creative crowd, while also accelerating the integration of the technology industry and the cultural and creative industry," said Yang Lan, a senior media personality and chairman of Sunshine Media Group, to reporters from Southern Finance and Economics All Media. Hosting this expo in Hengqin, a land of inclusiveness and creativity, is not only about seeing some interesting technologies, but more about witnessing the commercial prospects of future industry integration and development.

AI reshapes the art industry

According to Wang Chuan Dong, Vice President of Lenovo Group and Chief Marketing Officer for the China region, AI is rapidly reshaping the creative ecology in the field of digital art. The relationship between AI and creators is no longer a simple auxiliary one, but has formed a deep integration and mutually beneficial "new symbiosis" model.

According to reports, the expo linked with top institutions such as the Palace Museum, introduced technology giants such as Lenovo, Huawei, BOE, and Epson, and joined hands with Xu Bing, Fei Jun, Wang Zhigang and other art leaders to jointly create four theme exhibition areas and five roundtable forums of "Recasting Magic, Art Futuristic, Science and Technology Reconstructing Art, and Super Lenovo", creatively gathering domestic and foreign artists, art institutions and technology companies, with the most cutting-edge equipment, the most hardcore technology, and the coolest content. Create a "new species" of communication between science and technology enterprises and art institutions in the era of artificial intelligence.

In Yang Lan's view, the arrival of digital technology and AI technology has revealed new possibilities for artistic creation, while the passion for artistic creation has also promoted the continuous iteration and rapid development of technology, providing rich application scenarios for technology. Human-computer co-creation is becoming a new way of creation and trend, jointly composing a symphonic poem of human creativity and AI productivity.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of digital art refers to creators, including digital artists, game developers, music producers, etc., while the infrastructure layer provides technical support such as blockchain.

The trading platforms in the midstream present a diversified pattern, such as Ant Chain's "on-chain art" service attracting a large number of creators, and Tencent's "Huanhe" relying on its social ecosystem layout. Meanwhile, the downstream application scenarios have expanded to fields such as finance, curation, and social interaction.

Yang Lan told reporters from Southern Finance and Economics that digital art has become a new exhibition format in the cultural and museum industry and has great prospects in science popularization. At the same time, digital art has also driven the development of the entertainment industry, such as the gaming industry, film and television industry, and toy cultural and creative industry.

Li Weijie, Chairman of the Board of the Asia Peace Charity Foundation, stated that the integration of digital art and technology industries will inject new momentum into the diversification of Macao and Hengqin. The expo is expected to become a new engine for the development of the digital economy in Macao and Hengqin, attracting top art institutions and technology companies to bring resources for the creation, exhibition, and trading of digital art, accelerating the construction of the digital art industry in Macao and Hengqin, and promoting the upgrading of the industrial structure.

(Source: 21st Century Business Herald)

Source: Dongfang Caifu Net

Author: 21st Century Business Herald