AR: Is the trend of distilling information down to 140 characters impairing society's ability to craft refined ideas?
Ai: No refined ideas should be longer than 140 characters.
AR: If you were a god what would you do differently?
Ai: I am not God, and I have no choice.
AR: Which influenced you more the East or the West?
Ai: The world is sphere, has no East or West.
AR: Chaos theory assumes that the most stable situation is one that is constantly changing and precarious... does this resemble the way your work in architecture? Politics? Art? Life?
Ai: I act in a way more or less as programmed by an uncertain force.
AR: Beyond the readymade how has Marcel Duchamp influenced you?
Ai Weiwei's Pee (left), Marcel Duchamp and Fountain (right)
Ai : Marcel Duchamp influenced me in a way to be aware of the mental condition, art is an effort of attitude.
AR: What is the relationship between your piece Pee and Duchamp's Fountain?
Ai: Both relates to body liquid.
AR: Destruction and revolution how do they differ for you and how are they the same?
Ai: The process of changing structure and interpretation.
AR: Do you think that freedom is akin to spirituality?
Ai: Not necessarily.
AR: What is the fundamental purpose of art?
Ai: It is about the way we understand ourselves.
AR: Are ambiguities and open-endedness important elements for allowing the viewer to make their own value judgments?
Ai: The viewer makes their own final value judgments anyway.
AR: How are countries with over a billion people a sustainable situation, especially with the rising trend of Americanization?
Ai: Which remains as a question.
AR: Does the idea of vessel shape the way you make ceramics, architecture and life?
Ai: I have no interest in the shape of what so ever.
WeiWei dropping a Han Dynasty Urn on view till October 30th 2010 at the Museum of Contemporary Craft
AR: Is it more satisfying to break an older ceramic object than a newer one?
Ai: This is not about satisfaction. It only brings up ideas on our consciousness, our value judgments.
AR: It is said that Duchamp lived as if he was dead, and that Warhol lived without individuality. How do you live?
Ai: I live through awareness of my surroundings.
Too damn funny! Thanks for this--the naked jump photo is perfect.
mimi is giving a lecture on the chinese artist Ai Weiwei thursday June 7th 2011