“Sinicization” is a term used to describe policies aimed at erasing cultural differences and historical traditions of various ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities in the People’s Republic of China. Impacts of these assimilation measures can be found in alterations of urban architecture as well as in adaptations of culturally significant buildings.

By utilising pattern recognition algorithms, the project “Total View” is tracking these changes in publicly available panoramic

street-view imagery, thereby automatically sensing sinicizations and documenting effects of enforced assimilation on a country wide scale.

The project “Total View” was founded in 2023 by media artists Ferdinand Doblhammer, Ulrich Formann and the Futile Corporation. It functions as an interdisciplinary platform for exchanging research methods between artists, researchers and journalists in order to develop new investigative approaches.

Focusing on subjects such as assimilation policies and state censorship, “Sensing Sinicization” is the first in a series of exhibitions that will reflect on the ongoing process of Sinicization and recent developments in the People’s Republic of China.

Working primarily with digital tools, “Total View” automatically collects and analyses publicly available sources of information to document specific issues and engage in a broader discourse on the critical use of technology, surveillance and its authoritarian potential.