Surface & Signal Press, an independent arts-research communications imprint operated by Jeekwai Art Co Ltd, has announced the publication of a peer-reviewed paper in the Proceedings of EVA London 2026. The paper, titled "Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood and New Nature: Simulation with Paper and Digital Printing," is authored by Jiaqi Li, Wenru Xu, and Elke Reinhuber and is available open access at https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2026.15.
The paper analyzes two artworks by Jiaqi Li: New Nature (2019) and Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood (2020). In New Nature, photographs of organic materials such as banana peel, chicken skin, plants, and caterpillars were processed into repeating digital textures and printed on paper. These prints were then formed into over fifty hollow sculptural forms, contrasting the visual appearance of organic matter with a lightweight, constructed interior. The work highlights the separation between surface and structure, challenging viewers to consider the relationship between image and object.
Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood began with photographs of damaged surfaces in Chicago—cracks in roads, walls, paving, and transit stations. Li digitally reconstructed these damaged areas and printed them at roughly their original scale on paper. The resulting images were placed over the damaged sites as temporary interventions. While they did not repair the underlying material, they made the difference between an appearance of repair and actual material repair visible. This act of simulation draws attention to the gap between digital representation and physical reality.
The authors position these projects at the intersection of simulation, trompe l'oeil, and optical illusion. Rather than aiming for flawless deception, the works retain visible seams, repeated textures, paper edges, and other material inconsistencies. These features allow viewers to recognize the constructed nature of the image while it occupies physical space. The paper introduces the term "expanded trompe l'oeil" to describe contemporary practices that extend beyond illusionistic painting to include photography, digital printing, sculpture, installation, screens, projections, public interventions, and video-game aesthetics. It argues that the imperfect return of a digital image to material form reveals a productive gap between virtual representation and physical objects.
The paper appears on pages 83-88 of the open-access Proceedings of EVA London 2026, published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. EVA London (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts) is an interdisciplinary conference on art, visualisation, and digital technologies, held from July 13 to 17, 2026, both in London and online. The research underscores the importance of understanding how digital and physical realms interact in contemporary art and public space.
