Who is Cao Yuxi, the digital artist changing the way we “perceive” nature through technology

Six years after describing himself as “an idealist trying to redeem his pledge under the pressure of social pragmatism,” Cao Yuxi has not changed his mind; if anything, his professional journey has only strengthened that conviction.

Artist, programmer and founder of CAOYUXI STUDIO and Particle Lab, the New York-based Chinese artist has become one of the leading voices in contemporary digital art. Through algorithms, particle systems, artificial intelligence and immersive environments, Cao explores the meeting point between nature and technology—not to replace the real world with a simulation of it, but to transform the way we perceive it. At Videocittà 2026 in Rome, he presented Nature’s Computility, his latest installation: a digitally generated landscape rendered in real time that transforms the movement of water and the coastline into a living computational organism.

Despite working at the cutting edge of computational technologies, Cao resists the idea that innovation should be the protagonist of his work. “I wrote that statement when I was around 26 or 27, when I decided I wanted to become an artist,” he says. “Idealism is like Shakespeare’s question, ‘to be or not to be’. Do you struggle for it, or do you let it go? For me, idealism is the hook. No matter how hard the pressure of social pragmatism forces you to do something, even when you get beaten down, you still stand up.”

That philosophy has become the guiding principle of his artistic practice. “Whenever I’m making my own work,” he explains, “I always go to the extreme. I try to offer the best things I can at that moment, statistically, technically, creatively. It’s my best effort, no matter how unrealistic it may seem.” It is a position that feels increasingly unusual in an era dominated by efficiency, automation and the rapid commodification of artificial intelligence. While many artists adopt new technologies as subjects, Cao uses them as languages through which to explore something more elusive: perception itself.

Cao’s artworks have been presented at institutions and festivals including Centre Pompidou, Ars Electronica, MUTEK Montréal and Signal Festival Prague, while in 2022 he served as Visual Effects Director for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Earlier, Apple featured his work during its Worldwide Developers Conference.

Cao Yuxi

His installations continuously move across unstable boundaries – between the physical and the digital, nature and simulation, computation and emotion – without ever privileging one over the other. “I think both realities matter,” he says. “I don’t want people to look at my work and simply think, ‘Oh, particle trees, particle water.’ Those things will never replace real trees, real water or real nature. For me it’s like painting. It offers another perspective, an artist’s perspective, so people can go back and appreciate nature, technology and what’s behind them.”

His works attempt to redirect attention away from the screen and back toward the world. “When we live inside cities, inside this cybernetic world for too long, sometimes we get lost. I hope someone sees my work, enjoys digital art, but then feels reminded of nature. We need art to remind us what nature is.”

That ambition reaches one of its clearest expressions in Nature’s Computility, the immersive installation presented at Videocittà 2026, hosted in Rome from 10 to 12 July. Developed through real-time particle simulations, GPU instancing and drone footage captured along Shenzhen’s coastline, the work transforms the movement of the sea into a living computational organism. Waves dissolve into clouds of particles, coastlines become constellations, while figurative landscapes gradually slip into abstraction.

Paradoxically, however, Cao hopes visitors never become too aware of the technological sophistication behind the installation. “I don’t really need people to connect emotionally with the technology,” he says. “I want them to see nature itself instead of seeing digital art. No matter how complex the process sounds, it’s simply about using technology as my tool, my aesthetic filter, to show the ocean, the flood, the water, this crazy beauty of nature that I experienced along the seashore. If people feel emotionally connected, I’m super happy. If they simply see the ocean itself, that’s already good enough.”

The title itself, Nature’s Computility, suggests an inversion of contemporary narratives around artificial intelligence. Instead of imagining nature through the lens of computation, Cao imagines computation as something already embedded within natural systems. Yet he remains skeptical of today’s technological acceleration.

Cao Yuxi

“I wish emerging technologies could learn one thing from ecosystems: evolving takes time,” he says. “But apparently they’re doing the opposite. With this AI rush, everybody is focused on making things faster and better. Nobody asks whether we should move that fast. Humanity itself can barely keep up.”

The same balance between artistic autonomy and technological experimentation emerged in Seasonal Proximities, the immersive installation commissioned by Burberry, where Cao explored the relationship between nature and digital perception inside the British fashion house’s travelling installation Imagined Landscape. Through interactive screens and large-scale projections, visitors were immersed in shifting natural environments generated through computational processes while previewing the brand’s collections.

Collaborating with a luxury company inevitably raises questions about artistic independence, and Cao approaches the issue with unusual frankness. “When a brand approaches you, of course they have a promotional message they want to communicate,” he admits. “Art can become a very interesting sugar coating. That’s simply the reality of collaborations.”

For him, however, the creative process cannot originate from the client’s vision. “When it comes to the art direction, the creativity, the taste, the colours, all those things have to come from me. I never create something from their creative direction. I create from my own artistic judgement. If they think something is good, they should make it themselves – I shouldn’t do it for them.”

It is precisely this insistence on artistic authorship that allows Cao’s commercial collaborations to remain recognisably part of his artistic research, rather than compromising it. That research now unfolds in a historical moment defined by the explosion of generative AI.

Surprisingly, Cao does not believe the greatest challenge facing artists is technological. “I think the biggest challenge is distraction,” he says. “Not just for artists – for everyone.”

He describes an ecosystem saturated with second-hand interpretations, algorithmically amplified opinions and an endless stream of information competing for attention. “The more distractions you receive, the more uncertainty rises. That creates doubt, worry, all these elements that destroy focus. Today we have to be extremely careful about curating the information we consume. Even when you’re not looking for it, information keeps coming to you.” His solution is remarkably simple. “I still need a huge chunk of my lifetime just to be focused on making things.”

Perhaps this is the real paradox of Cao Yuxi’s work. Although he is one of the artists most deeply engaged with computational technologies, his practice ultimately asks viewers – and himself – to look beyond them.

Opening image: Cao Yuxi, Nature’s Computility at Videocittà 2026. Photo courtesy of Collettivo Visioni Parallele