Beneath The Wet Peninsula
"Wetware" is a cross-border metaphor originating from biology and computer science, referring to the existence of organic life as "biological hardware". In his 1988 science fiction novel of the same name, Wetware, Rudy Rucker depicts a future in which meatboppers coexist with human systems. This fable shows the potential of posthumanity: when human brainpower (wetware) is integrated with coded data (software) and mechanical systems (hardware), the world will transcend the limitations of anthropocentrism and give birth to a new order of diverse symbiosis.
In Macao, a subtropical monsoon region, the imagination of “wetware” has grown into a rich material representation. Surrounded by the sea, this historic city exists as a node in both biological and data systems. It is both an ecotone between different communities and a hub for global data flows. Interestingly, the modern biological term “ecozone” was originally composed of the word “eco” plus “tonos”, which means “tension” in Greek, expressing the interaction and shaping of different biological environments. Macao has witnessed the natural convergence of this humid hydrological heterogeneity under the dynamic effects of water bodies, tides and waves.
It is worth noting that the ocean in which Macao is located is not only a pure natural place, but also a liquid carrier of history and culture. Since the beginning of cultural exchanges with the West in the 16th century, Macao has been an important trading port connecting Europe and Asia. Modern land reclamation projects are a new exploration of the relationship between humans and the ocean. This geological transformation has gradually created a number of open "artificial intertidal zones", an open ecological boundary where nature and man-made things coexist. Here, marine life from all over the world is mediated by cold chain logistics. These aquatic products are recoded into symbols of culture and consumption. In the compression of time and space, they eventually flow into the glass house of the seafood restaurant, and at the intersection with the infrastructure expansion, they jointly construct a micro-model of the global wetware system. These intertidal migrating life forms form new connections with their changing ecological environments, which not only demonstrate the diversity of species under the perspective of new materialism, but also foreshadow the superposition and memory of resource systems.
Today, this connectivity has gained a new dimension in the digital age - submarine fiber optic cable networks. As data pulses travel through Macao’s waters, digital memories that are claimed to be “permanently stored in the cloud” ultimately reveal the truth that they rely on the earth’s water cycle system. Historically, Macao has maintained a good interactive relationship with external resources, and this resource sharing forms a thought-provoking juxtaposition with contemporary digital infrastructure. As Donna Haraway describes in her Sympoiesis, all systems are open networks of processes, always in the process of becoming.
In this sense, Macao can be seen as a vivid example of this symbiotic concept: a space undergoing geographical changes, a time network woven by historical memory and digital future, and a resource node relying on seawater, electricity, data, and tourist flows. When the pulse signals of submarine optical cables resonate with the chemical communications of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, Macao’s ocean is being re-alienated into an invisible “data ecosystem”. From ocean monitoring to blockchain traceability to communications networks buried on the seabed, technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms are translating natural phenomena, species activities and human memories into tradable information flows.
Given Macao’s unique position, “wetware” is not only a technical or biological concept, but also a new perspective for interdisciplinary thinking. This city, which serves as a node in both the ecological and digital fields, not only connects the global resource cycle, but also promotes cross-continental information exchange. In the interweaving of multiple dimensions, Macao presents a fusion of wetware characteristics - a symbiotic trajectory of biology and technology, nature and artificiality, history and innovation. This secret agreement not only decodes the mutual negotiation between urban ecology and digital systems, climate and landforms, and technology, but also simultaneously reveals the structural homology of life at all scales, reflecting the diversity and tension in bioethics that have yet to emerge.
Curated by
Daisy Di Wang
Wong Mei Teng
Participating Artist
Cosmo Wong
Zhang Shuang Yangzi
Location
No. 40 - 40A, S. Roque Street, Macao
Private View
13th September 4:00 pm
Exhibition
13th September - 9th November 2025
Tuesday - Sunday 12:00 am - 7:00 pm