Surface and 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 explores how photography, digital processing, and paper printing can transform images into physical surfaces. The open-access paper is available 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 assembled into more than fifty hollow sculptural forms, setting the visual appearance of organic matter against a lightweight, constructed interior. This juxtaposition draws attention to the separation between surface and structure, challenging viewers to consider the boundaries between representation and reality.
Fixing Chicago Neighbourhood began with photographs of damaged surfaces in Chicago, including cracks in roads, walls, paving, and transit stations. Using digital reconstruction, the damaged areas were restored in the images and printed at approximately their original scale. These paper images were then placed over the actual damaged sites as temporary interventions. Rather than physically repairing the underlying material, the installations made the difference between an appearance of repair and a material repair visible, prompting reflection on the nature of intervention and illusion in urban spaces.
The authors position these projects between simulation, trompe l'oeil, and optical illusion. Rather than seeking flawless deception, the works retain visible seams, repeated textures, paper edges, and other material inconsistencies. These features allow viewers to recognize the construction of the image even as it occupies physical space, creating a productive tension between the virtual and the material.
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 can reveal a productive gap between virtual representation and physical objects, offering new possibilities for artistic and critical engagement.
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, or Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, is an interdisciplinary conference on art, visualization, and digital technologies. The 2026 conference took place in London and online from July 13 to 17.
Surface and Signal Press is an independent arts-research communications imprint operated by Jeekwai Art Co Ltd. The imprint publishes factual, accessible communications about contemporary art, visual culture, digital media, and research-led creative practice, focusing on how images, materials, and technical systems shape public and everyday environments.
