Everything remediated, everywhere curated, all at once: Readymade experience in the Chinese mediasphere

This article broaches the concept of readymade experience by examining two readymade objects – dianying jieshuo (‘film commentary’) videos, and a found footage documentary Present.Perfect. , entirely culled from livestreaming materials – as the microcosm of Chinese mediasphere percolating with recycled audio-visual materials. The readymade experiences afforded by dianying jieshuo videos function as a substitute that perpetually points towards the elusive whole cinematic experience yet leaves viewers in a cycle of longing and deferred fulfilment. In Present.Perfect ., the animate, ephemeral livestreaming experiences are mediated – and meditated – into a durational, contemplative artwork; therein emerges a sense of estrangement as audiences engage with the footage once anchored in real-time digital exchange but now suspended in a reflective cinematic medium. I argue that, together, the two media objects illustrate the ways in which readymade experiences and curated encounters in Chinese mediasphere operate in the interstitial space between consumption and contemplation, fragment and totality, immediacy and hypermediacy.