Ying CUI (b. 1989, China)

I am a curator and educator specializing in lens-based art, with a practice that interrogates the boundaries between art, ethics, and technology.

My professional foundation was built during my MFA at the Glasgow School of Art and sharpened during my tenure as Director of Exhibition Projects at Beijing’s Inter Art Center (2015–2018). There, I played a key role in shaping influential exhibitions and co-founded the "Inter Art Center New Documentaries Prize", a platform dedicated to fostering new practices in contemporary lens-based media in China. Since 2015, I have also co-founded the "Chinese Ethnic Minority Photographer’s Prize", a preeminent lens-based cultural event. Building on this commitment to mentorship and pedagogy, I founded my own education studio in 2019, which has since helped young students realize their artistic dreams and navigate their creative growth.

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Currently based in the U.S. as a PhD researcher at the University of Houston, my academic focus has shifted toward the ethical implications of generative AI within art education. Drawing from my firsthand experience with diverse cultural, economic, and political realities, I examine the dual nature of AI: its power to expand the toolkit of the lens-based artist and educator, and the risk of it being used—often under the guise of proprietary development—to infringe upon human rights and civil liberties.

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My ultimate ambition is to establish an ethical framework for AI in art education that is responsive to local social contexts, ensuring that the technological transformation of our field remains grounded in human rights and critical inquiry.

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Publication:

2014

（Transl.） Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present 

by Hope Kingsley  (Author), Christopher Riopelle (Contributor),

2013, Published by National Gallery London

Mandarin Translated by Ying CUI and published by China Nationality Photographic Art Publishing House

​In Mandarin:（艺术的诱惑：摄影的前世今生）

Career:

2023 to Present: PhD Researcher at University of Houston, TX, USA

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2019 to 2022: Independent Art Educator

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2018 to 2019: Director of VFX at Lifang Digital Technology, Chengdu, China
https://www.lifang-cg.com/
https://www.lf-cg.com/  (Mandarin)

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2015 to 2018: Director of Exhibition Projects at Inter Art Center, Beijing, China
http://www.interartcenter.com/

Education:

2023 - Present: PhD in Art Education, University of Houston, TX, USA

2012 - 2014: Master of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, UK
2008 - 2012: BA in English Study (Translation & Interpretation), Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

 

Residency:

2014: Takt Berlin, A.I.R, Berlin, Germany

2013: Ffffast Summer, A.I.R, Nicosia, Cyprus