MENGXI FU ｜符梦希

符梦希毕业于Savannah College of Art and Design，获硕士学位，现于University of Wales Trinity Saint David攻读艺术与设计博士学位。其研究聚焦于虚拟世界中的“数字死亡”，结合文化研究、化身身份与数字存在主义等理论视角展开探讨。她提出了一套关于数字死亡的类型学框架，以阐释虚拟失落的复杂性，并为相关领域的创作者与研究者提供概念支持。

她的学术成果发表于国际同行评议期刊，其创作与研究亦多次获得国际艺术与设计奖项。2023年，她参与Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention 2023艺术与设计单元，并在多个国际学术会议上发表研究成果，包括Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2023（东京）与Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities 2022（巴黎）。

Mengxi Fu(Sherry)holds a Master’s degree from the Savannah College of Art in the USA, and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Art and Design at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in UK. Her doctoral research focuses on digital death in virtual worlds, integrating theories of cultural studies, avatar identity, and digital existentialism. She proposes a typology of digital death to clarify the complexity of virtual loss, offering a conceptual framework to support creators and researchers working in related fields.

Her academic works have been published in international peer-reviewed journals, and her creative and research works have received multiple international awards in the art and design field. She participated in the 2023 Chengdu World Science Fiction Convention as part of the art and design program and has presented her research at major international conferences, including the Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities 2023 (Tokyo) and the Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities 2022 (Paris).

符梦希的作品以“数字生命与自我消亡”的心理关系为核心。在她构建的语境中，化身（Avatar）不再仅仅是虚构的代码，而是人类身份在虚拟空间中的延伸，承载着自我表达与社交联结的重叠意象。化身的“消失”并非简单的程序终止，而是一种具有存在主义色彩的落幕，与现实个体的逝去形成了一种互文式的共振。

在《雪梨的葬仪屋：数字纪念活动》中，她将 VR 空间转化为一座赛博时代的告别之所。这既是一场艺术行为表演，也是一次关于数字身份与悼念行为的人类学考察。通过在 VRChat 中定期举办虚拟葬礼，她为那些曾被寄予情感的化身建立档案，在沉浸式的哀悼仪式中观察、记录并访谈，捕捉那些在比特世界中流动的伤感与温情。

这些活动不是在模拟死亡，而是在探讨“存在如何被定义”。正如阿曼达·拉格奎斯特所言，存在是有限且终将消逝的，而身体是连接自我与世界的锚点。当虚拟躯壳在光影中瓦解，人类对于“永恒”的幻想被打破，取而代之的是对数字存在之脆弱、深刻且真实的凝视。

Fu Mengxi’s practice centres on the psychological relationship between digital life and self-extinction. Within the context she constructs, the avatar is no longer merely a fictional assemblage of code, but an extension of human identity within virtual space—carrying overlapping functions of self-expression and social connection. The “disappearance” of the avatar is not simply a technical termination, but a moment imbued with existential resonance, forming an intertextual echo with the passing of the physical self.

In Snowy’s Funeral Parlour: Digital Memorial Events, she reconfigures VR space into a site of departure within a cybernetic condition. The project operates simultaneously as a performative artwork and as an anthropological inquiry into digital identity and practices of mourning. Through the regular staging of virtual funerals within VRChat, she constructs an archive for avatars that have been invested with emotional significance. Within these immersive rituals of mourning, she observes, documents, and conducts interviews, tracing forms of grief and tenderness that circulate within networked environments.

These activities do not seek to simulate death, but to question how existence is defined. As noted by Amanda Lagerkvist, existence is finite and oriented towards disappearance, while the body functions as an anchor between the self and the world. As virtual bodies dissolve into light and image, the human projection of permanence is unsettled, giving way to a more acute awareness of the fragility, intensity, and lived reality of digital existence.