Data, Meeple, and What Happens When It Happens

Drawing on a series of recent curatorial projects, curator and writer Milia Xin Bi will reflect on a body of work that explores the material, cultural, and temporal dimensions of data and digital infrastructures. These projects consider how data has moved beyond an abstract computational entity to become a cultural and material condition shaping contemporary life, affecting how we understand memory, infrastructure, and the environments we inhabit.

The talk will then focus on Bi's current exhibition , developed during her Curator-in-Residence programme at FACT Liverpool. She will share the research journey behind the project, outlining why tabletop gaming became a conceptual framework for the exhibition, and how our sense of agency is increasingly mediated by intelligent systems, algorithms, and automated infrastructures.

Looking ahead, Milia will also introduce early ideas for her upcoming residency at esea contemporary, which will explore unexpected adaptations, ‘accidents’, forms of agency, and everyday workarounds in our encounters with complex technological systems.

The talk will last approximately 45 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A. Refreshments and an opportunity for informal networking will be provided afterwards.

Booking is essential. Please also consider making a donation to esea contemporary to support our charitable work.

About Milia Xin Bi

Milia Xin Bi is a curator and writer based in Glossop, UK. Her curatorial practice explores how artistic practices can question the instrumental logic of technology and propose alternative narratives for how technology might be lived with. Her research explores multi-temporalities, manifold materialities, and mediated agency emerging from complex systems.

Milia is currently Curator-in-Residence at FACT Liverpool (2025–2026), where her residency exhibition Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria? is on view. Alongside this role, she has been an integral part of Chronus Art Center (CAC) since 2017, where she has led and contributed to numerous interdisciplinary projects. She is also the recipient of the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech 2022.

Image credit:

1.Portrait of Milia Xin Bi. Courtesy of Milia Xin Bi.

2.‘Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria?’, 2025, exhibition installation. Courtesy of FACT Liverpool. Photo © Rob Battersby.

3.Weight of Data, co-curated with Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, a We=Link project by Chronus Art Center, featured in the 7th Lisbon Architecture Triennale, How Heavy is a City?

4-5. ‘Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria?’, 2025, exhibition installation. Courtesy of FACT Liverpool. Photo © Rob Battersby.

About esea contemporary

esea contemporary is the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds.

esea contemporary is situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, home to one of the largest East Asian populations in the UK. Since its inauguration as a community-oriented visual arts festival in 1986, esea contemporary has continuously evolved to establish itself as a dynamic and engaging space for cross-cultural exchanges in the British art scene, as well as in a global context.

esea contemporary aims to increase the visibility of contemporary art practices from the East and Southeast Asian communities and their diasporas. It is a site for forward-thinking art programmes that beyond exhibitions also include commissions, research, residencies, publishing, and a wide range of vibrant public events. esea contemporary values creativity, compassion, interconnectedness, and collectivity in implementing its mission.

Learn more at: www.eseacontemporary.org

Photo by Joe Smith.

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