Laura Brown’s essay examines the artistic techniques Tishan Hsu has developed over the past four decades, with particular attention to the early 2000s,

when digital image-editing software made it possible to generate within seconds many visual effects Hsu had anticipated earlier in his work. In a conversation with Martha Schwendener, Hsu reflects on the beginnings of his practice and on a recurring theme in his work: the merging of body and technology within an increasingly virtual environment.

Responding to the Secession’s publishing concept introduced in 2023—which provides free digital access to all books—Hsu explores the relationship between the printed analogue book and its digital counterpart. Extending a central strategy of his practice, he translates digitally generated or manipulated forms into printed media and reworks them further, sometimes repeatedly, in processes resembling feedback or echo.

This processual approach appears in the book through a sequence of eight images created for the downloadable version. The cover image changes during the exhibition period in progressively increasing intervals, recalling the computer-generated effect of morphing. The final image appears on the last day of the exhibition and remains as the “infinite” version. The printed dust jacket, available only in the analogue edition, presents all eight motifs like a collector’s sheet and indicates the time frames during which they can be downloaded online.