Altereality, founded by the duo Shihan Zhang and Qinqin Yang, is a multi-disciplinary Chinese studio that works in the intersection of art, design and technology. According to their analysis, with the advent of 5G each person, at least in westernised society, creates almost 150GB of data online every day, meaning that the technologies and infrastructures used so far will no longer be able to contain this amount of digital material.

Tactag, exhibited for the first time in San Francisco at the Gray Area Artist Showcase, is a project that reflects on the transformative potential that technology is assuming towards human biology itself. In their narrative, people will need to store their data monthly in a physical cloud directly on their skin, and free the space to continue to store material.

The co-founders of the studio describe their work as speculative design. The aim is to increase awareness of the impact that technologies are having on our bodies. During another interactive installation, Post-metabolism, audiences were invited to wear gadgets made of moss or algae, materials capable of absorbing CO2 effectively and releasing clean O2, turning people into alternative photosynthesis tools to help slow down global warming.