This new mutation of the extensive original project was presented during the 10th Beijing International Art Biennale, co-curated for its first media art exhibition by the artist and curator Fei Jun, opening in Beijing on December 29, 2025.

10th Beijing International Art Biennale banner

The Biennale venue: Beijing Exhibition Center, former Soviet Exhibition Center.

Value of Values exhibition wall — Exhibition wall — Maurice Benayoun (MoBen) and Nicolás Mendoza Leal.

The Value of Human Values in 10 Steps

Exhibition panel: The Value of Human Values in 10 Steps — Exhibition protocol panel: The Value of Human Values in 10 Steps.

The work invites visitors to become “Brain Workers”. Then, using EEG headsets, to shape 3D forms from their own brainwaves. Each form is linked to a chosen human value such as LOVE, POWER, FAMILY, or MONEY. These forms are minted as digital tokens on the blockchain, entering a living economy where values can be kept, gifted, sold, or bartered.

Every transaction generates a piece of Transactional Poetry: an ethical statement that reframes the deal as a moral proposition. Through Crypto Calligraphy, an AI Reader, and the AI Interpreters, the work bridges neuroscience, Chinese calligraphic tradition, and the language of contemporary markets.

A final Periodic Table of 42 Values maps how human priorities cluster, travel, and shift, forming a collective portrait of what we, as individuals, citizens, nationals, truly care about.

Morphogenesis of Values

A filmed walkthrough of the project (recorded at Asia Society Hong Kong) introduces the journey: how a personal value becomes a form, a collectible, a trade—and then a mirror of society.

City Ads Values installation view — City Ads Values. Photo: Ann Mak.

The Value of Human Values

We’re used to pricing objects. But what about ideas, beliefs, and principles? Here, “human values” are treated as real forces that shape our decisions and communities. Can they be compared, ranked, or exchanged—and what happens when we try?

The Value of Human Values team at Beijing Biennale — Team members: Sam Chan, Ann Mak, Philip Y. Zhang.

Neuro Design Station

Visitors become “Brain Workers.” With an EEG headset (a tool that reads electrical activity from the scalp), your brainwaves help shape a 3D form linked to a chosen value, POWER, LOVE, FAMILY, MONEY, and more. Your attention and emotion become a kind of sculpting tool.

Neuro-Design Station with EEG headset — Neuro-Design Station. Photo: Ann Mak.

A Token of Value

When the shaping ends, the new form becomes a digital “token”—a unique trace of your encounter. It’s released online and joins the growing Brain Workers collection.

NFT token minted on the blockchain via QR code — The neuro-designed value becomes an NFT token, minted on the blockchain, then added to the Brain Worker’s wallet via a QR code. Photo: Ann Mak.

Trading Human Values

To collect and exchange tokens, participants use a digital wallet. Tokens can be kept, gifted, sold, or swapped, for example: I offer MONEY in exchange for TENDERNESS. The artwork turns the language of markets toward the language of ethics.

Trading Human Values interface — Trading Human Values. Photo: Ann Mak.

Transactional Poetry

Every swap generates an “ethical statement”, a short piece of text that frames the trade as a moral proposition, not just a deal. The transaction becomes a poem about what we’re willing to give up, or ask for.

Transactional Poetry projection — Automatically generated after a VoV owner barters a value for another one.

Crypto Calligraphy

Owning a token also means owning a form you can use creatively. The 3D model can be turned into new artworks—like a contemporary calligraphy where words such as MODESTY or STRENGTH are written in shapes born from brain activity.

MoBen and Quayola in front of the Crypto Calligraphy.

The Reader

An AI called the Reader “reads” this calligraphy-like form, searching for echoes and similarities with Chinese calligraphic traditions. It translates visual features into a chain of descriptive words.

The Reader and the Interpreters installation — The Reader and the Interpreters. Photo: Ann Mak.

The Interpreters

Two AIs respond to the Reader’s words:

One wants to be an artist, it produces a visual interpretation.
One has a marketing bias, it searches for persuasive language to “sell” the value (LOVE, MONEY, COMPASSION…), revealing how values are packaged in contemporary culture.

The Interpreters dual projection — The Interpreters. Photo: Ann Mak.

Trading Monitor

As tokens move between people, the artwork becomes a living map of exchange. Anonymous trades show how values rise and fall over time—what people desire, bargain with, hoard, or give away.

Trading Monitor live ranking screen — The freshly minted VoV is immediately displayed on the monitoring screen and accessible via the web app vov.art, where users can see the actual ranking of human values.

The Periodic Table of Values

Like the periodic table organizes elements, this table organizes 42 values by how they cluster in collections. Some values tend to travel together: MONEY near to POWER and STRENGTH, and TENDERNESS near to FAMILY and LOVE, forming a shifting portrait of shared priorities.

The Periodic Table of 42 Human Values — Classified according to their position in private VoV collections — proximities of human values.

Borders Tunnel