Yuting Cai

I am Yuting Cai, a film essayist and multimedia artist exploring the poetic and political dimensions of the moving image. My artistic journey centres on urban communities and the lasting effects of historical trauma on contemporary daily life. By intertwining fiction and documentary, I craft multi-layered narratives that capture urban legends, societal rumours, and personal memories. My work often adopts an essayistic structure to redefine reality and offer my perspectives on social and cultural issues. 

I began my formal education in China at Nanjing University of the Arts, where I received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art & Painting in 2016. My curiosity about the intersections of art and narrative then led me to the Royal College of Art in London, where I completed a Master of Arts in Fine Art & Print in 2018, followed by a Master of Research in Fine Art & Humanities in 2019. Most recently, I earned my Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Art (Practice-led) from the University of Leeds in 2024, where my thesis, Montage in Motion: Exploring Chineseness and Transgenerational Trauma through Filmmaking Practice, allowed me to investigate and apply innovative montage techniques that blend fiction and non-fiction to explore memory’s role in shaping everyday experience. 

Currently, my research has expanded through a postdoctoral project titled Parrot Non-Fiction, where I plan to integrate animated and live-action sequences to examine the intricate relationship between montage, memory, and urbanization. This film serves as a case study on the use of montage to express the fragmented, layered realities of urban life and the subtle ways in which urbanization imprints on personal and collective memory. By developing a narrative that combines documentary elements with animation, I aim to contribute to both academic and practical film studies, offering filmmakers new tools to portray memory's complex and often fragmented nature. 

My essay films have been showcased at various international festivals. Notable works include Secret Archives: Red Carpet House (2021), which won the International Audience Award at the Sixth Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival in Vienna, Austria; Rain, Tear, and Sweat (2022), screened at the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam; and Microdistrict (2022), presented at the 12th Video Art and Experimental Film Festival in New York. This December 2024, I will present my research at the "Memory and Trauma" conference organised by the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research. From 2024 to 2025, I am also serving as a visiting assistant professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, where I teach fine art, film, and AI. 

In 2025, I will join the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan as a visiting artist and researcher, further exploring how montage can serve as a cinematic language to deepen narrative and audience engagement. 

Qualifications

• PhD (Fine Art, University of Leeds)
• MRes (Fine Art & Humanities, Royal College of Art)
• MA (Fine Art & Print, Royal College of Art)
• BA (Fine Art & Painting, Nanjing University of the Arts)