Vocabulary, Consciousness (yi shi), and Art centers on Xu Tan’s long-term project Keywords, initiated in 2005. Evolving through phases such as Searching for Keywords, Keywords School, and Keywords Laboratory, the project takes language as both method and medium to explore how contemporary Chinese society articulates consciousness, values, and cultural identity through everyday speech. By engaging in dialogues with participants from diverse social backgrounds, Xu Tan transforms linguistic encounters into a conceptual art practice that simultaneously constitutes a form of social inquiry.

At the core of this volume is the 2011 exhibition Possible Vocabulary Games, positioned within the broader trajectory of the project. The book documents that exhibition while also gathering critical reflections on it. Vocabulary, Consciousness (yi shi), and Art provides a case study for contemporary art history and offers firsthand material for oral histories, intellectual histories, and cultural studies, highlighting art’s role as a bridge between academic inquiry and social reality.