The 8th Shanghai Biennale, which opens to the public today, defines itself as a 'rehearsal' and as a reflective space of performance. The curators say the Biennale “aims to invite a wide range of participants – artists, curators, critics, collectors, museum directors and members of the audience – to rehearse in the Biennale a fertile theatre to reflect on the relations between art experimentation and the art system, between individual creativity and the public domain.” This link takes you to a full outline of the curatorial thinking of the Biennale, which runs to 23 January 2011.

Layla Rudneva-Mackay's photograph Taking a moment to lose himself, when found most unexpectedly squashed between a mattress and its base, features in the exhibition A Rock That Thought It Was A Bird at Artspace. Curator Emma Bugden says: “The work is from a series in which the subjects are literally masked by their interaction with simple domestic elements – a curtain, a bed, a sheet. A tableaux is performed, one in which the protagonist is somehow consumed and integrated into the environment.”

“Lots of people have their eye on Hong Kong – it is the best performing market and China's bonded warehouse”, Iwan Wirth told the The Art Newspaper earlier this year. ART HK director Magnus Renfrew is rapidly establishing himself as one of the gatekeepers of this haven for tax-free art sales and this year takes 92nd place on The Power 100, ArtReview's guide to the general trends, networks and forces that shape the art world.

Vitamin-S presents Superflux at Starkwhite on Sunday 17 October at 7.00pm (admission is $10).

Layla Rudneva-Mackay is one of the four artists presenting stand-alone projects in the exhibition A Rock That Was Taught It Was A Bird, which opens tonight at Auckland's Artspace.

Image: Leigh Davis, A Suspension Bridge, flag poem, presented in the JAR exhibition Time, Text & Echoes (2010-2011) New North Road, Kingsland, Auckland, NZ

Wystan Curnow will spend the next six weeks in Tuscany under the Seresin Landfall Residency, awarded to enable him to work on a new book on Colin McCahon. This follows two significant publication projects in 2009. He co-edited with Tyler Cann a new book on Len Lye published by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Len Lye Foundation, and collaborated with Lawrence Weiner on his book The Other Side of a Cul-de-Sac.

This link takes you to Anthony Byrt's review of Billy Apple – British and American Works 1960-69 published at Art forum's Critics' Picks.

Anthony Haden-Guest, editor of Charles Saatchi's online magazine, talks to Billy Apple about his current exhibition at The Mayor Gallery, New York in the 60s and other things.

People's Biennial is a project conceived by artist Harrell Fletcher and exhibition-maker Jens Hansen. Organised by Independent Curators International (ICI), People's Biennial is an exhibition that examines the work of artists who operate outside the mainstream art world in the United States. It also proposes an alternative to the the standard contemporary art biennial, which the curators say mostly focuses on art from a few select cities (New York, Los Angeles, occasionally Chicago, Miami or San Francisco). This link takes you to the ICI website and further information on the event.

In his latest entry on Outpost curator Ron Brownson says: “I was wondering do many people know the difference between sheet fed gravure printing and platinum printing nowadays?” It's an unusual opening gambit for a gallery blog post, but not an unexpected one for followers of his writing.

The Adobe Museum of Digital Media (AMDM) is a virtual space designed to showcase and preserve groundbreaking digital work and to present expert commentary on how digital media influences culture and society. This link takes you to the AMDM site and further information on the new museum project and opening exhibit by Tony Oursler.

The following links take you to reviews of ShContemporary 2010, the art fair that styled itself as a market for ideas as well as an Asian outpost of the art market: ShContemporary opens with wary dealers and an academic cast and Shanghai's 'messiest' art show is back.

Noise is distracting and irritating enough in the real world, but Kate Crawford, Associate Professor in Media Research at the University of New South Wales, says it also exists in the virtual world, and is often more insidious. Digital distractions disguise themselves as useful information – posts from friends on Twitter and Facebook, text messages, email and instant messaging. She says separating the noise from the signal is often an arduous and personalised task. And as a new generation of youngsters grows up with mobile phones and uninterrupted network connectivity, researchers fret about a possible information overload and its effects on attention span. Last month Kate Crawford spoke with David Weinberger on Radio Berkman about the history of noise and how noise lives in the digital world.

The winners of this years Wallace Arts Trust Awards have been announced this week. Glen Hayward has been awarded the Kaipara Foundation Wallace Arts Trust Award, receiving a three-month residency at Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland.

While we aim to continue our daily posts, they may be intermittent this week as we are in Shanghai.