Simulating, Object and Perception
Date: 2017/08/11-2017/10/20
Venue: Art Bank, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
How are humans and objects interdependent?
With the expansion and advancement of industries and technologies, the human society enters the fast-moving IT era, where people enjoy convenient and simplified like brought by trendy, constantly-changing technology gadgets – easy-to-understand, easy-to-use. Meanwhile, our living spaces are being quietly filled by technology products and information, which have become our daily essentials and an intertwining part of contemporary dynamics.
To us, technology products are vehicles for information and messages; moreover, through images and words they are building our idea of the world and universe, even penetrating deeply into our psychological world to become an extension of our senses or consciousness. Weaving together the reality and the simulated reality, they create layers of feelings and experiences different from before, and shape our logical thinking. Moreover, high technology facilitates the combination of machinery and organism. Now cyborgs are not merely part of our imagination about the future world – as they were in old sci-fi novels or movies. They are being made a reality in real life. Objects are produced simulating human senses and thinking, and could sense, respond to, and influence our awareness. In certain areas, they are replacing human beings.
Technology turns imagination into reality – or simulated reality – and realizes what was previously impossible, bringing us pleasant material life. However, homogenization of products is unavoidable when technology goods are being churned out through state-of-the-art production processes which pursue identical copies of consistent quality. The interdependence between humans and objects means that as an integral part of life, contemporary products reflect the phenomenon that our society is also being homogenized – that traces and uniqueness of individuals are being deleted in this world of IT. Unlike technology, which seeks homogenized quality improvement, art tries to find links with individuals in a society going toward homogenization, and people’s independent thinking and bodily senses are crucial to the awareness of one’s existence.
Simulation as a technique is widely used in technology production, media communication, life, and art creation. This exhibition aims to explore the interdependence between humans and objects through artists’ awareness and their use of techniques of simulation (which also include verisimilitude and mimicry) to connect objects (items, products and landscapes) and perceptions (which have various meanings from human beings to awareness and feelings). As we look at the artworks, we see how artists represent or recreate a unique state between “works and viewers", “objects and body", “the society and individuals", and “the material and the spiritual", in an attempt to find spiritual and sensual breakthroughs.
In Understanding Media: The extensions of man, Marshall McLuhan said, “The artist is the man in any field, scientific or humanistic, who grasps the implications of his actions and of new knowledge in his own time. He is the man of integral awareness." Perhaps when watching the exhibition, via the artists’ awareness as well as the interaction between viewers and works, we could re-explore the interdependence between humans and objects and make new sense of the time and space we are in.
【擬/物/體】新媒體裝置藝術展
展期：2017/08/11-2017/10/20
地點：藝術銀行
「人與物之間存在著何種相互依存的關係？ 」文化部藝術銀行【擬/物/體】新媒體裝置藝術展於8月11日展開，透過盂施甫、洪韵婷、張徐展、陳韻如、傅雅雯、黃盟欽、賴珮瑜等7位青年藝術家的察覺意識，試圖由「擬」這類手法（包含擬真、模仿及模擬等），連結「物」（涵蓋物體、產物、景物等）與「體」（指人、覺知、感受等多層面意涵）來探討當代生活中人與物的依存關係。開幕活動特別邀請到獲2016數位藝術節表演獎首獎的陳依純、鄧雯馨、羅禾淋等藝術家，結合無人機、視覺影像、聲音藝術演出《火炬下的囚犯番外篇》，以當世界只剩下科技產物存在的主題，呼應本次展覽，重新思考科技如何科技與人的關係。
此次展覽中，藝術家盂施甫以機械裝置，描寫抽象的人格特質，透過節奏的掌握及光影變化，將生硬冰冷的機械語言，轉變成具生命力的有機個體。洪韵婷運用微型物件，表現當代社會中文明化、工業化的產物，影射機械化的現代生活及普遍均值化的現象。張徐展影像作品中的虛擬海島，象徵著失去遵循方向的虛無文化，以及人類找不到靠岸之港的窘境。陳韻如以聲音裝置模擬自然界的小生物，探討人對於環境空間，所造成的改變及影響。傅雅雯嘗試在作品中構建一個將身體延伸到空間裡的裝置，探討純粹的身體狀態與空間的互動關係。黃盟欽則探討科技媒介在紀錄時間與影像的歷時性下，影像、時間、聲音韻律所形構出的置身處境，觸及潛在影像與身體移動的觀念意象。賴珮瑜結合數位技術轉化台北城市的夜晚光芒，呈現數位文明建構的外在景觀，以及身體隨著觀看影像中的速度與時間，所產生的感知變化。本展藉由藝術家運用不同方式的創作，重現或再造獨特的作品與觀者、物與身體、社會與個人、物質與精神等狀態，以找尋精神及感知上的突破。
科技將想像化為真實（或說擬真），實現過往的不可能，為我們帶來了美好的物質生活，卻也不可避免的將產物趨近均質化; 而藝術卻在趨於均質化的社會裡尋找與人產生連結的精神，人們獨立的精神思考及身體感受成了覺知個體存在的要素。加拿大知名哲學家麥克魯漢（Marshall McLuhan）說「所謂的藝術家，是指任何行業中、或科學或人文，那些能夠掌握領悟自己行動之意義，以及自身所處時代新知意義的人，他是具有整體察覺意識的人。」【擬/物/體】展覽邀請觀眾與作品的互動，跟藝術家一起探索藝術與科技的交會，重新覺察自身與外在事物的連結。
Yun-Ju Chen 