As information warfare rages on between China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, information on the internet has gradually assumed a lifelike power with which it can move, reassemble, mutate, and transmit itself as well as generate power, multiply, and, of course, die. Lab of the Distant Relatives has been developing the Intergrass project since the period of CREATORS 2020 at C-LAB. The project incorporates the Chinese authority’s surveillance of the transmission and storage of Chinese information, the history of information exchanges between Taiwan and China, and the current needs and potential challenges of internet information transmission to propose a complete interface of information exchange and storage using the genetically modified (GM) Arabidopsis thaliana plants. This interface, or “intergrass,” can also serve as a potential format of anonymous information transfer, transmission, multiplication, and storage in the event that any international totalitarian internet surveying area controls the free transmission of information—or even disconnects the entire network—in the future. Following this project, the unmeasurable ecological impacts of the global propagation of the GM “intergrass” will facilitate discussions of the strategies, ethical codes, and self-surveillance of information warfare in extreme circumstances. A work-in-progress version of the Intergrass project is now showcased in the recent exhibition, Signals: CREATORS 2020–21, until 14th March at C-LAB.
In this New Year Forum Combo extended from the exhibition, Lab of the Distant Relatives will briefly introduce their Intergrass project, talk about how they work as an interdisciplinary team, the censorship of China internet, share their investigation on psychological warfare between Taiwan and China during the prolonged Cold War.
Keynotes
1) Intergrass - A Brief Introduction (by Theresa Tsun-Hui TSAO)
2) Intergrass - Interdisciplinary Collaboration as Research (by Zin GE)
3) TErMPLE: An Initial Study of Internet Censorship and Sensitive Terms (by Ko-Chun Yang)
4) The Half-Century Spanning Cold War: De-coding the Archive of Psychological Warfare between Taiwan and China (by CHEN Wei-Chen)
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About Signals: CREATORS 2020–21
In 2020, 16 research and creative projects were carried out at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) on topics of narrative, space, performance, agriculture, online public opinions, media criticism, genetic modification, soundscape collection, historical archives, geographical research, and cultural exchange. These projects resulted from open calls for the CREATORS Creation/Research Residency & Support Program and Taiwan Sound Lab’s Sound-Off Program last year and have been undergoing their own stages of development. Through exhibition, live performance and events, Signals: CREATORS 2020–2021 assembles and presents the current progress of these 16 projects.
Date｜February 19, 2021- March 14, 2021
Venue｜Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab – Art Space III