Playaround comprises artists and scholars who identify with the spirit of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) and share their knowledge and creations in the form of workshop. As a workshop constantly focusing on digital culture and creation, Playaround has incubated, encouraged, and supported innumerable Taiwanese artists in the fields of new media, tech-art, and transdisciplinary creation since 2008. Espousing the ideas of freedom, openness, and sharing, Playaround galvanizes and helps young creators to observe and contemplate the changes in the digital culture, and meanwhile find their raisons d’être for artistic creation from the techniques and inspirations they acquired from the workshop. “Playaround: Generation and Evolution,” an event to be held from 16 to 21 November 2021, appeals to the community and artists for reviewing and creating the future of tech-art in Taiwan. We invite previous Playaround participants to provide associated material, including the posters, designs, products, timetables, content plans, webpages, works, experimental processes, semi-finished products, codes, photos, videos, notes, blogs, and even the contents under development, insofar as to document these precious memories. As a reference for the present, these records of Playaround’s growth may help us rethink the future of new media art and tech-art.

👉🏻Online Registration (Free Admission)
Please note: All events will be live streamed on the Facebook Page of C-LAB Technology Media Platform except for the workshop.

Program

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Time: 10/8 (FRI)–11/28 (SUN)
Venue: Art Space II, 2F

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▌Future Press Lab of Holy Pig (online): The Narrative Collage of Reality and Fiction｜TIEN Zong-Yuan, LO Yu-Chun, KU Kuang-Yi
Time: 11/20–21 (SAT–SUN) 14:00–17:00
Venue: Online Event (Advance registration is required.)
The workshop is derived from the “Future Museum of Holy Pig,” a project by TIEN Zong-Yuan, LO Yu-Chun, and KU Kuang-Yi. The two-day workshop will be held online. Before the workshop starts, the lecturers will provide the participants with a “material package” on the cloud platform. It contains archaeological data on holy pig and sci-fi material (incl. pictures, texts, and videos) about the three parallel worlds in the “Future Museum of Holy Pig,” such as the fictional information about the African swine fever epidemic issued by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, as well as the fabricated interviews with experts on holy pig and scientists. Blending the knowledge and techniques from different systems such as design, new media, and journalism, this workshop guides the participants to experience the predicament facing the culture of holy pig sacrifice in Taiwan today in an alternative way, and meanwhile imagine future scenarios of holy pig belief. This workshop also seeks to turn the participants’ imagination into part of the extended version of the “Future Museum of Holy Pig,” insofar as to create more parallel worlds with multifarious fantasies.

｜TIEN Zong-Yuan
TIEN Zong-Yuan is an architectural artist based on Tainan, Taiwan. He graduated with an M.Arch. degree in Architecture Design from NCKU in 2016, and became an architect in 2018. Now he is a member of Your Bros. Filmmaking Group, and has participated in various art scenes. His works often deal with spatial issue and motion images, and focus on the experimental expression of historical fragments and construction meaning on site. 

｜LO Yu-Chun
LO Yu-Chun was born in northern Taiwan, and has been based in the Netherlands since 2015. She graduated with a bachelor 's degree in Man & Communication department from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2020. LO Yu-Chun has broad interests in many different topics. Many of her works focused on how people’s behaviors are influenced by the inner world such as thinking, emotions, ideology and culture, etc., and aim to get a deeper understanding of what is the essence of being a human.

｜KU Kuang-Yi
KU Kuang-Yi was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, and has been based in the Netherlands since 2016. He graduated with triple master degrees in social design from Design Academy Eindhoven; in dentistry from National Yang-Ming University; and in Communication Design from Shih Chien University. Formerly a dentist, KU is a bio-artist and social designer. He founded TW BioArt (a Taiwan bioart community) to stimulate the fields of BioArt and Science + Art in Taiwan. His works often deal with the human body, sexuality, interspecies interactions, and medical technology, and aim to investigate the relationships among technology, individuals, and the environment.

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▌Let's Play Around! ｜Vanessa CHEN, Escher TSAI
Time: 11/18 (THU) 19:00–20:00
Venue: West i-CENTER, 2F (Advance registration is required.)
Founded in 2008, Playaournd comprises a group of artists and scholars who pay extra attention to digital culture and digital creation. It has organized creative workshops on experimental and transdisciplinary techno-art around Taiwan. Identifying with the spirit of FLOSS (Free/Libre and open source software), Playaround galvanizes young creators to observe and contemplate the changes in digital culture, and meanwhile find their raisons d’être for artistic creation from the techniques and inspirations they acquired from the workshops. Over the past years, Playaournd has introduced specific themes and invited internationally influential artists to teach and exchange ideas with the participants, and share the practice of trendy media tools and transdisciplinary collaborative experimental works, which ergo laid a solid foundation for the creation and development of techno-art in Taiwan. This talk invites Vanessa CHEN and the planner of Playaround workshop Escher TSAI to talk about the spirit and imagination of Playaround.

｜Vanessa CHEN
Vanessa graduated with a master’s degree in Western Art History from National Taiwan Normal University. She has a long track record of executing projects of digital platforms and multimedia exhibitions. She is specialized in data deciphering, content interpretation and collaboration with people from different backgrounds. Embracing uncertainty and diversity of workshops, she was the executive producer of Lab Kill Lab in 2020.

｜Escher TSAI
New Media Art Artist, Producer, Creative Director of Dimension Plus
Director of Arts and Technology: Creative Innovation and Counseling Project Production supervisor of “3x3x6” Taiwan Exhibition in 58th Venice Biennale
Curator of LIVES, Jut Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2022
Production supervisor of Lab Kill Lab, C-LAB, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020
Production supervisor of Future Vision Lab, C-LAB, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020
Curator of Nuit Blanche, Taipei 2016-2017
Curator of Taoyuan Art x Technology Festival, Taiwan, 2017
Curator of Encounter Once in a Lifetime－Toyo Ito Architecture Exhibition, Taichung, Taiwan, 2016
He devotes himself into digital art research, promotion and creation. He was Senior Consultant of the Preparatory Office of Technology Media Center (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab), planner of many digital arts creation and center, host of Digital art exchange platform and “Playaround Workshop,” creative director of Microplayground.

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▌The Original Intention｜Pei, Escher TSAI
Time: 11/19 (FRI) 19:00–20:00
Venue: Live streaming on Facebook Page of C-LAB Technology Media Platform (advance registration is NOT required.)
Echoes rebound in the open space,
Interlaced by the sounds of knocking, beating and squeezing,
Plans are made for the D Day.

From its initiation and conception, via innumerable discussions and revisions, all the way to its final implementation and feedback, the ups and downs of each phase of the Playaround workshop have reaffirmed my identity with its original intention—a workshop that treats co-creation as the point of departure. This workshop begins with a three-day introduction to thematic techniques, and takes another two days to connect them with other subjects so as to highlight hands-on practice and inter-participant communication. The final day is saved for the presentation of the participants’ interim works, allowing them to learn from one another. The co-organizer Escher TSAI is the most capable and tolerant partner of mine. After my engagement in the Playaround workshop in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012, I’ve never thought that I can still feel and hear the echoes from it now in 2021. Assuming that each workshop consists of 80 participants, along with the staff, nearly 400 people have engaged in the activity of Playaround. During the process, some of the participants become teaching assistants and even lecturers later. Does it mean that they identify with Playground?
Creation needs not to be limited by technology, which does not imply that technology matters little. Playaournd advocates the spirit of FLOSS and unlocks a door to exploration in collaboration with alternative cultures. It is important to know how to autonomously respond to changes, and how to cooperate with others in innovation by overcoming the predicaments.
I’m engaging in the project “zurWollke” which includes the soundscape, the circadian rhythm and changes in a co-dwelling hall. I extract three segments of the soundscape from this project. They represent three symbols for me: (1) “echoes rebounding in the open space,” referring to sustainable ideas; (2) “the sounds of knocking, beating and squeezing,” implying predictable and unpredictable challenges; and (3) “plans made for the D Day,” meaning positive tacit understanding. I will explicate my personal feelings and experiences of participating in Playaround according to these three symbols.

｜Pei
Pei is a sound artist and culture facilitator, MFA from Valand School of Art, Gothenburg University, Sweden (2010-2013) and Concordia University in Montreal, Canada (2011-2012). Her works focus on both conceptual and practical aspects of open culture community in the fields of soundscape, digital culture and experimental education. Since 2004, Pei curates digital art related festivals, actions and workshops. As a sound artist, her work involves field-recording, performing improvisational soundscape and acosmatic art. She is interested to experiment with interchangeable vocabulary between sound and visual art, aiming in materialising the immateriality. In 2015, her son Niels Zhi-Yu Hoffmann was born in water.

｜Escher TSAI
New Media Art Artist, Producer, Creative Director of Dimension Plus
Director of Arts and Technology: Creative Innovation and Counseling Project Production supervisor of “3x3x6” Taiwan Exhibition in 58th Venice Biennale
Curator of LIVES, Jut Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2022
Production supervisor of Lab Kill Lab, C-LAB, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020
Production supervisor of Future Vision Lab, C-LAB, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020
Curator of Nuit Blanche, Taipei 2016-2017
Curator of Taoyuan Art x Technology Festival, Taiwan, 2017
Curator of Encounter Once in a Lifetime－Toyo Ito Architecture Exhibition, Taichung, Taiwan, 2016
He devotes himself into digital art research, promotion and creation. He was Senior Consultant of the Preparatory Office of Technology Media Center (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab), planner of many digital arts creation and center, host of Digital art exchange platform and “Playaround Workshop,” creative director of Microplayground.

Please Note:
1. Online talk is pre-recorded with Chinese/English subtitles.
2. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the organizer reserves the right to change, adjust or cancel the events at any time.