Imagining Art Practice Possibilities in Midst of Global Crisis

Due to the COVID-19 global outbreak, many citizens of the world are sheltering-in-place, and with physical activities suspended in schools, museums, and other public facilities around the world, working from home and long-distance appreciation have been made possible due to technology and social media. The exhibition, Fictional Life: Hybridity, Transgenetics, Innovation, intends to bring together “biotechnology innovation” and “techno art practice”, and originally scheduled to open in June of this year, a modified version is now presented through the use of online technology and web platforms, with the following three core issues presented under diverse perspectives: “Hybridity” found between different ecosystems; “Transgenetics” applied in biogenetic experiments; and “Innovation” observed in digital technology applications. While exploring mutualistic symbiosis, a series of online streaming events and in-person workshops are also presented to guide the participants into an imaginative art world where virtuality and reality are combined.

Three themes are focused on in this series of events: Firstly, current conditions with bio-art experiments conducted in Taiwan are examined, with virtual links made with related academic and private bio-art laboratories in Taiwan and overseas. Secondly, in response to the pandemic, a forum is organized to discuss virus as an inspiration for art, exploring how humankind could consider philosophy, art, and design as survival strategies, and how we could coexist with viruses in the long run. Thirdly, how issues such as panic, fake news, chaos on social media, and state information surveillance sparked by the pandemic could be confronted and critically examined.

Bearing the aforementioned in mind, these events presented in a time when we are collectively experiencing a global crisis are organized under the three parameters of online streaming performance, virtual forum, and cyber-physical integrated workshop, which are intended to offer further insights on biology, life, and behaviors, as well as biotechnology and innovative technology trials and applications. By integration art, science, and technology, barriers between different cultures are able to be surmounted, as we prepare and get ready for the upcoming bio-art exhibition, Fictional Life: Hybridity, Transgenetics, Innovation.

[Online Streaming Performance]

6/20 (Sat.) 7:30-9:00PM LIN Pei-Ying x C-LAB — Virophilia Dinner Performance Quarantine Edition

[Online Forum]

6/23 (Tue.) 7:30-9:00PM LIN Pei-Ying — Coexisting with Viruses (As Usual)

6/30 (Tue.) 8:30-10:00PM Paul VANOUSE — Paul VANOUSE: Resisting Reductivism

7/05 (Sun.) 7:30-9:00PM Arne HENDRIKS — Hara Hachi Bu: Shrinking towards Abundance

7/16 (Thu.) 7:30-9:00PM X.zip — Alchemy

7/22 (Wed.) 7:30-9:00PM LAI Ho Wang — The Future Model of Information Warfare

7/24 (Fri.) 7:30-9:00PM Cory Han-Yu HUANG — Viruses, Disease Prevention and Bio-politics: In Search of a New Critical Thinking

[Workshop]

7/04 (Sat.) 10:00AM-5:00PM KU Kuang-Yi x Paul GONG — Future Body Imagination Workshop

7/18 (Sat.) 3:00-4:30PM CHENG Hsien-Yu x WU I-Yeh x ET@T — Body Genealogy Laboratory: The AI Identification Program for Cultural Gene

7/26 (Sun.) 1:30-6:30PM LIU Yea-Chen x Theresa Tsun-Hui TSAO — qpHesitation Brewing Workshop

Curator ∕ CHIU Chih-Yung

Professor Chih-Yung Aaron CHIU is now a full professor in Interdisciplinary Program of Technology and Art, College of Arts at National Tsing Hua University, as well as a curator, photographer, art critic. He received his PhD from School of Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University in USA, with double major in visual arts (painting, sculpture and architecture) and film studies (film aesthetics, theories and criticism), as well as a minor in aesthetics (phenomenology).

Curator：CHIU Chih-Yung
Producer：CHEN Ping-Yi
Production Assistant：Monique CHIANG, HSIEH Che-Min, Yun NIEN, SUN Yung-Chen
Graphic Design：Jimmy CHUANG
Translator：WANG Sheng-Chih, LIAO Hui-Fen
Live streaming：ET@T
Photography：Vincent SANG, HUANG Po-Chao
Marketing & Promotion： LIU Yuching, Sean HUANG, Jimmy HUNG

Supervisor：Ministry of Culture
Organizer：Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab
Co-organizer：National Tsing Hua University College of Arts