Jury’s Comments for the Visual Arts Award Winner

Learning from the subaltern as the starting point, the work straddles typical and atypical exhibition spaces: in the Cube Project Space, junk messages about the pandemic on the internet are converted into electric signals for the recycled objects on site and linked with the sound artist’s performance; and in Longquan Market, the smell, light and narrative transform our imagination of the humid place. Both are connected to the metaphor of viral hotbeds. The work explores the cycle and regeneration of internet phenomenon, electronic waste and spatial memory. The artists are highly sensitive to contemporary issues and use the agency of artistic creation to expose the incendiary power of explosive messages and the naked fragility of human beings  in the midst of a pandemic that no one can predict its termination.

Comments on the Finalist

Taipei Robot Man 2.0: Infodemic brings together typical and atypical exhibition spaces. Using both TheCube Project Space and Longquan Market, the exhibition ingeniously reveals the varying meanings of “market”: CHENG Hsien-Yu utilizes the internet bot commonly known as a Web crawler to power his installations with “junk information,” forming a response to the sensitive exchange/trade in “wet markets” in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and using the market’s “wetness” and the spraying of liquid scents to address the intimacy and corporeality of “wetness.” Meanwhile, the exhibition also revisits the artists’ past creative works of using art actions as intervention in markets, restoring the depth of individual histories on the “human” level while imbuing “robot man” with a nostalgic sentiment. (Commentator / TSAI Pei-Kuei)

Artwork Introduction

This project uses “junk messages” such as online trolls and fake news as a starting point, recycling and converting the data into data streams to operate machines, lighting and noise music. It is shown at TheCube Project Space and Longquan Market at the same time. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the patterns of contemporary life, inflicting as much an impact on politics and economy as on society and human psyche. Also, it has changed our collective sensory experience. The artists transform the market space into a large-scale site-specific installation, employing senses of smell, hearing and sight to alter the audience’s perception of the space. By doing so, the work explores using smell as a mnemonic carrier as well as its crucial role in altering spatial perception.

About the Artist

CHANG Ting-Tong was born in Taipei in 1982. He holds a BA in Advertising from National Cheng-Chi University and an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. His creative practice spans a variety of mediums, including installation, painting, performance and video, with which he combines different disciplines, such as science, biology and biokinetics, to reflect the relationship among humanity, technology and society. His major awards in recent years include the RBS Bursary Award (UK) and RISE Award (Hong Kong). His works can be found in the collections of Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Embassy of Brazil London, the Noblesse Collection Seoul, the JM SR Collection Mexico and various private collections in Europe and Asia.

CHENG Hsien-Yu was born in Kaohsiung in 1984. An artist as well as a software and machine developer, his work revolves around electronic devices, software and experimental devices of bioenergy that explore the relationships among human behaviors, emotions, software and machines. With humorous approaches, he enriches his work with symbols of life and meanings of existence, which serves as metaphors for his understandings of the surrounding environment. He currently focuses on research about biology, electronics and software, as well as the development and creation of sounds, creative software and hardware. He was honored with the recognition of Young Talent in the Netherlands, and is the recipient of the First Prize of Taipei Digital Art Award, Honorable Mention in New Media Art of Kaohsiung Award, and Tung Chung Art Award.

DINO (LIAO Ming-Ho) was born in Taipei in 1976. He is an iconic figure in Taiwan’s second-wave noise in the 90s, and was a member of the music band, The Clippers. His work signals a technical transition of the noise movement in Taipei towards pure analog electronic sounds in the second half of the 90s, and establishes a milestone with its unique aesthetics. DINO’s electronic sounds are generated with extremely simple analog equipment. He utilizes circuitry noises, static or microphone feedback to create loops and generate “Recycle Music” without sonic input. In recent years, he has engaged in experimental film and live music production for experimental theater. He is a recipient of Best Sound Effects in the Taipei Film Festival.