Date: 2019/10/4-10/27

Place: off-spaces of DOX, Center for Contemporary Art in Prague, Czech Republic

Chimera: Contemporary human transformed in a “chimera”; a hybrid of body, technology and virtuality

Artists: Chenwei Chiang, Chi-Ping Chin, Kung-ta Tseng, Scottie Chih-Chieh Huang, Tien-Chun Chang, Yu-Chuan Tseng, Yun-Ju Chen

Curator Jan Van Woensel & Yu-Chuan Tseng

Statement by Jan Van Woensel

“Chimera” is a group exhibition of Taiwanese new and digital media art put together by Yu-Chuan Tseng, artist, curator and Associate Professor at Shih Hsin University based in Taipei; and Jan Van Woensel, curator at Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at University of West Bohemia based in Pilsen. The exhibition is organized in two off-spaces of DOX, Center for Contemporary Art in Prague.

“Chimera” originates from the understanding that over the past decades humans evolved into a hybrid of body and machine. Man is codependent of technology. The smart device that we became one with is both the key that opens endless passageways into virtual space and the vessel that we use to ride the waves of cyber-reality. Irrevocably, our voluntarily mass-movement to the virtual space caused a situation of alienation. In a state of unconsciousness, modern man abandoned nature and replaced it with an open-sourced virtual mirage that serves as an ever-accessible substitute. But this agnostic parallel plain is only an unsatisfactory stimulus and it only feeds human’s increased dependence on digital tools. It provokes a double removal that is recognized in how personal alienation takes place in an increasingly alienating digitalized world.

“Chimera”is a melancholic and poetically-charged exhibition in which the loneliness of nature in the hypertechnological demiurgic era takes a central position.

Are we Chimeras? by Yu-Chuan Tseng

Do we genuinely exist? Are we, who exist through electronic signals, really our true selves?

This is the question I keep asking myself. Through message transmission, links are established between the virtual and real worlds. We rely on the virtual life to complete the dream to surpass all geographical boundaries and physical limitations.

The way of digital life, we create our existence by simply click to follow the direction of networking service. We activate an avatar and step into the virtual realm at any given time. Through the sharing and feedback on texts, images, and videos, this virtual database becomes a vast “backup system” for the memories of countless individuals. The virtual self even replaces the real self, to become the principle entity existing within this virtual world and carry out an immortal life on screen.

In a digital environment, humankind undergoes a mental evolution. The digital interface becomes a petri dish of our collective body. We have already become chimeras that integrate organic and inorganic materials as it fuses with digital mind, feeling and spirit. We have evolved to become hybrid bodies that have the ability to breed via digital information. Further we try to make the biological species to become a hybrid life form to fulfill the imagination and demands of human.

“Chimeras” as a metaphor symbolizes the existence in the digital age. The living creatures have evolved to become a race of cyborgs – hybrids. The physical and spiritual immersion have merged with digital genomes in a digital environment

嵌合體：當代人類的變形，混種身體、科技與虛擬

藝術家：張恬君、江振維、金啟平、曾功達、黃致傑、陳韻如、曾鈺涓＋黃怡靜＋吳冠穎＋金啟平＋陳威廷、
策展人：Jan Van Woensel & 曾鈺涓

“Chimera” 「嵌合體」Jan Van Woensel

「嵌合體」由現為台北市世新大學副教授兼策展人曾鈺涓，與位於比爾森(Pilsen)的西波西米亞大學(University of West Bohemia)Ladislav Sutnar設計與藝術學院策展人Jan Van Woensel共同策劃，邀請台灣新媒體藝術創作者展出。展覽將會在布拉格DOX, Center for Contemporary Art兩個展覽空間展出。

嵌合體的概念來自於人類進化成人機合體的混種生物概念。人類與科技的關係越來越緊密，我們成為智慧裝置的融為一體，是打開無盡通道進入虛擬空間的鑰匙，又是我們用來駕馭網絡虛擬真實浪潮的船隻。我們自願地進行大規模遷移至虛擬空間並導致了疏離的狀態。 在無意識的狀態下，現代人放棄了自然，而用開源代碼的虛擬虛擬海市蜃樓代替了自然，虛擬海市蜃樓可作為一種隨時可造訪的真實替代品。 但是，這種不可知的平行場域只是無法令人滿意的刺激，它只能滿足人們對數位工具日益增長的依賴性。 引發了雙重清除，這種雙重清除在被日益增加的疏遠感中發生。

“嵌合體”是一個憂鬱而富有詩意的展覽，在高科技時代，自然的孤獨感處於中心地位。

Are we Chimeras?
我們是“嵌合體”嗎？
by 曾鈺涓 Yu-Chuan Tseng

我們是否真實的存在？透過電子訊號所存在的我們，是否是真實的我們？
此為我持續在詢問自己的問題，透過訊息傳輸與連結，我們生活在虛擬與真實之間連結的世界。我們依賴虛擬生活去完成超越地理疆域與身體限制的夢想。

在這樣的數位生活情境當中，我們透過簡單的點選連結，聽從網路服務平台的指令，創造自己的存在狀態。我們隨時隨地的啟動自己的替身，進入虛擬真實。透過文字、圖像與影片的分享與回應，虛擬資料庫成為個人記憶的巨大備份系統。虛擬自我甚至替代了真實自我，永生地存在於在虛擬世界中。

在數位環境中，人類正在經歷一種心靈進化。數位介面成為我們集合身體的培養皿，我們已經成為「嵌合體」，與數位心靈、感情與精神混合一起的有機與無機物質。進化成為一種混種身體，可以透過數位訊息的哺育。更進一步的，我們試圖使生物物種成為雜種生命形式，以滿足人類的想像力和需求。

「嵌合體」是一種象徵數位存在的隱喻。活體生命已經成為一種人機合體的種族。在數位環境中，物質與精神互滲成為數位基因。