Shimmering Light, the Sea as Interface
粼粼波光閃動，海為介面

Watching the sea, playing in the water, feeling the ocean breeze, seeing ships enter the harbor, and watching golden sunlight fall across the water are part of everyday life in Keelung. Located at the northern tip of Taiwan, the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides and opens directly onto the sea.

For Keelung, the sea is both a living environment and a vital part of daily life. It provides food and transportation, offers a space for rest and reflection, and shapes the city’s collective memory. Its vast horizon opens our sense of space, while its reflective surface becomes a mirror through which we encounter our own emotions.

Seen from afar, the sea may appear calm. Yet beneath its shimmering surface lies an interface between two systems: the human world above and the complex ecosystems below.

Human activity constantly crosses this interface. Fishing, navigation, recreation, scientific research, environmental monitoring, and technological exploration all penetrate the surface of the sea. Through sensors, sampling, imaging, mapping, and data analysis, we have gained unprecedented access to marine environments. Yet the ocean remains largely unknown.

This raises a fundamental question: does greater access to information necessarily mean greater understanding?

Throughout history, the mystery of the sea has inspired both curiosity and fear. Before scientific knowledge could explain its forces, cultures turned to myth. Poseidon ruled the seas with his trident; Mazu protected those who travelled across dangerous waters; the Dragon King commanded rain and tides; mermaids embodied both beauty and danger. Through mythology, literature, and art, humans have continually imagined ways of understanding the unknown ocean.

Keelung Ciao 2023: Between Ocean and Light takes the shimmering surface of the sea as a conceptual interface through which to reconsider the relationship between humans and the marine world. The exhibition unfolds through three interconnected themes.

Undersea Fantasia—Eternal Blue

This section brings marine life into the human environment, revealing an underwater world that is often invisible to us.

CHENG JO-HAN’s Boundary introduces marine organisms into the former Zhengbin Fish Market, while WANG ZHEN-WEI’s Glimmering Float surrounds the harbor with slowly breathing, luminous aquatic forms. Miyagi Yuka’s Resting Sea Turtle creates a temporary refuge for marine life, and Lua Rivera’s Mighty Jellyfish evokes the resilience and mystery of ocean organisms.

Together, these works invite us to imagine the sea not simply as a resource, but as a world inhabited by countless forms of life.

Surface of the Sea—Encountering the Light of Hope

The second section turns to the fragility of marine ecosystems.

Oscar Oiwa’s Modern Ocean Wildlife uses humor to imagine a future in which human waste becomes part of the marine environment. TSENG YU-TANG’s Dialogue of the Deep draws viewers symbolically beneath the surface to confront ecological crisis, while ZHAN WEI-XIN’s Shùn Guang Hào, a vessel made of light, recalls the relationship between fishing communities and the ocean on which their lives depend.

Here, light becomes both warning and hope—a way of reconsidering how humans might coexist with the sea.

Crossing the Interface—A Dialogue Between Blue and Humanity

The final section explores how the relationship between humans and the ocean might be reconstructed.

YUYU ART STUDIO’s Interstice Light imagines light emerging through gaps in water and guiding the direction of life. LEE CHI-HUNG’s Flow transforms Heping Bridge into a symbolic field through Amis cross-stitch motifs, turning the movement of visitors into a ritual of passage and blessing. WANG YAO-RUEI’s Ship in a Bottle—Ups and Downs evokes courage, uncertainty, and the shared movement of humans and the sea toward an unknown future.

As technology enables us to cross deeper into the marine interface, we gain new forms of knowledge—but we may also disturb the systems we seek to understand.

We now possess far more information about the ocean than earlier civilizations did. Yet one question remains:

Do we truly understand the sea any better?

Between Ocean and Light invites audiences to encounter Keelung through its ocean landscape and to reconsider the shimmering surface not as a boundary separating two worlds, but as a site of exchange, intervention, and responsibility.

To look at the sea is also to look beyond its surface—to imagine, perceive, and care for the world beneath.

觀海、戲水、吹颯颯海風，看船入港，看山頭金黃陽光灑落在海面上，是基隆人的日常。基隆位於台灣本島最北端，三面背山，正面臨海。依山傍海的基隆，擁有風貌多變的海景。「海」是食物供應、交通運輸所依賴的場域；「海」是人們在忙碌的生活中放鬆心情的地方，「海」可以帶給人們正面影響力；「海」的壯闊空間延伸感，讓人心胸開放；「海」如同一面鏡子，投射自我內心的情感，關注自我與自己對話的時刻。

遠眺貌似表面平靜無波的海平面，粼粼波光閃動，卻是兩個系統的交接「介面」。

海面上是人類世界，海面下卻是豐富的各類海洋物種的生活系統。人們在「介面」之上的行動，穿透「介面」，開始介入與擾動介面下的系統。過去，穿透介面僅是為了食物、娛樂、交通、戰爭。現在，也為了科學研究、環境保育等之目的，以採樣、測量、 觀察、分析和數據處理等設備，進行海洋學研究，觀測海洋生物，進行海水監控，了解海流、海象、水溫等資訊。

然而，人們在穿透海介面，獲取各種海的資訊之後，是否就真實理解龐大「海」的系統。2022年BBC新聞網報導，提到海洋覆蓋了地球70%以上的表面，但80%以上的海洋，至今仍未被探索過，人類對火星和月球表面的認識甚至遠過於我們對海洋深處的了解，因此，美國太空總署（NASA）啟動「深海探險計劃」，並以希臘神話中的地獄冥王哈迪斯（Hades）命名海盆和海溝組成的地球海洋最深區域「哈迪斯超深淵帶」（Hadal zone），並以希臘神話英雄命名的深海探測器「俄耳甫斯」（Orpheus）號，透過視覺導航技術，識別海底的岩層、貝殼和其他特徵，繪製海底三維地圖，探索生存於極端水壓、低溫和漆黑無光的極惡劣環境中生存的生態系統。

人們面對神秘的自然，充滿了好奇與恐懼，過去，在有限的認知下，只能以神話故事合理化各種無法解釋的自然現象，例如：海神波賽頓（Poseidon）以三叉戟主宰海洋水域，擁有呼喚平息暴風雨的無上權威；媽祖是保護海上航行船隻，是幫人類免除大海威脅的母愛之神。美人魚以美麗的外表以及動人的歌聲，迷惑過往的船夫，使其分心而失去方向，最後沉入河底。龍王是威儀四方的海中帝王，具有掌管天氣的能力。透過文學藝術，創作者表達對於「海」的喜愛與敬畏。

2023基隆潮藝術以「粼光介面」命題，以三個子題：「海底奇幻－永恆之藍」、「海之表面－遇見希望之光」、「穿越介面－藍與人之對談」，呼籲人們應該善待豐沛的海洋生物多樣性，思考波光粼粼的介面上與下之間，人們與海洋系統的交互關係。

「海底奇幻－永恆之藍」：

將海洋生命中帶進人們的世界。成若涵《界》的海洋生物，再現並寄生於舊名為「水產館」的舊正濱魚市場。正濱漁港周邊則有王振瑋《微光漂浮》的神秘海洋物種環繞，緩緩呼吸與發光；宮城有加與LUA RIVERA則提醒人們，海洋生物在漸被破壞的海洋生態中，正在努力掙扎求生中，因此宮城有加《海龜休息中》提供海龜，一個舒緩的休息空間，LUA RIVERA《強大的水母》展示了水母的魔幻神秘與強大生命力。

「海之表面－遇見希望之光」：

期許人們能夠思考海洋生態的脆弱。大岩 奧斯卡《現代海洋野生生物》以幽默的手法，警示垃圾演化成為漁獲的未來預測；曾煜譡《深海對話》以深海潛水伕頭盔提供觀眾進入深海之中，觀看海洋生態系統的危機狀態；詹維欣《順光號》是由光幻化而成的船，希望帶領觀眾順著光的方位航行，找回討海人駕著漁船出海，與海洋共生生存的美好！

「穿越介面－藍與人之對談」：

希冀重構人與海洋的關係。禹禹藝術工作室《介隙之光》，從水的縫隙中，光的能量引領著生命的方向；李奇鴻《流》則以5款象徵不同文化/時期的阿美族十字繡意象圖騰，將「和平橋」建構成為能量場，將觀眾的往來移動，建構成為具儀式性的祈福行動。王耀瑞《瓶中船—浮沈》則是作為勇敢冒險象徵，在「浮」與「沈」中，人與海洋一起相伴面對未知未來的拚搏。

當人類以高科技器材突破介面，進行探索的過程中，除了能一窺海洋面貌，是否已經擾動了海洋的生態系統？即便人們已經比古希臘人，擁有豐沛的海洋環境資料，但是，我們有比古希臘人更理解海洋嗎？2023基隆潮藝術「粼光介面」，邀請觀眾來到基隆，在壯闊的海洋景觀與豐富的海洋資源的環境氛圍中，感受藝術家的呼籲：保護海洋，共守藍色基隆的未來。在俯瞰注視海洋的粼粼波光時，以善與真，以愛與誠，穿越介面，關懷感知介面下的世界真實。

參考資料

格雷特森(2022)。NASA美國太空總署為何不但上天還要下海？。https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/science-60125571。