Date: 2025-03-18 ~ 2025-06-01

Curator：曾鈺涓Yu-Chuan Tseng

Place: 新竹241藝術空間 HsinChu 241 Art Space

Artists：王新仁 Aluan Wang、林俊遑 Chun Huang Lin、范章晟Chang-Cheng Fan、貳進 2ENTER Studio、陳寬睿Kuang-Jui CHEN 、淇奧友善 Chiao Friendly、黃紀虹 Chi-Hung Huang、蔡荃 Chuan Tsai、蕭力綺 Li Chi Hsiao 、謝竺勳 Chu-hsun Hsieh 、謝啟民 Chimin Hsieh,、羅惠瑜 Hui-Yu Lo

策展論述Curatorial Statement

“They only saw the desolate saddle, the empty landscape, the mute scenery, and the screen set of a computer.”
— Baptiste Morizot, Ways of Being Alive

In Ways of Being Alive, Baptiste Morizot recounts an episode from observing the migratory path of North African birds. In the midst of this journey, he encounters a convoy of vintage cars. Their passengers disembark for just a minute or two, snapping a few circus-like selfies—desperate to frame the hood ornament, their smiles, and the landscape into a single screen—before departing.

This scene, Morizot suggests, mirrors our daily lives. We replace direct vision with digital lenses, experiencing the world through images rather than through presence. When faced with the actual landscape, we lose the ability to truly see it; instead, we encounter only emptiness.

As we depend on digital devices to record our world, we enter what Rumsey (2016) calls a regime where the production of massive data erodes our grasp of memory itself. Memory is no longer the “that-has-been” of Roland Barthes’ mechanical reproduction. Instead, technology extends our sensory apparatus, reconstructing new ways of perceiving and knowing—a technological attempt to reassemble the landscape itself.

“Digital Yellow Brick Road” unfolds in four thematic chapters, each exploring how digital lenses and mediated memory have disrupted the act of sustained looking. This is not merely a discourse on technology; it is a deeper inquiry into how, in a hyper-technological age, we negotiate our relationship with the world and with ourselves.

Digitally Altered Nature and Memory

The exhibition begins with digitally reconstructed lunar landscapes—immersive illusions that reflect not only the fictional and synthetic nature of digital imagery but also its power to reframe memory. In this space, the world appears no longer “real,” but as data-driven, algorithmic memory. Yet technology also functions as a vessel for memory, enabling us to see memory and to enter a narrative space where the real and the virtual intertwine, questioning how memory is stored, retrieved, and translated.

Algorithmic Ecologies

As technology evolves, our perception of nature is increasingly mediated by computational systems. Algorithmic landscapes—iterative, variable, and self-organizing—dismantle fixed notions of “natural scenery.” Within this computational framework, nature reorganizes itself into a language of digital order, proposing alternative ecologies and speculative futures.

Technological Landscapes of Survival and Time

Faced with digital nature, we are compelled to ask: what does it mean to inhabit a landscape where the artificial, the technological, and the organic coalesce? As matter disassembles and recombines through machinic processes, new temporalities emerge. The raked patterns of a mechanical Zen garden replace the human gesture of tending to a landscape over time. Through 3D scanning, even the smallest plant is rendered anew, its temporality reframed within a technological ecosystem of survival.

Re-sensing Memory in its Sediments

When we look back, the moments we shared with nature—gathering leaves, observing insects, feeling the wind—become imprints that shape how we understand ourselves and our world. By reconstructing these fragments, the exhibition creates a “forest of memory,” inviting a return to the emotional landscape of lived experience.

L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz tells of Dorothy and her companions—the brainless scarecrow, the heartless tin man, and the timid lion—seeking the Wizard to find their way home. Digital Yellow Brick Road borrows this metaphor to describe our oscillation between online and offline life: lost in the seductions and critiques of technology, we wander. This “wandering” asks how we might return to the real—how we might recover presence.

In this journey, nature ceases to be merely an external view; it becomes an inner landscape. It is not only a physical space but a medium for experience—a way of reconnecting with life, memory, and self. Like Dorothy and her companions, we may ultimately discover that the wisdom, love, and courage we seek do not reside in technology’s illusions but have always been within us.

他們只看見了荒寂的鞍部、空無的風景、瘖啞的風光、電腦螢幕的布景。

～莫席左（Baptiste Morizot），生之奧義～

莫席左（Baptiste Morizot）在「生之奧義」一書中提到一段經驗，他在觀測北非候鳥遷徒旅程時，突遇一隊骨董車魚貫而來，下車一兩分鐘，拍幾張馬戲團般高難度的自拍，企圖把引擎蓋、微笑與風景全都裝進螢幕中，….然後離開。」這樣的情境，正是我們的生活日常。我們以數位鏡頭替代觀看，我們透過數位影像，感知世界景貌，當面對真實風景時，失去了觀看世界的能力 ，只看到空無，這是莫席左在書中所描述的狀態。

我們依賴數位鏡頭觀看世界，開啟了以數位工具紀錄記憶的日常拉姆齊（Rumsey, 2016）認為，當我們在創造巨量數據的同時，我們也開始失去對記憶的掌握。 此記憶已經不再是機械複製時代羅蘭巴特（Roland Barthes）所認為的“此曾在“（That-has-been）。而是透過科技擴展感覺器官，建構新的感知與認知能力，企圖重構景觀的企圖。

「數位迷蹤」以四個子題討論人們透過數位鏡頭觀看與記憶，失去了凝視的過程，此不僅是一個關於數位科技的討論，更是一個關於人類與自己內心世界，以及周圍環境相互作用的議題，試圖挖掘人在這個高度科技化的時代，如何理解自身與世界的關係。

數位變造的自然與記憶

展覽從數位變造的月亮景觀開啟，此數位幻象，不僅讓人沉浸其中，也映照出數位時代影像的虛構與擬造性。如今所見的世界可能不再是真實，而是數據重構的虛幻記憶。然而，科技也可以是作為記憶的載體，透過科技「看見」記憶並進入了一個虛實交錯的敘事空間，思索記憶如何被存留、重現與轉譯。

演算法建構的自然系統

在科技不斷演進的時代，我們對自然景觀的感知已不再侷限於肉眼所見，而是透過數位技術與演算法重塑，在變異與迭代的過程中，超越了人類對風景的既定想像，挑戰著何謂「真實風景」的認知，自然在演算世界中重組與再現，展現出一種內含秩序的數位語言，形塑無限可能的生態演變。

科技重塑的生存與時間

然而，面對數位自然，我們是否能夠在人造、科技與自然纏繞影響下，重新討論景觀的時間性與存在性。物質在分解與重構之間形成新的景觀。機械重塑枯山水的紋理，取代人在時間流動中與環境建立的關係，以3D 掃描的微小植物重現，植物的存在狀態與時間性，透過科技發展出新的生存方式。

記憶沉澱中的重新感知

當我們回望過去，那些與自然相處的時刻往往深植於記憶之中，成為生活的印記，也影響著我們如何理解自己與世界的關係。撿拾葉片、觀察昆蟲、感受微風，在自然與生活中找尋靜謐的情感沉澱。在回憶與創造之間搭建一座屬於每個人的心靈森林，重新思考「自然」在我們生命中的意義——它不僅是一個物理環境，更是一種承載記憶與情感的所在。

包姆 ( L. Frank Baum)在綠野仙蹤（ The Wizard of OZ）中敘述桃樂絲與沒有頭腦的稻草人，沒有心的鐵樵夫，以及膽小的獅子，一起去見歐茲大王，尋找回家的路。以「數位迷蹤」為題，討論人們在線上與線下生活中交互切換，人們在科技迷戀與批判的徘徊與迷惘中迷失。「迷蹤」意指人們在數位世界中，如何能夠重新回到真實世界的路徑。此過程是對我們的自我認識、價值觀、以及與他人互動方式的深刻反思，也是一個關於找回平衡、保持自我與現實連接的旅程。自然不只是外在的風景，更是內心的風景。它不僅是一個物理空間，更是一種體驗的媒介，讓人與生活、與記憶、與自身產生連結。當我們回應自然時，我們其實也是在回應自己的感受與經驗。就像桃樂絲與夥伴們最終發現，他們一直尋找的智慧、愛與勇氣，並不來自歐茲大王，而是早已深藏於自身。

reference, 參考資料

Rumsey, A. S. (2016). When we are no more: How digital memory is shaping our future. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Roussel, M. (2018). Toward a Post-human Era?. Architecture Philosophy, 3(1). 巴諦斯特．莫席左 (2021)。生之奧義。台北：衛城出版