Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

By Gimo Yi (Senior Curator, Asia Culture Center)

Can this Contemporary world in which humans believe they can see, feel, and comprehend be classed as genuinely real? When absolute anthropocentrism is no longer the central axis to explain the world and is actually operated by contingency, what phenomena will humans then experience? In the exhibition Chance Operation the conveyed hypothesis is that the world, defined by human domination, can in fact exist in a completely different way through the intervention of non-humans such as mechanical devices and AI. Thus, the aim of the exhibition is to question the absoluteness of human perception based on causality and to capture an accidental and complex phenomena formed by the intervention of non-human entities. A secondary theme is to evoke postulations on the likelihood that the ontological hierarchy of humans as Apex predators will eventually be subverted by non-humans.

The exhibition is divided into three realms: Recto, Inframince, and Verso. The first realm, Recto, literally means “a right-hand page of an open book”, and implies that the perception of the world viewed from a human perspective with the retina of the eye is actually a superficial dimension. Fragments of Luminous Memory, a work installed in the window at the entrance of the exhibition, belongs to Recto, allows the visitors to look at the scenery outside the window through an optical installation work using a camera lens as a material. The artwork seeks to raise questions about whether the perceptual world, materials, and standardized norms defined by humans are formed purely by the human consciousness, or are instead deformed contingently shaped by non-human mediators such as camera lenses.

Inframince, which is the second realm takes its name from term originally used by the French artist Marcel Duchamp, the father of conceptual art. The meaning is of a minute thickness and difference and can be described as the thickness of the warmth felt when someone sits on a cold chair and then gets up and the next person sits on that chair. In this exhibition, the significance of Inframince lies in the middle dimension that exists between Recto considered as the visible world and the world that exists beyond it which is Verso. Inframince is focused on the relationships and actions among non-humans, which in turn influence one another to create new narratives.

In creating the work Impossible World, cameras and sensors were installed at Lake Paldang in Korea for one year, to observe any changes in the water temperature, PH concentration, biodiversity, and biological habits, before analyzing the collected data. In this work, the Alien AI uses the collected data to generate a completely new narrative centered on the creatures and ecological environment that inhabit Lake Paldang from the perspective of a non-human AI expressed in human language. Thus, the non-human takes on the role of an agent powerful enough to rewrite the narrative of the world and universe.

The third realm, Verso, is a word that means “a left-hand page of an open book.” Such a metaphor indicates the infinite realm and cosmic time that exists behind the finite human world. Included in Verso are the works First Light and In Orbit that propose the same question to the viewer as what can be found in the first realm, Recto; “Can the modern world in which humans believe they can see, feel, and comprehend be classed as genuinely real?” Humans do not possess the ability to observe and experience the universe of their own accord and have to suffice with non-human machines such as astronomical telescopes and spacecraft. By analyzing and describing the information collected, a new narrative could then be created, disseminated, and certified.

The primary aim of this exhibition is to raise awareness to the coexistence of humans and non-humans in this world, and how mutual interactions are formed through contingent operation. In perceiving a world flexibly, free from close perspectives, the visitors could in fact free themselves from the constraints of anthropocentrism.