【評論】「感覺重混」：當作品迎向觀眾的目光
【REVIEW】Sensation(Remix): When Artworks Meet the Gaze of the Audience
文／趙鐸
於今年5月20日開幕，在羅東文化工場舉辦的當代新媒體藝術展覽「感覺重混 Sensation(Remix)」的策展論述中，引用了新媒體藝術研究者列夫．曼諾維奇（Lev Manovich）在《新媒體的語言》（The Language of New Media）一書中的論述：
「當時新媒體創作的似乎不斷地引用過去的媒介內容、藝術風格與形式，相較於『更多對於現實的記錄，如今的文化忙於再製、再造與分析已經累積起來的媒介素材。』在這樣的狀況下，藝術創作有可能不斷自我更新嗎？答案必然是肯定的，甚至相較於再現，這也許是更貼近當代生活，且更能有效傳遞內容的路徑。」
此番宣告的徵引，標誌此展覽不僅有向大眾引介與思考新媒體藝術的使命，同時也叩問著台灣新媒體藝術當前的發展。在同一本書中，曼諾維奇更提及1995年的電子藝術節（Ars Electronica Festival），將「計算機影像」（computer graphics）的分類以「網絡藝術」（net art）取代一事。他認為這個轉變代表的正是計算機不再只是生產工具，而是一種媒體機器（media machine），以及其與觀者之間的互動性表現。
「互動性」一直是「新媒體藝術」的關鍵字，而且不只是指觀眾實際上參與作品物理狀態或呈現形式的改變，更包含「當觀眾積極地進行觀看和理解時，作品迎向觀眾的面目會產生變化」的互動。觀眾認為是他們主動參與了組裝，但其實作品也重組了觀眾的認知。
以本次展覽中的兩件作品為例，一個是林哲宇的《日常時光》。林哲宇設計了一個引誘觀眾行動的裝置，讓觀眾決定螢幕中呈現的影像內容。同時，在同一個空間裡，另外兩組影像，則是「影像內的手」調整著「影像內的開關」，形成影像本身會隨著影像內部手調整而明滅的「自導自演」。
另一個作品是胡鈞荃的《喚》。胡鈞荃以一個落地窗為分界，落地窗外是真的植物，落地窗內則擺設了數個「造假」意味極為濃厚的物件：鋁絲線包裹落地窗框四周，並延伸到室內製造出流體效果；一張3D掃描植物後，將原影像素材剝離，置換成鏡面反光材質，製造出光影具有相互映照質感的靜態影像；以及零星仿製空間內物件視覺質感的流體造型物件。然而，當觀者蒐集完空間中的這些資訊，並對這些物件產生「真／假」區隔的認知後，將被落地窗外動力裝置產生的意料敲擊啟動轉化的過程：外面原本被視為「真實」的植物染上一層虛構的意味，「透明」而使「通往」室外的落地窗成為遮擋而被投（射）影幻象的屏幕，而室內刻意提示虛構甚至是鏡像效果物件呼應著「透明／鏡面」的轉化，反而包裹著如假似真的氛圍，讓觀眾陷入一個「假作真時真亦假」的幻境。
事實上，近年來台灣新媒體藝術已不再用「虛擬」來理解影像創作，象徵真實與虛構的邊界逐漸鬆動，藝術家也開始透過創作回答「我們為什麼會視一件事為『真實』，而另一件事則否」。從林哲宇的《日常時光》中便可看出，燈光的「開關」從來就不只是一個「物理事實」，同時是牽涉到「認知」的「符號」。決定我們看到或看不到什麼的，並非光學事實，而是觀看認知，也就是你想看什麼、你以為你能看到什麼、以及你認為你能看到什麼。
《日常時光》中的開關也體現了這點。觀者該如何在展場空間裡，辨識出這個從天垂下的物件不是「請勿觸摸」的作品部分，而是「歡迎互動」的邀請。筆者曾與藝術家聊到這個問題，藝術家報以一個耐人尋味的回應：不能讓觀眾覺得這機關太理所當然可以碰觸，但也不能夠設計到讓觀眾完全不敢碰觸。而正是藝術家把握到了游移在碰於不碰的曖昧尺度，因此當觀者衝破心理的界線去拉扯時，才能有真正意義上的觀看認知跨越。
綜觀這場展覽，共邀請了六組年輕藝術家，展出作品共十件，並分成為方向、尺度和邊界三大類。前述的這兩件作品被歸在「邊界」中，換句話說，所謂的「感覺重混」，不只是既有感知內容排列組何方式的改變，同時更是既有感知框架的重組，甚至是對於既有感知框架的破壞，使觀者能夠感覺到原本在感知範圍之外的東西。
就此而論，「新媒體藝術」之所以為「新」，並不僅僅只是創作媒材本身涉及運算科技、虛擬成像等「技術之新」，而是藝術家如何透過使用（或創造）觀者必須積極介入的媒材，以創作的形式，促使觀者意識到感知模式在參與中被重塑的過程。
事實上，我們可以看到這次展覽大部分的作品都更像是「錄像裝置」，而曼諾維奇也早已提示我們，我們可能會受限於傳統的感知框架（媒體想像），因此縮限了對新技術表現的理解。反過來說，既然技術的「新／舊」不必然等同於感知的「新／舊」，這群藝術家便示範了如何運用並不複雜的技術，達到操作觀眾意識「認知模式／方向」與「認知內容」的方式。
如同我們在被歸為「方向」的蘇粲淵的《單層透天》中所看到的，藝術家建構了一個讓觀者在仰頭觀看時，會出現無限鏡像效果的四頻道裝置，讓觀眾在意識到裝置物理尺度的前提下，創造出無限延伸的觀看深度——新媒體藝術家不只要製造觀看的幻境，同時也讓觀者意識到他正處在幻境之中，以及使他們感知所成立的基礎為何。
Text／Chao Duo
Opening on May 20th this year(2023), in the curatorial statement of the contemporary new media art exhibition Sensation(Remix) held at the Luodong Culture Working House, a paragraph from the new media art researcher Lev Manovich’s book The Language of New Media is cited. “The new media creation of the time seems to continually reference past media content, artistic styles, and forms. ‘rather than assembling more media recordings of reality, culture is now busy reworking, recombining, and analyzing already accumulated media material.’ In this case, can artistic creation continuously update itself? The answer is undoubted yes, and perhaps this approach is even more closely related to contemporary life and more effective in conveying content than mere representation.”
The quotation symbolizes that the exhibition not only has the mission to introduce new media art to the public and contemplate on this genre, but also questions the current development of new media art in Taiwan. In the same book, Manovich further mentions the 1995 Ars Electronica Festival, where the category of ‘computer graphics’ was replaced by ‘net art’. He believes that this transformation signifies computers are no longer just production tools, but are media machines that interact with viewers.
‘Interactivity’ has always been a keyword for ‘new media art.’ It does not only refer to the actual participation of the audience in changing the physical state or presentation form of the artwork. In addition, it includes the interaction where “when the audience actively engages in viewing and understanding, the face of the artwork that greets the audience will change.” The audience believes they have actively participated in the assembly, but in fact, the artwork has also restructured the audience’s cognition.
Take two pieces of work from this exhibition as examples. One is The Daily Moments by Lin Che-Yu. Lin designed a device to attract the audience to act, allowing the audience to determine the content of the images presented on the screen. At the same time, in the same space, the hand in the image adjusts the switch in the image in two other sets of images, forming a self-directed and self-performed situation where the image itself would be turned on/off as the hand in the image adjusts.
The other is Awakening by Hu Ching-Chuan. Hu divided the space with a floor-to-ceiling window, outside of which are real plants, and inside of which several heavily counterfeit-implying objects are placed: aluminum wires wrap around the window frame and extend to the interior to create a fluid effect; a 3D scanned plant image is stripped of its original material and replaced with a mirror-reflective material, creating a static image with reflective light and shadow; and a few fluid models that mimic the visual texture of objects in the space. However, once the audience collects these pieces of information from the space and forms a real/fake distinction, the unexpected knock triggered by the kinetic installation outside the window begins the transformation: the plants outside, originally deemed real, gain a layer of fictional implication, the transparent window leading to the outside becomes a screen for projected illusions, obstructing the view, while the intentionally fictional and even mirror-like objects inside respond to the transparent/mirror transformation, enveloping a pseudo-real atmosphere that puts the audience into an illusion where “fiction becomes truth when pretending to be true”.
In fact, in recent years, Taiwan’s new media art no longer uses virtual to understand image creation, the boundary between reality and fiction is gradually loosening, and artists begin to answer through their creations “why do we regard something as ‘real’ while rejecting others”. From Lin Che-Yu’s The Daily Moments, it can be seen that the switch of the light has never been just a physical fact, but also a symbol involving cognition. What determines what we see or do not see is not optical fact, but viewing cognition, which is what you want to see, what you think you can see, and what you believe you can see.
The switch in The Daily Moments also reflects this point. How should viewers in the exhibition space discern that this object hanging from above is not part of the “do not touch” artwork, but an invitation for “welcome interaction”. I once discussed this issue with the artist, and he gave a thought-provoking response: you can’t let the audience feel that this mechanism is too obvious to touch, but at the same time, you can’t over-design it otherwise the audience will be completely afraid to touch it. It is precisely because the artist grasped the ambiguous scale between touch and non-touch that when the audience breaks through psychological boundaries to pull and tug, a real viewing cognition leap can occur.
Viewing this exhibition as a whole, six groups of young artists were invited, with a total of ten works exhibited, divided into three categories by the curator: direction, scale, and boundary. The aforementioned two pieces of work are classified under “boundary”. In other words, the so-called “sensory remixing” is not just a change in the arrangement of existing perceptual content, but also a reorganization of existing perceptual frameworks, and even a destruction of these frameworks, enabling the audience to perceive things that were originally outside their perception range.
In this regard, the reason “new media art” is considered “new” is not only because the creative medium itself involves “newness in technology” such as computational technology and virtual imaging, but also how artists, through the use of (or creation of) media that the audience must actively participate in, can make the audience realize the process of perceptual modes being reshaped during participation in the form of creation.
In fact, we can see that most of the works in this exhibition are more like “video installations”, and Manovich has already hinted at us that we may be limited by traditional perceptual frameworks (imagination of media), thus narrowing our understanding of new technological expressions. Conversely, since the new/old nature of technology does not necessarily equate to the new/old of perception, this group of artists demonstrates how to use not overly complicated technology to achieve the manipulation of audience awareness in terms of “cognitive mode/direction” and “cognitive content”.
As we see in Single-Storey Building by Su Tsan-Yuan, categorized under “direction”, the artist constructed a four-channel device that produces an infinite mirror effect when viewers look up. This allows viewers to create an infinitely extending depth of view under the premise of realizing the physical scale of the installation —— new media artists not only manufacture illusions for viewing, but also make viewers aware that they are in the midst of an illusion, as well as the foundation on which their perception is established.
(Translated by ChatGPT May 24 Version, edited by Lee Chia-Lin)
趙鐸
Chao Duo
Chao’s master thesis focuses on Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism during the Song and Ming dynasties. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Fine Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts, with his research on the ethical dimensions of image about individual/collective trauma. His articles can be found among the fan page 藏書閣, filmaholic.tw(釀電影) , BIOS monthly, and Funscreen. He also runs a podcast named “字戀男與變焦女”. Chao is a member of the 5th Golden Horse Asian Cinema Observer Group.
原文刊載於《編集者新聞》VOL.72
This article is originally posted on The Affairs VOL.72.
