I've mentioned this in the previous post but here it is:
"Charting the Contours of Time is inspired by the archive images of an event designed for blind children at Sunderland Museum in 1912, which was an invitation for them to feel the museum collection through the sense of touch. The participants explored rare objects and artefacts, such as indigenous canoe, human skull, porcelain, giant animal, cobra and polar bear specimens, to construct an individual ‘view’ of the world. This work aims to investigate the authenticity of live art performance. Encircled by six pillars in Warehouse 14 of the Chung Hsing Paper Mill, performers repeatedly scrub a three-meter long, man-made marine animal, carrying out their actions in complete darkness. As audiences enter the constructed situation, they need to watch the performance with night-vision goggles. Apart from one albino performer with amblyopia, other performers include a female twin, a male and the creator of Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel (GMGS).Collectively, they perform the scrubbing of a dead walrus. Throughout the performance, they do not interact with the audience, and only perform their futile labor in pitch-black darkness. The narrow raster image produced by the night-vision goggles partially hinders the audience’s vision, and in a way, makes their viewing more focused. The confined vision underscores the difficulty in viewing. When performers are deprived of the conditions for immediate visual feedback and become unaware of the expressions and their own actions and those of their fellow performers, can such status push for an even more chaotic and boundless performing? Additionally, through low-tech visual devices, the participants can telescope time, and interpenetrate the black circumambient universe and unknown historical event."
I'm so glad there is documentation of the performance though I can only imagine how different it would have felt experiencing it in person through the constrained view. I don't think I've ever experienced 'live art' where you are up close like this. The documentation, though an entirely different experience to actually being there, serves a different strangeness altogether. The way in which it was presented was quite inspiring. The peculiar zooms and unnatural cctv like shifts, the ghostly movements, the flashback of the eyes, I've been collecting screenshots that I want to collage into some works.
https://artouch.com/view/content-3220.html
from what I can gather from this article (my mandarin is rusty), they had this performance for four hours each in the two nights it was held, inviting 1-2 people to go on and watch through the very limited scope of vision through those night goggles (?) in reference to the blind children at Sunderland. the whole performance was in pitch black also (?) but what intrigued me as well is the sounds you hear...
鬼丘鬼鏟的主創人物李奧森（Val Lee）解釋，《近古代臨摹》的發想源起是一張1912年攝於英國桑德爾蘭博物館（Sunderland Museum）盲人觀眾參觀活動的館藏照片，這樣的發想概念，可以呼應2013年底在台北中山堂《白色恐怖白色驚懼白色驚悚小說》（以下簡稱《白色恐怖》），該作的發想同樣來自一張照片，是阿道夫．艾希曼（Adolf Eichmann，納粹德國頭號執行官）在1961年的耶路撒冷大審判，便是由一張照片「臨摹」事件前後而想像延伸的現場藝術（live art）作品。至於《近古代臨摹》，則是從盲人的角度轉化成雕塑概念的「負空間」（negative space），在演員於全黑近乎盲視的狀態，觀眾戴著夜視鏡即是對應於明眼人透過照片來觀看的換喻。
rough google translate:
Val Lee, the main character of the ghost hill and the shovel, explained that the concept of "Limitation of the Ancient Times" originated from a collection of photos taken by a blind audience visiting the Sunderland Museum in the United Kingdom in 1912. This concept of thinking can be echoed in the "White Horror White Horror Novel" (hereinafter referred to as "White Horror") in Taipei Zhongshan Hall at the end of 2013. The idea of the work also came from a photo of Adolf. Adolf Eichmann (Nazi Germany's number one executive officer) in the 1961 Jerusalem Trial was a live art work that was imagined as an extension of a photo before and after the "Limitation" incident. As for "Nine Ancient Copy", it is a "negative space" transformed from a blind person's perspective into a sculptural concept. When the actors are almost blind in the state of black, the audience wearing night vision goggles corresponds to seeing through A metaphor for viewing photos.
-referencing this other 2013 performance
-which was also inspired by the photograph from Adolf Eichmann's 1961 trial (Nazi leader escaped from the Allied forces, captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, where he was executed by hanging in 1962.)
-in CCT, from blind people's perspective turned into sculptural idea of negative space, where the performers are in near-blind state, and the audience with night goggles is looking at the performance like they are looking through a photograph..
「就像雕刻一具馬的雕像，馬腳下的空間如何去挖除，可以使得馬在奔騰或跺行的動作更被那個『負空間』的呈現而更為凸顯，因此對我來說，《近古代臨摹》那全黑的空間，就是讓他們的形體和姿態宛若雕刻後的概念，在刨除的狀態再次顯現。」李奧森補充，現場配戴夜視鏡的觀眾，由於在極低明度的環境只能看到極低的視覺畫質，就像是觀看「點陣影像」（Raster Image）般粗顆粒的畫面感，繼而，他們圍繞在「現場臨摹的演員」周圍，也是為了呼應大型雕刻作品中「群雕」的樣貌。「雕刻的歷史最初多半是單一聖者或英雄式的雕像，當群雕出現後，就開始出現一些小人物、時代中的無名者，例如屠城記、百姓進城這樣的視覺畫面，就屬於群雕，群雕就和那些不知名群眾的歷史，產生了一點關聯。」李奧森進一步闡述了《近古代臨摹》在現場藝術如何和攝影、文件、雕刻史產生時空裡的迴圈關係。
rough google translate:
The reason why it attracted 3 - 400 viewers from the past "Underwater Survival Picture Ship" (the live exhibition of the "Live Ammunition" exhibition in the Contemporary Pavilion in 2011 to the live exhibition of the Zhonghe Ziqiang Swimming Pool), and "White Horror" As for the setting of the works, Li Aosen believes that the most attractive part of "Limitation of Ancient Times" compared to the works of ghost hills and ghost shovel in the past is to be able to deal with a single and tiny point of view that was not easy to dig in the past. Or the weirdness or black absurdity presented in "White Horror", most of the whole scene is the occurrence of multiple points in the field, and the behavior of multiple groups of states overlaps, "So I was wondering if I could do it this time." "The smallest unit" is also an experiment of live performance. In the dark state, does the performance change? In the past, performance art has always been used to discuss its "authenticity" (or "authenticity") What is it, but after such discussion for a long time, the basic definition framework restrictions such as "what is the authenticity of the documentary" flow, so we let the performers see each other in the black and the audience Reaction (only red dots will appear in the night vision goggles of the live audience), in that situation, we may have the opportunity to discuss another possibility of the authenticity of live art or performance art. "Leo Sen described it as if the performer was in A state of deep-sea fish with only a few faint luminaries around.
在這些稀缺的作品見證者之中，又是如何舉措呢？李奧森形容《近古代臨摹》的現場狀態，由於作品僅僅描述是要針對一張一世紀前的照片進行臨摹狀態的演出，加上又是每次一位或兩位的觀眾依序在外等候進入，但場內由羅皓博設計的音樂聲響又頗為大聲而詭異，因此在觀眾等候的時候就已呈現不小的不安感，到了漆黑的場內，觀眾會先被工作人員偶爾給予肢體上的引導，到演出場的中央附近，才會發給他們夜視鏡。「有些人戴上夜視鏡之後，因為要確認看到的影像是否真的存在於空間裡（以為是VR眼鏡），也有像黃亞歷那樣，很快就自己玩了起來，這也讓我們可以觀察到觀眾如何觀看作品的適應本能。」
表演者看不到彼此，那這個現場「演出」又該不該有個行為腳本？在《近古代臨摹》裡，團隊只有給予演出者幾個像是催眠式的動作，演員只需要從這些基本的動作在現場即時地自主發揮。「當你在表演卻又看不到的時候，你會真的放棄『表演』這件事，所有人演完只覺得好像在夢裡，也因此，我們不需要再去討論行為藝術或現場性真不真實的問題。」李奧森再次強調全黑空間所鬆解掉，真實性就會如同雕刻的負空間一般被雕塑出來。而此作裡，李奧森商請了一位白化症（albinism）的友人參與演出，這個演出設定，則又似另一層演出者的實驗組與對照組，因為白化症的視覺畏光且弱視，在漆黑的空間裡就相對顯得沒那麼不適應，甚至可以說，白化症透過虹膜的視覺感，是介於其他演員和配戴夜視鏡者的觀眾與工作人員的狀態，透過這樣的對照關係，進一步翻轉了在明亮空間裡的視覺優勢狀態，也隱然回應了1912年那張博物館照片的攝影現場與觀看攝影者的關係。
-referencing this other 2013 performance
-which was also inspired by the photograph from Adolf Eichmann's 1961 trial (Nazi leader escaped from the Allied forces, captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, where he was executed by hanging in 1962.)
-in CCT, from blind people's perspective turned into sculptural idea of negative space, where the performers are in near-blind state, and the audience with night goggles is looking at the performance like they are looking through a photograph..
 |
| Adolf Eichmann receiving his sentence listening as the court declares him guilty on all counts at his war crimes trial in Jerusalem, 1961. |
「就像雕刻一具馬的雕像，馬腳下的空間如何去挖除，可以使得馬在奔騰或跺行的動作更被那個『負空間』的呈現而更為凸顯，因此對我來說，《近古代臨摹》那全黑的空間，就是讓他們的形體和姿態宛若雕刻後的概念，在刨除的狀態再次顯現。」李奧森補充，現場配戴夜視鏡的觀眾，由於在極低明度的環境只能看到極低的視覺畫質，就像是觀看「點陣影像」（Raster Image）般粗顆粒的畫面感，繼而，他們圍繞在「現場臨摹的演員」周圍，也是為了呼應大型雕刻作品中「群雕」的樣貌。「雕刻的歷史最初多半是單一聖者或英雄式的雕像，當群雕出現後，就開始出現一些小人物、時代中的無名者，例如屠城記、百姓進城這樣的視覺畫面，就屬於群雕，群雕就和那些不知名群眾的歷史，產生了一點關聯。」李奧森進一步闡述了《近古代臨摹》在現場藝術如何和攝影、文件、雕刻史產生時空裡的迴圈關係。
rough google translate:
"It's like carving a statue of a horse. How to dig out the space under the horse's feet can make the movement of the horse's galloping or stomping more prominent by the presentation of the" negative space ", so for me," The completely black space of "Limitation Copying" is to make their shape and posture resemble the sculpted concept again in the state of being cut away. "Li Osen added that the audience wearing night vision goggles on the scene, due to the extremely low brightness The environment can only see the extremely low visual quality, like the rough grain of the "Raster Image", and then they surround the "actual copying actors", also to echo the large The appearance of "group carvings" in sculptures. "The history of carving was mostly a single saint or heroic statue. After the appearance of the group carvings, some small figures and unknown people in the era, such as the Tujia Ji and the people entering the city, belong to the group carvings. The group carvings have a little connection with the history of those unknown masses. "Li Aosen further explained how the art of" Limitation "in the near ancient times and the history of photography, documents, and the history of sculpture have a cyclic relationship.
之所以從過去《海底求生圖艦》（2011年當代館『活彈藥』展拉到場外的中和自強游泳池的現場展演作）、《白色恐怖》這兩件同場吸納3、400位觀眾的作品設定，李奧森認為《近古代臨摹》相較過去鬼丘鬼鏟作品最吸引她的部份，就是得以處理過去不容易挖掘的單一且微小的視點，因為無論是《海底求生圖艦》或《白色恐怖》所呈現出的詭譎、或黑色荒謬，整場大半是場域內多點發生、複數群境的行為狀態交疊，「所以我就在想，能否這一次就做個『最小單位』，同時也是現場演出的實驗，在全黑的狀態，表演是否發生質變？過往，行為藝術總被拿來討論的是它的『真實性』（authenticity，或稱為『本真』）是什麼，但這樣的討論久了，就流於『紀錄片的真實性是什麼』這類的基本定義框架限制，於是我們讓演出者在全黑看不到彼此，也不清楚觀眾的反應（現場觀眾的夜視鏡只會出現紅點），在那種情境，我們或許有機會討論現場藝術或行為藝術的真實性的另一種可能。」李奧森形容，那就像演出者在一種深海魚的狀態，四周只有幾個微弱的發光體。
The reason why it attracted 3 - 400 viewers from the past "Underwater Survival Picture Ship" (the live exhibition of the "Live Ammunition" exhibition in the Contemporary Pavilion in 2011 to the live exhibition of the Zhonghe Ziqiang Swimming Pool), and "White Horror" As for the setting of the works, Li Aosen believes that the most attractive part of "Limitation of Ancient Times" compared to the works of ghost hills and ghost shovel in the past is to be able to deal with a single and tiny point of view that was not easy to dig in the past. Or the weirdness or black absurdity presented in "White Horror", most of the whole scene is the occurrence of multiple points in the field, and the behavior of multiple groups of states overlaps, "So I was wondering if I could do it this time." "The smallest unit" is also an experiment of live performance. In the dark state, does the performance change? In the past, performance art has always been used to discuss its "authenticity" (or "authenticity") What is it, but after such discussion for a long time, the basic definition framework restrictions such as "what is the authenticity of the documentary" flow, so we let the performers see each other in the black and the audience Reaction (only red dots will appear in the night vision goggles of the live audience), in that situation, we may have the opportunity to discuss another possibility of the authenticity of live art or performance art. "Leo Sen described it as if the performer was in A state of deep-sea fish with only a few faint luminaries around.
rough google translate:
Among the witnesses of these scarce works, how is it done? Li Aosen described the on-site status of "Nine Ancient Copying", because the work only describes the performance of the copying state for a photo from a century ago, plus one or two audiences waiting in sequence Enter, but the sound of the music designed by Luo Haobo is quite loud and strange, so when the audience waits, there is already a lot of anxiety. In the dark venue, the audience will be first given occasional staff on the body They will be issued night vision goggles only near the center of the performance. "Some people put on night vision goggles because they want to confirm whether the images they see actually exist in the space (think VR glasses), and some like Huang Yali, they quickly played by themselves, which also allows us to observe To the instinct of how the audience watched the work. "
rough google translate:
Performers can't see each other, should this live "performance" have a behavior script? In "Limitation of Ancient Times", the team only gave the performers a few hypnotic movements, and the actors only had to perform these actions on the spot in real time. "When you are performing, but you can't see it, you will really give up the" performance ". Everyone just feels like they are in a dream after the performance. Therefore, we do not need to discuss performance art or liveness. The question of whether it ’s true or not. ”Leosen once again emphasized that all black space was loosened, and the authenticity would be sculpted like a carved negative space. In this work, Leosen invited a friend of albinism to participate in the performance. This performance setting is similar to the experimental group and control group of another layer of performers, because the vision of albinism is photophobic and amblyopic. In the dark space, it is relatively uncomfortable. It can even be said that the visual sense of albinism through the iris is the state of the audience and staff between other actors and night vision goggles. The relationship further reversed the state of visual superiority in a bright space, and also implicitly responded to the relationship between the photography site of the museum photo in 1912 and the photographer.
綜此，李奧森認為，與其說《近古代臨摹》是一場現場表演，更不如說它是個重新看待全知與未知、可見與不可見、歷史事件時空認知的明或盲的討論關係。而觀演作品的稀缺性，鬼丘鬼鏟認為那端視作品想探討的核心概念而定，它不因為稀缺而珍貴，倒是一種作品在觀演關係如何透過「作品是否要讓觀看者充份感受到細微的差異」而定。
rough google translate:
In summary, Li Aosen believes that, rather than saying that "Limitation of Ancient Times" is a live performance, it is better to say that it is a clear or blind discussion relationship that re-looks at omniscience and unknown, visible and invisible, and historical and temporal cognition of historical events. As for the scarcity of performances, Ghost Hill and Spade believe that it depends on the core concept that the work wants to explore, it is not precious because of scarcity, but it is a kind of work in the relationship between performance and viewing Feel the subtle differences ".
things to think about..
-black and white, raster image (pixels instead of vector), zooms, cctv, flashback eyes, sounds/recordings/anxiety-inducing mysic, space and touch, albinism and low vision
