Taiwan media artists set to challenge perceptions of reality at Paris festival

2018/09/18

Taiwan artists will challenge perceptions of reality with their digital works—including a Venice Film Festival prizewinner—at an interactive exhibition Sept. 18-23 as part of a Paris-wide festival celebrating overseas culture, according to the Ministry of Culture.
 
 Utilizing virtual and augmented reality technologies, the Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris-organized show “Reality Factory” is hosted by gallery EP7 for the annual Semaine des Cultures Etrangeres—or Foreign Culture Week.
 
“Aqua AR” by the exhibition’s curator Lin Jin-yao is experienced through a tablet that inserts and animates the visitor’s drawings into the camera function to create a virtual aquarium.
 
“Corps raccords” by France-based Chiang Chia-chi and French digital artist Raphael Isdant invites visitors in pairs to place their palms on a device and touch hands. These interactions are analyzed and translated into a quote culled from Twitter posts and displayed on a screen.
 
“EP7, 1” by Tao Ya-lun employs a moving platform and a VR headset to lead visitors into an ever-expanding virtual space. The project’s prototype “Prado No. 1, 2 and 3” was named Best New Media Art Installation at the 2018 International Exhibition of Digital Audiovisual Art and Acontemporary Technologies in Madrid.
 
“La Camera Insabbiata” by Huang Hsin-chien and U.S. composer and artist Laurie Anderson is the highlight of the exhibition, having won the Best VR Experience Award at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Visitors don headsets to tour eight rooms in an exploration of the connection between memory and written text.
 
“Soft You” by France-based Chang Hsia-fei is a collage of digital media art displayed via 12 giant screens on the gallery’s facade. The images were produced by software that has learned to mimic Chang’s style by analyzing her data.
 
 Foreign culture week, now in its 17th edition, has institutions from 30 countries and territories taking part this year. The cultural center has been helping Taiwan artists participate in the event since 2002.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=18&post=141694)