The Future Life, Future You – Digital, Machine and Cyborgs

2023-09-09 to 2024-01-28

Preface / Jut Art Museum


We, in the Future

Have you ever imagined yourself as a cyborg, a human-machine system with mechanical implants in your body?

Today, artificial intelligence has an ever-widening range of applications. It works in tandem with technologies and algorithms. While they’re inventing new ways to alter the environment, their influence extends as far as the modality and evolution of life. In this sense, humans and technologies have co-constructed an unprecedented context of life. The fluidity of “life” and “body” in terms of definition and cognition has led to the gradual acceptance of machines as a form of life, which ushered in an era of a new relational network interlaced by “humans” and “machines.”

If “humanity” is the ideological foundation for life, the exhibition Dasein—Born to Be Human that ended recently could be understood as an endeavor to cogitate upon the existence and essence of humankind from the angle of a mortal “human being,” with the aim of collating the relationships between humans and themselves, humans and others, as well as between humans and the environment. Looking into the time to come, the exhibition The Future Life, Future You – Digital, Machine and Cyborgs further explores the forms and meanings of life, viz., its raison d’être. As life is gradually transcending the physical confines of the corporeal body whether in the realm of reality or that of virtuality, human beings, animals, and organisms of all stripes have taken on a brand new form of life against the contemporary social milieu. In view of this, how do we redefine our very existence?

Jut Art Museum has maintained a long-term focus on issues concerning “city” and “future” through contemporary art exhibitions. This exhibition features a total of 15 artists/artist groups from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan, who use their respective artistic vocabulary to reflect the diversity of future life-forms and challenge the viewer’s limited imagination about known natural creatures. Since our contemporary life evolves constantly with technologies, how do we adapt and move forward accordingly? We expect the dialogues unfolding in this exhibition to provide future human beings with refreshing narratives and creative imaginations about life.

Curatorial Statement

Curator: Bo-Cheng Shen 

Life and its meaning have been the most profound questions throughout human history. The contemplation and imagination of life have served as the driving force behind intellectual pursuits, artistic creations, and various forms of creative expression. Like philosophy and science, art continues to explore and represent life through boundless imagination. The exhibition The Future Life, Future You - Digital, Machine and Cyborgs aims to portray the new environment of life shaped by artificial intelligence, cyborgs, and human intervention in species, within the era of Techno Re-Genesis.

If the question “What life is（for）?” has been the fundamental inquiry behind the works of artists throughout history, then contemporary artists inevitably strive to direct their focus towards the future of “life" as the great works of the past have done. Consequently, the exhibition The Future Life, Future You - Digital, Machine and Cyborgs intends to project not only the “technology” related to life but also the humanistic contemplation and aesthetic concerns about “the faces of life” in the context of new technological scenarios. When viewers gaze upon the artworks of the artists, they are truly contemplating inquiries, imaginations, and reflections about various new “lives” and the circumstances surrounding them.

Just as English environmentalist James Lovelock (1919-2022) says: “Life clearly does more than adapt to the Earth. It changes the Earth to its own purposes. Evolution is a tightly coupled dance, with life and the material environment as partners. From the dance emerges the entity Gaia.” Humans and technology have co-constructed entirely new life scenarios, and artists are leading viewers to contemplate these novel issues of life.

 

Artists:

*The list shows in order of stroke numbers by artists’ Mandarin surnames.

  • Universal Everything (U.K)
  • JIZAI ARMS project team (Japan)
  • Aiden Faherty (U.S.A)
  • Patrick Tresset (France)
  • Hassan Ragab (Egypt)
  • Martin Backes (Germany)
  • Markos Kay (U.K)
  • Mal Bueno (Mexico)
  • Yi Chen (Taiwan)
  • Wan-Jen Chen (Taiwan)
  • Jake Elwes (U.K)
  • Newyellow (Taiwan)
  • Simple noodle art - Zi-Yin Chen & Gotop Chuang (Taiwan)
  • Moon Ribas (Spain)
  • Hui-Yu Su (Taiwan)

 

  • Venue｜Jut Art Museum, Jut Headquarter Lobby (No.178, Sec. 3, Civic Blvd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan) 
  • Opening Hours｜TUE-SUN 10:00-18:00 (Closed on Mondays)
  • Jut Headquarter Lobby｜Monday to Sunday 10:00-18:00 (Closed on national holidays)
  • Admission｜General TWD 100, Concessions TWD 80 (Student, seniors aged 65 and above, and groups of 10 or more)
  • Free Admission for the disabled and a companion, children aged 12 and under (Concessions or Free Admission upon presentation of valid proof)
  • Student Day｜Free Admission once on WED (With valid student ID)

 

  • Exhibition Team
    • Exhibition Supervisors｜Aaron Y. L. Lee, Alex Y. H. Lee, Shan-Shan Huang
    • Curatorial Executive │ Sean C.S. Hu
    • Exhibition Coordinators｜ Ying-Peng Chen, Szu-An Chen
    • Assistant Coordinators｜Yu-Chen Tsai, Yen-Hsiu Chen, Tsuei-Yi Jang (Jut Art Museum),
    • 　　　　　　　　　　　　Shing-Jung Lu, Jenny Yang, You-Yun Wang (Hu’s Art)
    • Exhibition Construction Support｜Norman Chen, Shih-Yi Chen
    • Communications and Marketing Coordinator｜Szu-An Chen
    • Communications and Marketing｜Yen-Shan Li, Chi-Yun Chang, Shu-Yuan Chang, Yu-Hsuan Lin
    • Public Service Coordinator｜Shu-Yuan Chang
    • Public Service｜Yi-Chen Hung
    • Administration Coordinator｜Kuo-Ming Miao
    • Exhibition Assistants｜Han-Chin Ho
    • Graphic Designers｜Wen-Ru Wei , Yen-Ru Chen
    • Multimedia Design & Executive｜UN ART

 

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