生命的傳遞與轉譯
文／蔡宏賢（本展策展人）
《生生LIVES》是對於「生命」永恆的探問，無論科技如何進展與變化，我們總是好奇「生命」從哪裡來？是如何生成？我們是誰，可以是誰？會往哪裡去？意義又是什麼？
科學從模擬生物細胞的「細胞自動機」到數位生命原湯中的「生命遊戲」，生命可能源自簡單的生存法則，偶然的干預，開啟生命演算組合的無限可能，同時造就了人工模擬已知或未知生命系統的研究發展。人類的生命在浩瀚無垠的宇宙中，代表了何種意義？基因除了是生命的組構密碼外，同時也可成為文明的訊息載體，一首詩歌、陰道收縮的聲音，都能合成至基因分子中，成為人類生命與外星生命溝通的橋樑。透過〈無限引擎〉的運作，基因得以被編輯、改造與重組成為全新的生命形態，卻也立即引發新形態生命的身份認同提問。當女性能夠由自體產生象徵男性產物的精子時，徹底顛覆了既有傳統的生殖架構囿限，人類生命誕生的神聖二元性崩毀下，產生出一種全新女性／跨性別的宗教崇拜。
〈酷兒白蟻計畫〉虛構出跨物種的生存未來，狀似勇敢探索人與非人生物的共存新關係，更直指期盼「酷兒生態系」未來共存的生活景致。無論生命轉化成任何型態或具有無限的延續可能，現下我們仍需面對生命的逝去與終結。〈遺書／輸入的痕跡〉裝置機械鍵盤上下起落運動與其溢射出的敘事光芒，代表了一個人類生命最終的情感細膩交代與記憶的回放，生命最重之處在於最後訊息的傳遞。
Lives Disseminated and Interpreted
Text / Escher Tsai (Curator)
The exhibition LIVES pertains to the eternal interrogation of life itself: regardless of technological advancements and changes, our curiosity about the origins of life persists. Whence is life generated? Who are we, and who can we become? What is life’s direction? What is life’s meaning?
From using cellular automata to model biological cells, to the primordial soup of digital life in Game of Life, science has suggested a possible origin of life as a simple law of survival, where accidental interventions open up infinite possible calculations and combinations. Concurrently, this has contributed to the research and development of artificial simulations of known and unknown life systems. What is the significance of human life in a vast and infinite universe? Beyond a code from which life is constructed, genetics may also become an informational vehicle for civilization. A lyrical poem or the sound of vaginal contractions may all be synthesized into genetic molecules that bridge communications between human life and alien life. Through the operation of an Infinity Engine, genes are edited, altered, and recombined to become brand-new lifeforms, which immediately ignites questions on the self-identification of new forms of life. Traditional limitations of the reproductive framework are thoroughly subverted when women are able to produce symbolically-male reproductive sperm cells within their own bodies. This collapse of the sacred duality of human birth produces a brand-new female/transgender religious worship.
Queer Termite Project simulates a future of interspecies survival that bravely explores a new relationship of co-existence between human and non-human beings, and directly points to an anticipated future life vista of coexistence in a “queer ecosystem.” Regardless of what forms life may mutate into, or of the potential for infinite continuity - we must inevitably confront the passage of, and final end of life. The alternating up-and-down motion of the mechanical keyboard in the Last Words/Type Trace installation, and the rays of light that spills forth from its narratives, represent the exquisite emotional accounts and memory playback at the end of a human life: the most important aspect of life is in the final message conveyed.
生之賦形、生之運行、生之碎形──關於《生生LIVES》展
文／鄭慧華（本展策展人）
在老莊哲學裡，「生」指的是動力和作用力：「道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物」，萬物於陰陽和合中蘊生，乃至生生不息。而每一次的生又依於一次的滅，達到能量的循環和平衡。《山海經》裡，則描述了一種名為「息壤」的神物──可「遇損則生」，是能夠不斷自我增長、演化的土壤。這種物質性的意象傳述了古人對於生生不息、永不耗竭的想望。然而這些以各種方式來解釋與論證的「生之宇宙論」，似乎也暗示了人類本能上期冀超克有限的命運，並在每一個時代以不同的方式找尋「生命煉金術」的欲望。
《生生LIVES》緣起於忠泰美術館成立五週年、並將邁向下一個五年之際，這是一個同時具有回顧與前瞻雙重象徵意義的時間點；另一方面，它也是基於此刻，人們正遭遇當代經驗中前所未有的「生之危機」而展開的宏觀題旨。
《生生LIVES》欲以藝術的創造力挖掘關於「生命」、「生存」與「生活」這三個最為本質，卻也是當下最激進的命題，包括探索生命形式和生存的倫理與哲學。特別是今日，從個體的信仰到社會的集體意識，「生存」的概念已然遠遠超越生物本能而成為高度政治體制化的生命技術建構。由此出發，展覽將圍繞著人與自然、科技發展與生命形塑、訊息與意識之間的關係，而展開環環相扣、複雜而龐大的命題。而我們在展覽中，可以以喬瑟夫．坎伯（Joseph Campbell）神話學語境裡的「英雄之旅」來作為一種進入和想像的方式，隨著藝術家的思想足跡抽絲剝繭，深入生命的賦形與運行，並從中體認「生之碎形」──生活內在的實相。同時，《生生LIVES》也期待觀者能以這三者共構出的視野，來對自身的生命、生存和生活狀態進行更深層次的探勘。
The Formation, Operation and Fractalization of Life—On the Exhibition “LIVES”
Text / Amy Cheng (Curator)
In the philosophical edifice of Daoism, “Sheng” (life) refers to impetus and force: “The Way generates the Unique; the Unique generates the Double; the Double generates the Triplet; the Triplet generates the myriad things.” The harmony between yin and yang incubates the myriad things that grow and multiply in an endless cycle. The end of a life marks the beginning of another, hence the dynamic balance of energy. Besides, in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, “Xirang” (lit. living earth) is a magical substance known as “autopoietic soil that will expand and evolve when suffering damage.” Our ancient ancestors’ hunger for inexhaustibility finds vivid expression in such material imagery. These “cosmologies of life,” interpreted and argued in whatever manner, also show signs of the human urge to transcend the hand of fate through the “alchemy of life” in each epoch.
The exhibition LIVES arises at an opportune time when the Jut Art Museum is celebrating its 5th anniversary and looking forward to its next five-year development. On the one hand, this is a significant point in time that is as much retrospective as forward-looking. On the other hand, what runs through the exhibition is the macroscopic theme addressed in response to the unprecedented “crisis of life” hitting contemporary people here and now.
The exhibition LIVES is intended to harness the power of artistic creativity to explore the most essential and contemporarily the most radical propositions — “life,” “survival,” and “living” — that involve life forms and also the ethics and philosophy of existence. Especially in the wake of the global crisis today and whether in terms of individual beliefs or collective consciousness, the concept of “survival” has gone far beyond biological instinct and become a bio-technological construct which is nothing if not politically sophisticated and institutionalized. Against this very background, the exhibition seeks to tackle interrelated, portmanteau propositions by revolving around the relationships between humanity and nature, technological advancement and life formation, as well as between message and consciousness. We may enter and imagine this exhibition from the perspective of the “hero’s journey” in the mythological context popularized by Joseph Campbell, whereby we can follow the artists’ ideological footsteps to the kernel of life forms and survival, and ergo comprehend the “fractals of life” — the inner truth of our quotidian existence. Meanwhile, this exhibition expects the visitors to delve deeper into the state of their own life, survival, and living from the new horizons opened up by the relational trinity.