Bring your EasyCard and smartphone to have fun with Photon+!

 

By Wei Ruyu, compiled and reported

 

This year marks the first anniversary of New Taipei City’s upgrade to municipal status. The New Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs has organized the 2011 New Taipei City International Technological Art Exchange Exhibition – “Photon+” – inviting ten artists (or artist groups) from France, Canada, and Taiwan. Combining diverse media such as video, interactive controls, sound, and LED, they use “light” as a medium through “photons” to create a variety of interactive works limited only by imagination. The exhibition runs until February 12th of next year at the Beautiful Yong’an Living Museum (2nd floor, Yong’an Market MRT Station) and admission is free.

 

Among them, the artists use light to symbolize flickering life, giving birth to five interactive works that audiences can engage with through touch and hearing. These include Luo Heliang and Chen Yichun’s collaboration “Light Forest – Deep Pure Land,” Huang Zhijie’s “Auditory Creatures,” San Shi’s “Sound Knight – SJ,” Alechey Maier’s “Rest on the Table,” and Jiang Zhenwei’s “Sound Object – Summer.” All of these works use sensing technology to receive signals such as bodily movements and sounds from people nearby, generating feedback and communication through rhythmic sounds.

 

Additionally, through interactive software set up by the artists, audiences’ EasyCards and smartphone apps can interact with the artworks in real time. Examples include the iPhone app used in the performance piece “Lucianne’s Dinner” by the Li Qingzhao Private Theater Troupe, Gregory Chatonsky’s fingerprint scanner in “Not Knowing What to Do,” and the reading of EasyCard codes in Jin Qiping and Wu Guanying’s “Electronic Monster Festival – Battle Edition.” These all transform personal and digitized symbolic codes into unique light and shadow images through interactive reading programs, reflecting the multiple virtual identities of individuals in the technological era, and the simultaneously familiar yet estranged sense of alienation between each other.

 

During the exhibition period, there will be several forums, expert-guided tours, and interesting creative workshops, allowing everyone to freely experience the joy of creating technological art. For details on schedules and content, please visit the official Photon+ website at web.culture.tpc.gov.tw/2011photon.