Post-Digital Anthropocene – International Techno Art Exhibition

Introduction

“Post-digital Anthropocene – International Techno Art Exhibition” attempts to combine two significant contemporary thoughts, in which the term “post-digital” as art forms resulting from the rapidly changing relationship between mankind and digital technology, and how art, not the digital technology applied, is more tightly connected to human’s realistic conditions of survival; and, the “Anthropocene” lies in the fact that it is an epoch with massive accumulation of entropy, a world where anthropisation is prevalent. This theoretical discourse reveals concerns for blind optimism towards technology and rejects it as the only certainty.

Bearing the aforementioned in mind, the overarching theme of this exhibition is “Post-digital Anthropocene”, and in collaboration with the Muestra De Arte Digital Audiovisual & Tecnologías Acontemporáneas (MADATAC) in Spain, new generation artists from Taiwan and Spain that specialize in techno art are invited to present their profound observations on humanity and culture in the contemporary digital era. A common thread is observed with the artworks on view in Post-digital Anthropocene, which is that the “human-nature-technology” relation presented via art is no longer just focused on representations created with material symbols, but emphasis is on the entire process and how the process is generated. This hybridity formed by repeating certain elements and layers from each constituent in the relation highlights that the individualization of humans in the everyday world has gradually become a phenomenon, a movement, a process, where layers overlap and lead to a spatialized time.

The invited 12 artists depart from their own individual perspectives to discuss their own everyday conditions, to explore the many different issues surrounding themselves and the external environment. On the other hand, as viewers partake in the artworks, they are also forming relationships with the corporeal and perceptual world. The experience is not only a way to get to know the world, but distinctive comprehensions for the world are also unveiled. In conclusion, this exhibition proposes a picture on the contemporary time, and through the somewhat interrelated evolution of natural objects, digital media, and virtual technology. It offers the audience an impression of a multifaceted secondary space that allows the experiences of seeing, participating, and manipulating to be compared and contrasted, with images, robotic installations, and hypertext simulated actions converted and differentiated. Installations, media, and technologies are applied by the contributing artists to create a place of art that is filled with elements of mediation. Through artificial installations that represent natural objects, image installations that integrate the perceptual senses, and virtual technology that highlights the embodiment relation, a post-digital Anthropocene worldview is presented.

Curator

Chih-Yung CHIU

Iury LECH

Artist

Aluan WANG

Ana MARCOS ＋ Alfonso VILLANUEVA

Chen-Wei CHIANG

David RODRÍGUEZ GIMENO

Eugenio AMPUDIA

FabLab Dynamic

Iury LECH

Juan Carlos SÁNCHEZ DUQUE

Nieves DE LA FUENTE

Ping-Yeh LI

Sheng-Chieh WANG

Shu-Yu LIN

＊In alphabetical order by first name