H 名字嗎?我有很多個(後台) My name? I have a lot of names (Backstage)

名字嗎?我有很多個(後台)
My name? I have a lot of names (Backstage)

2018,單頻錄像 ,12分00秒
Single-channel video, 12'00"
吳思嶔
WU Sih-Chin

台灣 1985年生於台灣台南,現於台北生活及工作
Taiwan 1985 born in Tainan, Taiwan, now living and working in Taipei

《名字嗎?我有很多個(後台)》是藝術家吳思嶔於2018年5月在台東大武鄉製作的現地創作《名字嗎?我有很多個》的延伸作品。在原創作中描敘了原住民部落中流傳的一支滅絕人種:矮黑人族。作品在大武鄉大鳥溪旁的山丘上,即是當地耆老口中矮黑人族曾經居住的地點設置了一組戶外裝置,這組裝置配合AR擴增實境使用手機觀看,觀眾透過行動裝置發現一位矮黑人的實體,這位矮黑人的構成匯集了口傳、文史檔案及網路資料中所採集的所有資訊,並以第一人稱的方式來詮釋傳說、虛擬、物理真實之間的界線。

而此次於鳳甲美術館展出的《名字嗎?我有很多個(後台)》,則像是幕後花絮般呈現後台技術的工作狀態。這裡的「後台」所指涉的是矮黑人生成的背後方法。無論是原住民口傳中的矮黑人,或是在AR軟體中的矮黑人,都必需藉由特定的技術條件及管道才能觸及。藝術家表示,這個管道即是「語言」,不管是與神靈溝通的咒語或是與電腦溝通的程式語言,都是隱藏在背後組成意識或形體的抽象工具,而我們也藉由這些工具通往信仰與虛擬所建構的實境。

My name? I have a lot of names (Backstage) is derivative work from the work My name? I have a lot of names created on-site at Dawu Township in May 2018 by artist Wu Sih-Chin. In the original work, it is said among the indigenous tribes there was “Ta'ay” (the Little Black people) that went extinct. The work was installed on the hill by the Daniao River in Dawu Township, where a set of outdoor installation is situated at the location the local elders claimed “Ta’ay” once stayed. The installation works with cellphone to create an augmented reality. The audience will pick up one entity of Ta’ay on mobile devices. The existence of this Ta’ay is the aggregation of oral history, documents, and information online, who will interpret the borderlines between legends, virtuality, and physical reality on first person basis.

As for My name? I have a lot of names (Backstage) exhibited at Hong-Gah Museum this time is a display of the operation of the background technology behind the scenes. The “background” here refers to the methodology to generate the Ta’ay. Be it the Ta’ay told among the indigenous people or the Ta’ay in the AR, both requires specific technical conditions and channel to access. The artist suggested that the channel is “language”. Whether it is the spells to communicate with deities or the programming language to talk with computer, they are abstract tools hidden beneath to form the consciousness or entity, with which we tape into the reality constructed in faith or virtuality.