| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北藝術大學 === 美術學系碩士在職專班 === 101 === By transforming the nature of an object trove, or found object, I turned the intangible force of conditioning into a discernible visual image, which is my approach to art. Such an intangible force seems to be an individual’s destiny as a result of circumstances. While people are restricted by external conditioning and attraction, their continuous attempts at getting rid of restrictions, norms and doctrines lead to vague forms, which by means of clustering appear to be somewhat clearly exhibited/seen and generate satisfaction for being seen and understood. Am I satisfied because I am seen? Or do I feel satisfied because I am given the power of existence? I keep asking myself these and other questions while engaged in design projects, which probably reflects the uncertainties over my grasp on realities; my eagerness to fight against and yet hesitantly seek identification with something/someone; my desire to remove any thought that disagrees with how the society functions and yet to preserve my state of life.
Consequently, the individual found objects are clustered not only to initiate what appears to be a silent dialogue about the force of reality-oriented conditioning, but also to suggest an inaudible protest against the oppressive social power structure that leaves the individual lives on the verge of collapse. When the found objects are transformed into codes, what used to be a simple and relatively concrete reference to an abstract situation is changed into the language of a more powerful dialogue. The transformed codes spread in the so-called “public space” to devour spatial structures in a hardly readable manner. In my definition of spatial concepts, a space symbolizes the diverse, forbidden and restrictive metaphors in our society: the shift among identities and the varying forms of a space are metaphors on different/diverse levels resulted from consciousness. From external or self-conditioning on the subconscious level to the devouring by illegible codes, every aspect of a person’s consciousness is intended to test the boundary of a particular space.
My translation of a space, in this case, is “the implicit force of groups that imposes upon everyone in a society the seemingly reasonable norms constructed under various social systems.” The first such social system is the structure of social establishments the author perceives in her life process as an individual, which is constructed and then devoured by the author. Secondly, the non-specific arenas in a society are where the devouring takes place, and resistance occurs as the devouring intensifies in those implicitly restrictive arenas. Thirdly, the shifts among social structures/establishments spark not only efforts to utilize vehicles/simulations that are architecture in nature, but also the intensified installations of codes in a larger and more complete space, which in turn enhance the multi-layer dialogues among spatial structures. In this case, I decided to use symbols that are the transformation and massive replication of a found object, with their discernibleness undermined by multi-layer dialogues. Eventually, the codes become the conditioning mechanism itself as people’s thinking is cultivated by the power structure. The fact that people and things have become the conditioning mechanism itself (and symbols of such a mechanism) is a result of monopoly as the general public is domesticated by, and compromise with, the social culture.
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