SAW Dialogues 2022 | Speculations On The Virtual
Ho Tzu Nyen, Mi You and Daniel Birnbaum
By Shalyn Lim
Screenshot of talk. From left to right: Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director, Acute Art, London, Ho Tzu Nyen, Visual Artist, Mi You, Professor of Art and Economies, University of Kassel / documenta Institut.
Key points:
Augmented Reality (AR) is an effective intervention tool for art in the public sphere.
The pandemic has caused a positive paradigm shift for the evolution of AR and Virtual Reality (VR).
The role of art in the technological universe is to engage the body and its experiences between the bodily and the virtual.
The process of documenting, archiving and preserving virtual artworks is improving by leaps and bounds.
‘Speculations On The Virtual’, co-presented with National Gallery Singapore as part of SAW Dialogues 2022 took place on 15 January from 4pm. Visual artist Ho Tzu Nyen and Mi You, Professor of Art and Economies, University of Kassel / documenta Institut, discussed the philosophical implications of the turn towards the virtual. This session was moderated by Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director, Acute Art, London.
Here are the takeaways from the panel discussion:
Augmented Reality (AR) is an effective intervention tool for art in the public sphere. In the first half of the discussion, Tzu Nyen talked about his use of AR and Virtual Reality (VR) in his work ‘Language’, newly commissioned for the Light to Night Festival 2022 and how his interest in Japanese philosophy, in particular in the Kyoto School, shaped his works. Tzu Nyen explained that it refers to a group of philosophers who circle around the key figure Kitarō Nishida and made references to his students, Kitaru and Hajime Tanabe. Tzu Nyen also highlighted a specific Hajime Tanabe text titled, ‘Death-Life’, which he translated into ‘Language’ and explained that the design of ‘Mecha’ in the work is military green with a single red eye as it was used during World War II for kamikaze attacks. As such, the ‘Mecha’ in the work speaks the text of Tanabe telling students that dying for the state is sublime. Daniel pointed out that Tzu Nyen’s work is a prime example of conversation and speculation on the virtual.
The pandemic has caused a positive paradigm shift for the evolution of AR and Virtual Reality (VR). Daniel identified that the world has been through a number of paradigm shifts through the introduction of photography, cinema, television and the internet. With the advancement of technology, there is a cluster of new possibilities connected with AR, VR and mixed reality. Daniel also made an analogy to the pandemic as a “dress rehearsal” for bigger transformations, in which the general atmosphere, climate and context come together like a “perfect storm” and these possibilities get more attention and fuller conversations. Mi You agreed that the pandemic has brought a whole dimension of the body and an experience of solidarity, and surmised that technology ultimately comes out of a collective. She shared that numerous philosophers' theories push technology back to the more unified experience of magic or cosmological experiences that understands the place of a human in the universe. Additionally, she observed that ‘Language’ gives some sense of an acceleration into the cosmological dimensions of technology.
The role of art in the technological universe is to engage the body and its experiences between the bodily and the virtual. Tzu Nyen noted that ‘Voices of the Void’, an earlier iteration of ‘Language’ shown at the Yamaguchi Centre of Arts and Media, made use of VR as well, because he observed that newer mediums capture the imagination of the society. He explained that his use of technology in his works links to the idea of recreating a montage with new associations. Transferring the notion of a place of “absolute nothingness” into a VR world sparks a connection between the bodily and the virtual. Tzu Nyen believes that the roots of technology is still very much our body and its experiences born out of this contrast between the physical and virtual realities.
The process of documenting, archiving and preserving virtual artworks is improving by leaps and bounds. Tzu Nyen compared the present to the past by explaining how physical mediums like VHS tapes made it very complicated to reshow works and how the present is consistently producing data which assists in keeping the form alive. Commenting on the metaverse and blockchain, Mi You explained that what we are actually documenting is the index of two things rather than the things themselves. In addition, she pointed out that the collectivity has somehow moved from engaging to remembering the pathways, or index, to things and learning how to navigate that.
In conclusion, ‘Speculations On The Virtual' gave insight into the endless potential of exploring AR and VR as well as tackling the implications using such mediums. It encapsulates the collective excitement in the art world for the increased experimentations at the intersection between art and technology.
Watch the full recording of ‘SAW Dialogues 2022 | Speculations On The Virtual’ here:
