主編語
Editor-in-chief’s Note

Editor’s Note

Wang Po-Wei

Abstract

Since the 1990s, due to the lifting of martial law, the shackles imposed by authoritarian political ideology on people’s daily life has been gradually breaking down. The accumulating social energy has burst out through different pathways, while the body and social movement, performance art, theatrical performance, or dance that take the bodies as the medium tremendously search for various forms of presentation. Chih-Yung Aaron CHIU ponders the relationship among “body,” subjectivized individuals, and mechanical devices from the perspective of “puppets” and “robots” in his article, “Avatar Acting: ‘variants’ and ‘robot/human’ in digital performances.” With the examples of works of Zhang Xu-Zhan, ET@T, and Huang Yi, Chiu believes that there is a trend of integration between humans and machines.

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Stand-in Performance: The “Variant” and “Machine/Human” in Digital Performing Arts

Chih-Yung Aaron CHIU

Professor, Interdisciplinary Program of Technology and Art, College of Arts, National Tsing Hua University

Abstract

Since the 1980s, performing arts have systematically harnessed the power of media technologies and thereby evolved a sui generis genre. The consequence has become apparent in the continual appearance of several elements such as “stand-in,” “puppet” and “robot” in a multitude of performances as avant-garde as experimental. In light of the salient feature of this trend, this paper seeks to examine the cultural implications
of “variant” and “machine/human” in contemporary digital performances by dint of three case studies, including the “paper puppet” in Hsin Hsin Joss Paper Store Series by Zhang Xu Zhan, the “mechanical puppet” in New Vision Liyuan – Automated Marionette Project: Hsiao Ho-Wen by Et@t, and the “robotic arm” in Huang Yi & KUKA by Huang Yi. The findings of these three case studies revealed that these puppets’ respective material bodies and subjectivities were extended, challenged and rediscovered thanks to technologies, prompting us to see the ultimate convergence of humanity and machine as inevitable.

Keywords: Puppet, variant, machine/human, Hsin Hsin Joss Paper Store Series, New Vision Liyuan – Automated Mar

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