The Mirage Replicas 2.0 is a new media dance performance that explores generational differences within a family and culture. Starting from the story of the artist’s father capturing a golden bat, the work also addresses ecological issues related to bats. Drawing upon French philosopher Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia as a spatial imagination for storytelling, the work creates a technologically diverse space. Symbolically represented by bats, it carries the artist’s memories and cultural perspectives. The performance incorporates bat sound data, field recordings, projected images, mobile transparent screen displays that interactively overlay images with dancers and sensors tracking the dancer’s movements. Throughout the performance, the dancers continuously change roles, embodying the roles of a bat researcher, the artist during childhood and a deity. Some of the visuals in The Mirage Replicas 2.0 are generated through AI, exploring the ambiguity that arises from the dominance of artificial intelligence in an era where information tends to align with mainstream cultural knowledge.
How should we approach the rich human imaginings, mythologies, ancient legends, cultural traditions and religious beliefs that have shaped our past, especially in a time when artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly precise, yet potentially reinforces a cultural homogeneity of knowledge? How can we confront these challenges? Can we discover alternative ways of coexistence?
, The Mirage Replicas 2.0 / Yen-Tzu Chang (TW), Photo: Yen-Tzu Chang
The Mirage Replicas 2.0 / Yen-Tzu Chang (TW), Photo: Yen-Tzu Chang
The Mirage Replicas 2.0 / Yen-Tzu Chang (TW), Photo: Yen-Tzu Chang
The Mirage Replicas 2.0 / Yen-Tzu Chang (TW), Photo: Yen-Tzu Chang
Credits
Artistic Director, Sound, and visual designer: Yen-Tzu Chang
Dancer, choreographer: Shao-Tung Tseng
Executive Producer: Yu-Lin Chien
Stage Manager: Pei-Chun Pan
Lighting Designer: Fang-Yu Chien
Sound engineer, ambisonic programmer: Chi-Lin Chien
Technical Research and Development: Industrial Technology Research Institute
Service Systems Technology Center, ITRI: Hsiang-Lan Shih, Hui-Ching Ko, Yu-Lin Chien
Intelligent Robotics Technology Laboratory: Ching-I Liu, Wen-Cheng Wang, Emiliano Alban Naranjo
Multi-perspective Perception Laboratory: Yuan-Si Liao, Hung Lin
Special Thanks: Formosan Golden Bat’s Home
Yen-Tzu Chang (TW)
Yen Tzu Chang is a new media artist/ sound artist based in Taiwan. She holds a master’s degree from the Interface Culture Department of the University of Arts Linz in Austria.
For Yen Tzu Chang, artistic creation is exploring the essence of life with philosophy and scientific thinking. She combines art, programming and technical media in her artworks, including interdisciplinary art and experimental performances based on sound installations. Ready-made objects and DIY techniques are incorporated into some of her pieces. The most important thing in her works is the concept of play, which refers to the interactivity and transformation of participants’ roles.
