With the support of the Ministry of Culture, Taiwanese tech art group Dimension Plus (超維度互動) and artist Ku Kuang-yi (顧廣毅) will bring the food culture of Taiwan to the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria with two projects respectively titled "Soybean Futures" and "Tiger Penis Project."
Founded by Taiwan's Escher Tsai (蔡宏賢) and Hong Kong's Keith Lam (林欣傑), Dimension Plus is a new media arts creative team that focuses on the intersection of art and technology and cross-discipline interactive design. The team also provides professional advice and guidance on experimental media for the Ministry of Culture's "Art and Technology: Innovation and Counseling Project."
In light of how soybeans are becoming bargaining chips and weapons in the global trade war, "Soybean Futures" by Dimension Plus converts global soybean trading data into sound waves that will shake the featured bean curd installed on a stereo plate, in which the degree of tofu vibration shall be determined by the shifting global soybean index. The trembling piece of flawless and deliciously white tofu will recall the conflicts and turbulence wrought by trade algorithms.
Ku was born and raised in Taipei and currently based in the Netherlands. A former dentist, he is now a bio-artist, social designer, and trailblazer in Taiwan's bioart community. His works often deal with the human body, sexuality, interspecies interaction, and medical technology to carry out investigations on the relationships among technology, individuals, and the environment.
Bringing non-western perspectives to speculative design scenarios, his "Tiger Penis Project" proposes the use of emerging biotechnologies to create artificial animal parts for Chinese medicine. Combining western and traditional Chinese remedial practices, this new hybrid medical knowledge and technology will prevent the further destruction of both animals and traditional cultures, and provide more possibilities for the coexistence of humanity and nature.
Two all-night public events titled the "Unfinished Club" and curated by Taiwan artist Shu Lea Cheang (鄭淑麗) will also take place on Sept. 6 to 7 as part of the "STWST48x5 STAY UNFINISHED" program of the Austrian art fest.
The 2019 Ars Electronica Festival will take place across 16 different venues in Linz, Austria from Sept. 5 through 9. More information on participating Taiwanese artists is available at https://ars.electronica.art/en/search/?q=taiwan.