History: Preface

Source of version: 6 (current)

__Preface__ First of all, thank you very much to all the interviewees! This small book invites several organizers of independent education systems, autonomous artist groups, and science art summer camps, to share their valuable experience in running these organizations. The motivation for this research project is very much related to my own learning experience too. This is probably because I am an independent artist who is not part of the academic system, so these groups are my main learning environment; Around 2006, my training at Shih Chien University was mostly about multimedia design and interactive design. We had a basic Arduino course and a Processing course, and then I continued these passions by learning Max/msp and Puredata myself. I think we were among the first group of students in Taiwan to be exposed to coding art, which some people defined as "new media art" back in the early 2000s. I didn't really have any training in "contemporary art" and I didn't know what "art industry" was, but I just really enjoyed making works with these interactive media and I had the experience of selling these works for income. It was not until I was introduced to conductive thread that I was able to make my first piece using embroidery to transform circuits into fabric patterns during a residency in Mexico in 2013, with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for Culture and the Arts. Because of this residency experience, I also had the experience of working with a local Aztec village. When I returned to Taiwan, I only hoped to find fellow artists who also used conductive fiber materials to organize a project or community that combines electronic textiles and ethnic textiles, but I found that there seemed to be no one who used electronic textiles or wearable devices to create art in Taiwan. Electronic textiles in Taiwan seemed to be about practical medical wear or functional clothing with LEDs that can protect bicyclists at night. In 2015, I found an event through the internet called e-Textile Summer Camp in an old abandoned textile factory in France called Le Moulins de Paillard. We had to do projects such as: to make a music parade with the street people with fiber sensor clothes via MIDI signals, to allow musicians to change the way they control music with flexible touch interfaces, to express the abstract concept of "computer" by embroidering conductive stitches and magnetic balls together, to replace leather and fabric with dried black tea mushroom film and fungal materials, to promote the concept of civic science by intercepting meteorological satellites with wearable antennas, and so on. Honestly, I simply wrote a letter to the organizer, Mika Satomi, and she gladly agreed to let me join their rally. The first year was a great experience because I finally had someone to talk to about these topics, and some people even found out about my e-textile work on the internet. Secondly, I really enjoyed the learning environment and the variety of people who shared the same passion for creativity. The best part was to find someone in the factory at Moda at night still working on their project, watching them write code and work on a firmware machine or a knitting machine, or making a chemical dye, and feeling the same feeling you had in school when you stayed up all night working on the same project with your classmates. The seven to ten days of meetings each year turned into a long-lasting friendship, and no one ever really left the community, we continued to discuss and live our skills through social media, and shared various art competitions and open calls. Later on, some participants held similar camps in their hometowns and invited people from the extended family to participate, such as the e-Textile Spring Break in New York, Attempts, Failures, Trials and Errors in Romania, I.N.S.E.C.T in Denmark, and Tribe Against Machine in Taiwan. In 2018 I was invited to Shenzheng to give a talk about my experience organizing Tribe Against Machine, and I have met many autonomous art communities at another event hosted by Gathering for Open Hardware Science (GOSH), such as Hackteria Open Source Biological Art Platform. In the following years, I have visited many hackerspaces and art collectives in Switzerland and Indonesia following the footprints of Marc Dusseiller, the co-founder of Hackteria. I have come to appreciate the value of art networks and environments on a deeper level: "It is a crucial thing to be surrounded by like-minded friends.” I mean, maybe participating in these activities in the moment is enjoyable in and of itself, we never talk about what exhibitions we're going to attend afterwards or how to make more money, but the activities themselves are a way of life or a social form. I think that at first glance, these are very common concepts and community experiences that have a profound impact on the nature of any art industry or art social structure. In any case, perhaps the purpose of this study contradicts this foundation to some extent, as a large part of this study is a utilitarian exploration of how to make these beauties sustainable, or how best to manage them industrially, a part that will be left to future discussion. In particular, on an island like Taiwan, with its inherently closed geographical location, I would like to try to introduce these communities in a more friendly way, while respecting the geopolitical premise, and to touch on issues such as the so-called speculative creation and the reasonable interface between these communities, and the distinction between art and the art industry in a relatively casual discussion. To a greater extent, these experiences and journeys have transformed me from an individual-centered independent creator to an individual interested in the process of community formation to the establishment of new disciplines and the creation of non-traditional educational systems. Promoting a certain culture is a long process, and after seeing these community organizers take communities to their current size while staying true to certain values, you know that it's a full-time, multi-year endeavor that requires a lot of effort. I would say that the energy of these organizers comes mostly from their idealist character, because most of them do not get equal returns or profits from their work in running the organization, they are just willing to commit themself to a vision, and these actions and organizations deserve to be seen and supported. I think being a facilitator, or a live and personal centered ChatGPT is a job I can do. I have discussed these ideas with a camper from e-Textile Summer Camp in Paillard, Adrian Freed, who was part of the early development of Max/Msp and Pure Data, and he said: “There isn't a solution, modern tech isn't sustainable, it's also not accessible broadly. There are largely privileged folks with access with a few grants to help a few cherry picked disadvantaged folk. I am involved in a traditional music community with sustainable 400 year music, dance, musical instrument building practice and that's not what modern tech looks like at all. Since modern technology is inherently unsustainable, it is interesting to ponder what all this rhetoric is about - open source, democratizing etc. The answer is imagination and inventiveness are portable - they don't need to stick to a particular substrate.”