Blurring Realities: Greenhouse and Beyond: Wu Chi-Yu & Chen Pu

Dates

2 MARCH 2024 - 20 APRIL 2024

Reception

9 MARCH (SAT.) 4:30 P.M.

Venue

TKG+  B1, No. 15, Ln. 548, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu Dist., Taipei 11492, Taiwan

Artist

Wu Chi-Yu & Chen Pu

Notice

1. Two MR devices are available for use. Please ask staff for a disposable eye mask and instructions.
2. MR devices are disinfected on a regular basis.
3. Children under 16 are required to be in the company of staff or adults when using the MR device.
4. Kindly refrain from touching the plants in the exhibition.
5. Dim lighting. Watch your step.
6. Please ask staff for assistance if unsure how to operate the MR device. Please do not adjust the setting. Thank you for your cooperation.

Blurring Realities: Greenhouse and Beyond is an extension of the collaborative project Streaming Colony: Nesting Terrariums, presented by Wu Chi-Yu and Chen Pu in 2023. Diverging from Streaming Colony, inspired by a closed ecological system in the Wardian case, where a 360-degree immersive surround projection constructs a sealed ecological system within the exhibition space, exploring how generative artificial intelligence constructs within the micro-ecosystem of a greenhouse an alternative ecological structure for the future, Blurring Realities takes the technological aspect a step further by incorporating mixed reality (MR) devices.

“Blurring realities” refers to the blurred and noisy process of generative artificial intelligence in computation, where the database’s packets diverge along the timeline. This branching of the timeline allows materials from known history to be computed into entirely new images of the world. To expand the concept of blurring realities to the Wardian case, the biosphere within this portable greenhouse, originally used for horticulture and transplanting colonial crops, is isolated from the external environment the moment the lid is closed. This is conducive to the survival of species within the box during long-distance shipping, but simultaneously interrupts the history of a transplanted ecosystem, initiating another timeline that parallels that of the native habitat.

Generative artificial intelligence operates in a similar manner, continuously computing various images like a slot machine. Its endless reality stems from the limited samples within the database — akin to how we prompt it through an Internet interface. When we input prompts into generative AI tools, such as Midjourney’s image generator, and gain glimpses of the world within the database through dialogue, it becomes a form of communication and messaging between parallel histories. This marks a moment in the timeline where the system diverges after training, creating a micro-ecosystem generated through Web crawlers. This micro-ecosystem is shaped through a diffusion model — a process of reverse recognition within the blurring noise. Within this model, realistic lighting, textures, and alternate histories that have never occurred are generated.

Blurring Realities utilizes MR to unfurl a translucent membrane formed at the intersection of a biome, historical facts, and visual imaging within the exhibition space. The intention is to explore another aspect of micro-habitat: the microcosm generated by the database. Simultaneously, we can view the moments in time established by these databases as fractures in a parallel spacetime. These fractures do not adhere to the temporality of artificial intelligence’s understanding of the world; instead, they represent divergent points parallel to existing history.

The application of MR technology in Blurring Realities provides an effective realization of this parallel worldview. In the space where the virtual and the real intertwine, scenes from parallel histories continuously unfold before the viewer's eyes. Contrary to the profiles of future ecological landscapes derived from known historical records, these scenes scattered throughout the exhibition, generated through artificial intelligence algorithms, lean more towards a reality that is gradually separating and no longer complete.

Blurring Realities: Greenhouse and Beyond navigates the boundary between the virtual and the real, giving birth to an alternative greenhouse ecosystem nurtured by artificial intelligence.

Special Thanks: VIVE Arts 

About the Artists

Wu Chi-Yu (b. 1986) lives and works in Taipei. Employing moving images and video installations, Wu delves into the intricate geopolitics of Asia and explores the interdependence among diverse groups and communities through multifaceted narrative constructions. Central to his artistic practice is a focus on the lost or unfulfilled connections between technological objects, species, materiality, and the environment within human civilization. Widely recognized internationally, Wu's artworks have been exhibited in TKG+, Times Museum, MOCA Taipei, the Taiwan Biennial, Shanghai Biennale, Taipei Biennial, EXiS Festival, and Arkipel Festival, etc. In 2017, Wu received the Jury’s Special Mention at BISFF. Additionally, from 2014 to 2015, he participated in a residency at Rijksakademie.

(b. 1986) Chen Pu’s creative practice stretches across drawing, digital art, sculpture, public installation, 2D animation, and 3D animation. He creates characters that inhabit the real and the virtual, using interactive technologies from AR, generative art, to NFT, conjuring a symbiotic ecosystem. By merging personal reflections with digital art, he connects the realms of morphology and bioarchaeology, creating an organic, cross-disciplinary virtual and tangible experience.

He has exhibited internationally, including at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with workshops, Kenya, Centre Culturel de Taïwan à Paris, Hamburg International Children's Film Festival, Guangzhou Fangsuo Bookstore, Taitung Design Center, Eslite Gallery, Spain, Kaohsiung, Keelung, and Taipei. He has garnered awards such as the First Prize at the Taipei New Horizon Festival, Mayor’s Award at the Taipei Design Award, and Best Video of the Year at the Centre Pompidou.