符星观 Fuxingguan

This is commission work by “Technodiversity”, Curators: Juaniko Moreno & TianQi Chen

Since the earliest times, people have used the talisman and its incantation as a medium, a communication of the invisible power of heaven and earth, to reflect the harmony between Yin and Yang and fulfill cherished wishes. They are also a way of understanding the world. In ancient Chinese cosmology, there is a set of Taoist rules behind the seemingly magical talisman: it is a virtual myth blended with reality, and at the same time is the most sincere reflection of how people at each time have understood their environment. In this way it resembles the way the digital content of the Internet shapes our subconscious mind, how these ideas quietly flow from online to offline. “Contemporary Talisman” envisages an Alternative Now, an attempt to liberate technology from human governance.

In this tech-cult world, the mystics (artists) Biin Shen and her collaborator Kwan Chak Lee invented six talismans in an attempt to harness the invisible magnetism of the Internet in combination with ancient beliefs. Are these new techniques a type of liberation and autonomy, or just another kind of technological discipline? Will the individuals living in this space be liberated or trapped?

This work aims to link unknowable forces, magnetic fields, beliefs and the unconscious in order to reflect on our relationship with technological society and human autonomy.