Home Page: https://hackmd.io/@counter-archive/entry
Public Performances Performing Counter-archives: Another Glitched Ava她r Goes Nuclear
Curatorial Statment Version1
Curator Emily Hsiang-Yun Huang（Cloudscape Media Art Platform）
Turning an exhibition into a counter-archive serves as a starting point for deconstructing archival politics. The exhibition, whose name refers to a non-existent URL, integrates online and offline spheres and features artists who use their bodies and community-based technologies to create alternative archives. Their works critically reflect on patriarchal infrastructures and seek to decolonize dominant narratives shaped by cultural imperialism and platform capitalism.
Through the themes of fragile, corporeal, open-source and AI archives, the exhibition explores postcolonial sound art archives and anarchivist practices, embodied cyberfeminist archives, open-source communities addressing online archival gender bias, and an expanded definition of archives as datasets, including issues of future human-AI collaboration and algorithmic governance. Collectively, the artworks highlight what has been lost, overlooked, diminished or oppressed, resisting technological hegemony by exploring alternative forms of commoning.
In the spirit of the commons, this mind map captures the evolving curatorial framework of the exhibition as one open to interpretation and co-creation. Contribute your insights by co-editing and expanding the map on HackMD.
Curatorial Statment Version2
www.counterarchive.commons is a project whose name refers to a non-existent URL that transforms .com, which represents commercial companies, into .commons. Positioned at the intersections between open source culture, live/performance art, and internet/net art, the project explores how the concept of archive in the digital age can develop a methodology of commoning when it comes to the negotiation of the powers of "remembering" and "forgetting". Under the themes of fragile archive, corporeal archive, and AI archive respectively, we will discuss postcolonial sound art and internet archives in Latin America, non-western and open archives of cyberfeminism, and, finally, an expanded definition of archive as dataset, dealing with AI-generated misinformation, disinformation and data poisoning, where we will reflect on and imagine the future of machine unlearning and open-source art practices.
Home Page: https://hackmd.io/@counter-archive/entry
Aside from the BOTAMEVE members, visitors to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum were also invited to write or perform their experiences of bodily injustice on-site, so these experiences could be shared with others.
Everyone is the teacher of their own experiences, and museum visitors eagerly left their words behind.
Within a week, these written notes climbed about two-and-a-half feet up the wall. Statements like “I’m just a grain of wheat that has died,” “Gentleness is the product of resignation toward life,” and “I’m ‘paper-sexual’—I hate relationship with humans and sexuality” are boldly written.
These words evoked my memories of childhood classroom chalkboards, where classmates would scribble “OOO likes XXX,” “OOO go die,” and so on during recess. In the vast landscape of the colonial education system, the chalkboard seemed to be the one place where students could briefly escape omnipresent authority and discipline. Now, in an elite institution such as the Taipei Fine Arts Museum — where visitors with diverse backgrounds and bodies are typically instructed to view artworks quietly, politely and civilly, their exuberant and colorful notes once again show that people remain deeply aware of how repressing and stifling environments can be.
In a repressive environment, only certain answers and comments are deemed smart, nice, positive, acceptable or –- “correct.” Yet each person’s answer arises acturally from the totality of their life experiences, and every answer can serve as a trace of those experiences.
As the artist, I choose to believe these responses represent another realm of creation. This work have led me to see more answers from visitors than ever before – the collective significance contributed by so many people, from different corners of society and different roles, has gone far beyond the usual dialogue between artist, artwork, and the contemporary art system. It creates an opening beyond art can respond, and I deeply appreciate of that.
Home Page: https://hackmd.io/@counter-archive/entry
The body cannot be stored—what cannot be contained was carried away by the bodies themselves.
Inspired by Crip Theory, The Body's Tale of Mercy & Vengeance (BO-TA-ME-VE) is a feminist fight club where members reflect on the mercies and harms their bodies have experienced, shaped by sexuality or disability.
In a seven-class series, members will recount and reflect on their bodies’ experiences, creating a collective narrative of injustice. They will collaboratively establish Fight Club rules, design a curriculum, and develop personal plans to reclaim bodily justice. The fight club centers on the creation of an "incompletion project"—a living, evolving approach to resisting compulsory heteronormativity and able-bodied assumptions.
Please refer to the following guidelines to read and use this space, and feel free to share your experiences and reflections.
Have you ever experienced compassion or been harmed in your experiences with gender identity or disability?
How have you sought revenge or repaid kindness?
How's your healing journey?
The space is with a camera and TV covered with black cloth, judo mats, inflatable punching bags, and a pegboard hanging various objects.
The pegboard includes a BOTAMEVE booklet, currently being written by members, foam swords, pens, paper, earplugs, grey-color blackout glasses, pillows, sticky notes, and more.
Here, you can:
Express Your Mind
Use the sticky notes and chalk on the pegboard to write or leave messages on the wall, sharing your thoughts or experiences. If you'd like to express yourself through physical movement, gently uncover the camera's black cloth to record your actions or performance and share them with others.
Play with the Objects
We encourage you to touch and use the objects in the space without worrying about altering the original setup.
Rest and Have Assistance
If you feel tired, you are welcome to use the chairs and wheelchairs we provide to take a rest. If the lighting is too bright or the noise is too loud, earplugs and blackout glasses are available on the pagboard to help you reduce environmental discomfort.
Rule No.1
We talk about the fight club, the BO-TA-ME-VE! We talk about different Body's Tale of Mercy and Vengeance!
Rule No.2
We fight ableism and heteronormativity, not each other.
Rule No.3
Becoming a member of the BOTAMEVE means we bravely raise questions and actively work to improve the injustices faced by various bodies.
Rule No.4
BOTAMEVE is inclusive and non-hierarchical fight club. Everyone has their unique identity and experiences, including but not limited to gender, sexual orientation, physical and mental states, race, age, and religious beliefs. We become egality fighters by listening and learning how to support each other.
Rule No.5
The fight will not over until each body receives its justice. Therefore… this fight might take a while. We allow emotions like tears, anger, and joy to take place during the process.
Rule No.6
No one is allowed to stand by in the fight; everyone is a fighter. This means that not only in facing others, but we also will not stand by regarding our own needs. We will strive to listen to and understand our own needs.
Rule No.7
The fight is fluid; we allow these rules to change over time and with societal contexts.
