我們正所處資訊爆炸的時代，超文本、檔案化，眾多資訊與媒體的訊息，已經讓人無法一一解讀，海量的資訊沖刷著我們日常的感知，讓我們面對新聞的那一端，雖述說反全球的開始，卻無感的分不清真偽，當下人們已經不在乎資訊的來源，只能試圖在多手轉換的訊息中，找尋失落的證言，如同在大海之中找尋真相，然而在巨量資訊的時代，人人皆是生產資訊的製造者，社群網路、網路身份的多元切換，存放的資訊都將被記錄與保存，因此「被遺忘權（right to be forgotten）」成為人們面對資訊過量的唯一逃離之可能。

 

重拾「被遺忘權」，如同去除真實並執行被遺忘的權力，這種方式即是把真實燒毀，破壞殆盡之下，留下重生的餘燼，展覽名稱以《真實的餘燼》為名，企圖以直接破壞日常文本檔案的方式，透過破壞把虛假、不真、偽裝都碎片化，在碎片中找尋原本真實的殘骸，如同在資訊時代為了破壞其監控，讓其被電腦遺忘，使「破壞」成為真實「過濾」的方式，這種資訊的死後新生，也指向著後媒體時代人們對於科技成長的畏懼。真實為何？不真實為何？當破壞成為一種手段，對於當下真實與否已不重要，因為人們可以再造一個真實，這種概念也呼應保羅．維希留在其著作《消失的美學》中，對於科技宗教狂熱化的反思，當資訊速度達到極速，消失並非不再擁有，而是一種速度下的效果，在科技反撲下，把人類「遺忘」的能力，賦予電腦科技，這個遺忘並非真的完全刪除，只是在速度下的一個權力機制。展覽《真實的餘燼》，以被遺忘權的誕生來重新思考檔案的生與死，並把展覽作品分成兩大部份「人造的破壞之死」與「虛擬的再造之生」，用真假的檔案，來思考科技下人要如何重拾真實。

 

「人造的破壞之死」子題中，以真實的物件、風景為題，訴說破壞真實後是否有真實原本的價值。如騆瑜的作品《以錢換錢》與《Missing 1000 Rupees》，透過手工製作的紙鈔，談論工藝價值與金錢價值之間的關係，也指向一個消費行為的意義，破壞消費帶來的目的。賈茜茹的作品《城市色彩》與《SMileI》，在城市中觀察其色彩視覺的衝擊，並且用大量的消費與物件，組成一個原本城市的樣貌，破壞物件原本生產時的功能性，讓其與城市的生活機制隔絕，卻又描繪出城市的樣貌。朱書麒的《異界風景系列》，以錯視覺的方式，破壞日常繪畫構圖的形成，透過變色龍的偽裝，達到繪畫上構圖上的流體性，讓物件介於曖昧不明的模糊地帶，也破壞了人們觀看繪畫時的認知。羅盈嘉的作品《關係》、《最初》等水墨繪畫作品，以對於花蓮的風景之記憶，破壞水墨在繪畫上的精準，讓其風景於畫面中介於實景與記憶之間流動，打破水墨本身媒材與形式上的關係。子題中的作品都以實體物件的可能性作了多方的面貌與挑戰。

 

「虛擬的再造之生」子題中，以既有事件出發，在事件被破壞的情況下擬造一個真實虛假曖昧不明的狀態。如何彥諺的作品《趨近於理想價值》，透過異地暫留的經驗，發現了城市之中待解的謎團，並透過田調找尋了謎團中的真像，其過程既是真實又是虛構，讓其事件被改造成另一件事。倪祥的作品《很快就補償最新》，以拆除工地現場為取景的目標，現場拍攝外在鏡頭前疊上玻璃，再用繪畫的方式補上工地拆除的缺口，把事件用另一種方式還原。陳飛豪的作品《家庭照相簿》，以自身家族的歷史為找尋的依據，並透過私人記憶與公共記憶的差異，來探討事件上何者為虛，何者為實之間的縫隙。許哲瑜的作品《相簿剪貼》與《刪除的鏡頭》，透過觀看第三方的事件，來偽裝一個第一人稱的敘事方式，使創作者與作品記載對象對位，讓事件在真實與失真之間遊走。羅懿君的作品《末日寓言系列》，以在美國兩地停留的觀察經驗出發，在冰天雪地中對生活觀察，虛構了一個當地生活風俗、也在美國研究香蕉史料的過程中虛擬了一個歷史與文本，透過繪畫記錄了異國之經驗。子題中的作品都以既有的事件出發，並試著在虛構下更接近真實。

 

展覽《真實的餘燼》，試圖在科技時代，重新詮釋資訊文本與真實虛構之間的關係，也讓被遺忘權被廣泛討論的當下，重新思考被遺忘權真正的意義，如同消失的美學定義的消失，遺忘是否並非真的遺忘，而只是科技矇騙人類的一種方式，甚至是速度時代的一種假象，讓真實不是被遺忘，而是假裝遺忘，因此，試圖透過此次的展覽，再次思考科技拜物的時代，人與科技之間的距離，讓人們思考如何在海量資訊中，得到真實，雖然是一種假設的方式，但完全破壞可能成為一種可以反抗科技掌控的最好手段。

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We are living in an age of overwhelming information, constantly surrounded by hypertext and archived indecipherable data and messages. The bulk of information floods our daily perceptions, leaving us in a state of helpless inability to discern between true and fabricated news, despite the trend of anti-globalization. Today, people no longer care about the source and origin of information; we can only attempt to search for lost proof in the vast sea of data. However, in this world of information overload, every individual is the producer of data; all messages produced throughout switching between diverse social media and internet identities are documented and preserved, and the “right to be forgotten” has become the only method of coping with the flood of information.

 

Reclaiming the “right to be forgotten” is like the removal of truth and executing the right to be erased. This method is like burning and destroying truth, leaving behind the ashes of rebirth. This exhibition is titled “The Embers of Truth,” and attempts to shatter the text of daily life and all that is fake, inauthentic, and camouflaged, in search of the fragments of truth. This method is like using destruction as a filtering method to destroy surveillance and to be forgotten by computers. This rebirth from information also refers to the fear towards technological growth in this post-media era. What is the truth? What are lies? Perhaps when destruction becomes a measure, whether the information at hand is true or false is no longer important, since people are capable of creating alternative truths. This concept echoes Paul Virilio’s reflection on our fascination and frenzy with technology in The Aesthetics of Disappearance: when the speed of information reaches extreme, disappearing is no longer possible and becomes an effect of speed. Amid the counterattack of technology, people have endowed the human capability of forgetting to computer technology. This forgetfulness does not necessarily mean complete deletion of data, but a power mechanism in the face of speed. “The Embers of Truth” reflects on the birth and death of archives from the emergence of “the right to be forgotten.” The exhibition is separated into two sub-themes: “The Death of Artificial Destruction” and “The Birth of Virtual Reproduction,” using true and fabricated archives as a channel for inspecting the ways people rediscover truth in our time of technology.\

 

In “The Death of Artificial Destruction,” real objects and sceneries inquire whether the original value of truth remains after the truth has been destructed. For instance, Jhou Yu’s work Making Money and Missing 1000 Rupees debate the relationship between the value of craft and the value of money through fake paper money, while also referring to the meaning of consumer behavior and the aim of destructing consumption. Chia Chien-Ju observes the visual color impact in urban environments through City Color and SMileI, observing and using large amounts of consumer goods to compose an image of the original city, destroying the original function of the object. This method separates the object from the function of the city while still depicting the urban image. Chu Shu-Chi’s Outsider Landscape applies optical illusion to destroy usual painting compositions, attaining the fluidity of the painting structure through the camouflage of the chameleon so that the objects are placed in an ambiguous state, destructing the viewer’s original concept of observing paintings. Lou Ying-Jia’s ink paintings such as Relations and Beginning alter the precision in ink painting to give the works mobility between the actual scenery and memories of the Hualien landscape, destructing the ink painting’s relationship with media and form. Artworks displayed in this sub-theme challenge the multivariate aspects of works through the various possibilities of objects.

 

“The Birth of Virtual Reproduction” creates an ambiguous state between reality and fabrication from real-life incidents. Ho Yen-Yen’s Approaching the Ideals discovers unsolved myths of the city from her short stay in foreign locations and finds the truth through field study. The process is real and fabricated at the same time, altering into another incident. Ni Hsiang’s work Soon Compensated displays demolition sites. When shooting on site, the artist adds a glass panel in front of the camera on which he adds drawings to the breaches of the scenery, reverting the incident in another manner. Chen Fei-Hao’s Family Album is based on the artist’s personal family history and explores the gap between truth and fabrication through personal and collective memory. Hsu Che-Yu’s Photo Album Clips and Deleted Scenes fabricate a first-person narrative through observing an incident as a third party, counterpointing the artist with the subject of the work so that the incident is placed somewhere between reality and distortion. Inspired by her stay and observations in two US cities, Lo Yi-Chun fabricated a local custom from her observations of life in the icy cold landscapes in the Stories of the Cracked World, inventing a section of history while researching the history of bananas in the US, all the while documenting these foreign experiences through illustrations. Works of this sub-theme all start off from real incidents while attempting to approach reality through fabrications.

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“The Embers of Truth” is an attempt to re-annotate technology and the relationship between truth and fabrication in our modern world, simultaneously reflecting the true meaning of the “right to be forgotten.” Just as the definition of disappearing in The Aesthetics of Disappearance, perhaps forgetfulness does not mean to forget; it is merely a method that technology uses to trick us, an illusion in the age of speed where truth is never truly forgotten, but merely pretends to be so. Therefore, this exhibition encourages viewers to reflect on our age of technology and commodity fetishism, the distance between humans and technology, and contemplate ways to obtain truth in the vast sea of information. Despite being a hypothesis, complete destruction may be an ideal tactic when fighting the control of technology.