| rrr |
o |
Neue
Kraft Neues Werk
XTRA Interview : Shu Lea Cheang
EVERYBODY IS AN EXPERT
Interview réalisée à Munich lors
de l'exposition "The Artist as an Expert"
à l'occasion du festival "MAKE WORLD"
Shu
Lea Cheang Yeah, it's good you catch me in
MUNICH. ... I'm now joining the MAKE WORLD festival
and I'm working with FLORIAN SCHNEIDER who has been
doing this internet campaign and also doing a lot of
refugee border issues in GERMANY and everywhere, on
the border camp that he's been doing. So he's been involved
with this campaign called NO ONE IS ILLEGAL and I first
sort of know about his activity from the internet and
then we start(ed) talkng on different issues like that
and so with the MAKE WORLD festival he suggest(ed) that
he would like to make this other campaign called, EVERYONE
IS AN EXPERT. Here in MUNICH I joined the MAKE WORLD
festival and I started to conceptualise this interface
called EXPERT BASE.NET for this campaign called EVERYONE
IS AN EXPERT. This is a project that initiates from
FLORIAN SCHNEIDER who has been involved with this campaign
that deals with the border migration issues called...
He had this campaign called, NO ONE IS ILLEGAL. Shu
Lea Cheang He started talking about, that maybe he want(ed)
to make something that's more positive. It becomes from
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL to EVERYONE IS AN EXPERT. Then we
talked about making this data base called, EXPERT BASE.NET.
The idea is actually, for me, to conceptualise an interface
for the internet at the same time, for the real space
- a proper space. So basically I conceptualise an installation
that totally can be for public display and should be
travelling. The idea we compiled in the real space gallery
here. You have that/those photo it's more like modelled
after an air commercial. The framing is taken from the
MUNICH Airport when they had those air commercials.
I guess the interface, for this one, is actually the
whole idea of taking a number. And part of that comes
from the demographic statistic(s) that the governments
always compile. Those amazing statistics about there's
six million immigrants, illegal immigrants in GERMANY.
By the year 2005 we would have 250,000... we would need
250,000 IT specialists... So there's this whole thing
about the number, that we are playing with. I think
at the same time, a lot of people, migrants or refugees
have been reduced to just being represented by a number,
part of the statistics. So my idea for the interface
is that you reclaim the number by claiming that you
can take a ticket and you can register as an expert
then you actually can be counted - with a face, with
a profile, with a data. Basically, conceptually that's
the project I do here. Of course, in terms of the project,
I wouldn't consider it particularly an art project on
my own because it is totally conceived for the social
function . Again, it would be a long term project, to
build this data base, to counting the number(s). Both
from the expert side and from the job side. So for me
it's a very different project, but I really appreciate
this opportunity to use this work with the internet
and to work with the social groups. 0:05:30 Is it
your answer to the other part of the exhibition, 'The
Artist As Expert'? 0:05:48 Shu
Lea Cheang Not
particularly. I think the whole project was actually
going to be EVERYONE IS AN EXPERT and again is about
the question about... I think, particularly in EUROPE
or in GERMANY, it seems that 'expert' always refers
to IT expert or IT specialist. So right from the beginning
it was trying to take back the word 'expert'. Who is
an expert? The idea is like, okay everybody can be an
expert in a certain sense, you know? And so that is
the campaign slogan, EVERYONE IS AN EXPERT. I would
assume all the organisers and the artists is an expert
(in the exhibition). It's part of this concept, everyone
can be an expert. Probably more in that sense. I don't
think it's the other way around. Shu Lea Cheang I think
a lot of my work is always dealing with this kind of
marginality, people of/or marginality, but people also
with marginality, but people should also stake a claim
in a society. For me, I say that I have migrated into
cyber-space. For me, in the beginning it was almost
like a homesteading project. I really want to be in
the cyber-space so that I can claim a home-space there.
That all has to do with, in the sense that I'm dealing
with different kind of subject matter. I could be dealing
with refugee(s) and immigrants. I can be dealing with
trans-sexual issues. I can be dealing with women's issues.
For me, it all should be merged together. =============CYBERFEMINISM
=========== Shu Lea Cheang
One reason I do not want to label
myself particularly as a cyber feminist is, it seems
that we are so limited ourselves in one movement. You
have these cyber feminists for cyber women and then
at the same time I can argue that all the people should
have access to the internet, not only women. I think,
in terms of gender, racial economic issues, social class
and all that I'm more interested in broadening that
view. I want to be able to travel and traverse in different
communities, not only... I have taken on this mobile
digital living, moving from space to space, working
on different projects but in terms of a lot of my subject
matter, social issue, I also want to be able to traverse
that. Then if you think about, a lot of the time the
big problem with a lot of movements is that the women's
issues only want to deal with women's issues. They don't
consider, in the sense that, okay then you have the
migrant women, there's a whole other community, they
have different issues. It also becomes more like class
and economic difference that separate us apart. I'm
concerned about that. Shu Lea Cheang As I said, I come
here to make this EXPERT BASE.NET. But it's almost like
I really come in to contribute, I make a structure.
I make an expert based structure. But it's totally,
have to be used by the socially engaged groups to utilise
it, this EXPERT BASE.NET In that case I'm trying to
broaden this whole scope of what technology means. Because
I think if we only claim that, 'Yeah, we as women want
technology' then I can also claim that I as (a) minority
wants technology. It's just a matter of, that people
have to broaden a lot of social issues together. ===============TECHNOLOGY
/ REVERSE ENGINEERING ===============Shu
Lea Cheang Well, of course, I think every
technology is an advance, a copy and another version
of the previous technology. When the video tape was
developed, even with magnetic/pneumatic, everybody was
very excited. But with digital it seems like another
step forward. So I do think technology changes our life.
I'm all for technology. It's a matter of how do we use
the technology? It's more like sometimes technology
is developed for avery functional purpose and of course
for the artist to utilise that technology for different
ways. Maybe we can talk a bit about the artist as an
engineer. In the sense that... in the Modernity, art
and engineering abilities were divided. Would you say
that with the digital tools these two things, engineering
and art, went back together? Shu Lea Cheang I think
when you talk about engineering, you have social engineering,
you have software(?) engineering, you have the reverse
engineering. For me, it's a matter of strategy and you
figure out a strategy. You know, if you consider the
internet, the software we're applying it's all about
structure, strategy. When you have a certain structure
you have a certain strategy, then of course there will
always be a counter structure or a counter strategy.
So I wouldn't consider... I would consider engineering
in a sense of engineering and reverse engineering. Like
code and decode. I think that is part of a lot of the
work that I do, maybe as an artist, as engineering is
concerned. Maybe it's more like that sort of reverse
and appropriation and subverting the technology also.
For example at the moment I make a lot of larger scale
installation that connect the internet with real space.
Like the piece I do/did just this year in NTCICC in
TOKYO called BABY PLAY. That was also how the real space
actually could send data to the cyber-space and there's
that whole sort of public interface interaction. Of
course, in terms of the programming it actually applied
all kinds of programming language to make the piece.
There was also a data base involved, there's a whole
java involved. So in that case I would have to work
with some programming engineer. Again it's about, when
you think about an installation piece that has such
a different scale and different cyber and actual...
and this kind of different space interaction, you are
talking about applying different technology and software
language to use in it. So again a lot of this technology
is probably only used in a certain way. You just have
to re-appropriate it. 0:12:26 ...there's this whole
debate about artists working in technology, understanding
and not undertsanding the technology, or having the
ability to programme themselves...
Shu Lea Cheang Maybe I'll talk about myself..
I first studied cinema and then I got into video and
with the advance of video technology - into digital,
onto the internet. So I have that process of applying
the current technology and trying to create my work
with that technology. When/what that technology makes
validable to me. At the same time, of course, I do not
come from a computer programming background. But in
the process of working in this field, I think one has
to know the language. I think that it's still very important,
like I would know enough programming language to walk
around, to watch for the land-mines almost. It's just
a matter of communicating that language. For me, sometimes
I also consider myself, as far as an artist using technology
is, I do not own this technology. I just borrow this
technology. Also, the other thing is, for me, when I
use this technology, the technology is not the end itself.
I learn enough to talk that language but I cannot write
that language. Let's put it that way. And so in this
case I also become this kind of... all my work I think,
I'm more of an inbetween agent. Between the public and
the high-technology engineering. My interest is always
about, if I can talk to those programming people, to
make an interface that is accessable for social use
and public use - I become the agent to apply that technology.
.
|
