XRMust is at the Kaohsiung Film Festival this year, covering the event and in particular its XR Dreamland section, at the invitation of the French Office in Taipei. It’s also an opportunity to take a look back at the teams who have passed through Villa Formose (see our dedicated article) and the winners who have returned to the festival for a progress report on the development of their projects. Today, studio u2p050 for DEEP ECOLOGY.
A really important point about the technological infrastructure of our societies is that it is also political. In the issue of climate governance, there’s an opportunity to use technological initiatives to fight global warming – and de facto direct what we decide to do with these technologies.
How did the idea for this project come about, and what were the main motivations behind it?
Studio u2p050 is a digital creation studio that mobilizes the human sciences in its creative process, and borrows from these methodologies to carry out fieldwork or investigation on a particular subject. In our previous projects, we’ve worked on subjects such as the transformation of milking machines and their automation, conspiracy theories, the attack on the Capitol, a bird sanctuary or the transition from an industrial site to a nature reserve. Each time, we reproduce this research-creation protocol, investigating in the field and then choosing the digital art medium we feel is best suited to deal with it.
For DEEP ECOLOGY, we wanted to make a documentary about the relationship between two concepts we’re familiar with – ecology and technology – and investigate just how intertwined they are. With this in mind, our research began with the book The Stack, by designer and philosopher Benjamin H. Bratton. In this context, a stack refers to a global architecture made up of interconnected layers of digital technologies (land, cloud, cities, addresses, interfaces, users), which redefine structures of power, sovereignty and governance in the contemporary world.
The Stack helps us understand the stakes behind our planetary infrastructure, i.e. all the technology that covers our planet.
The point of entry for DEEP ECOLOGY is the relationship between ecology, politics and technology – and the relation of these concepts to climate governance, which Bratton questions. The set of machines we have today allow us to sense the state of the planet, and to reflect on that state, its future and our actions. We want to explore what can happen in speculative political terms within the framework of climate governance and its link with technology.
We believe that the relationship between ecology, technology and politics is a subject that deserves to be addressed. Immersive can be used as a space for reflection and critical thinking on the effects of technology on society.
What motivated you to apply for the Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency organized with NewImages Hub, and what were your expectations of the experience?
What’s interesting about Benjamin H. Bratton’s The Stack is the technological infrastructure that covers our planet, which is contextual and specific to each territory, so the French stack is not the same as the Taiwanese stack. To understand the relationship between ecology and technology through documentary investigation, we need to look at it in a situated way, and grasp the issues at stake in different parts of the world.
In Taiwan, they have their own stack, their own cultural relationship to technology and the way they use it. In particular, what interested us in participating in the Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency 2023 organized by the Bureau français de Taipei with the support of the Institut Français, and NewImages Hub,was to do an exploratory residency to understand what the Taiwanese stack was. We wanted to find out how the Taiwanese stack materially exists: whether there are satellites, microchips, etc., and we also wanted to observe how it is thought out, how the political infrastructure is organized, what relationship Taiwanese people have with ecology, to meet the people, institutions and organizations linked to Taiwan’s technological infrastructure, etc. We also wanted to find out how Taiwan’s technological infrastructure is organized, and how Taiwan’s political infrastructure is organized.
We realized that this research carried out in Taiwan cannot be reproduced everywhere. It’s a very complex subject, so for the Kaohsiung Film Festival 2024, we’re presenting a prototype – the result of the residency – which is a generative documentary map that can be explored by users. At the start of the experience, users will enter a priori information about their age, their sensitivity to technology, their profession, etc. In this way, each person will generate a map that can be explored by others. In this way, each person will generate their own unique journey through this documentary map of different stacks and stack concepts.
During the Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency in Taiwan, did you feel you’d achieved all the objectives you’d set yourself? Are there any aspects you’d like to explore further?
The first objective of the residency was to familiarize ourselves with the Taiwanese stack, and to meet local people. First, we held a workshop on the notion of stack with Professor Ray-Kuang Lee and his students from National Tsing Hua University. We also met Yaw-Shyang Chen, head of the Nationals Communication Commission (NCC) in Taipei, as well as a number of designers, musicians and artists working with digital media. And we also interviewed Howard Wu, founder of gov-zero, a decentralized community of digital solutions for civil society, and Diskonnected, dj and founder of the Organik Festival.
A very important Taiwanese specificity is the presence of the Minister of MODA (Ministry of Digital Affairs) Audrey Tang, who is very well known, but unfortunately we weren’t able to meet her. She has a great influence on the management of Taiwan’s technology-related policies.
Another of our main objectives was to get to know the Taiwanese immersive ecosystem: its players, events, artists, etc. We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of our contacts. We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of our contacts: TAICCA, the Kaohsiung Film Archive, etc. And at the same time, by the quality of the organization. And at the same time, the quality of the organization, infrastructure and welcome during the residency. We were really well received, very well looked after, and had all the equipment we needed to carry out our work (workshop, video projector, etc.). The residency budget was large enough for all studio members to travel to Taiwan, as there are several of us working on DEEP ECOLOGY. It was essential for the project’s progress that we were able to work together on the project during the Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency.
Have you found that people in Taiwan are also asking questions about digitalization and the use of technology? Have you found any similarities with your own research?
A really important point is that technology infrastructure is political: with climate governance issues, we can implement lots of technological initiatives to combat global warming (for example), and direct what we decide to do with technology. For Taiwan, the question of technological infrastructure is central because of their out-of-territory policy.
In Taiwan’s case, their fiber optic system, for example, which connects the territory to the rest of the world via the Internet, is often threatened by earthquakes. This means that their fiber optic system could disappear at any time.
So, for example, unlike in France, we’re giving a lot of thought to how we can ensure data resilience: how can we keep our servers and infrastructure running if there’s a permanent risk of earthquakes?
One of the things we were able to discuss was that Taiwan is developing a multi-layered public satellite system, to ensure this continuity of data and operation of their infrastructures on a global level. This communications satellite system is much more advanced in Taiwan than in France.
Another really interesting aspect is transparency: all the discussions and meetings that Audrey Tang, Minister of MODA (Ministry of Digital Affairs), has with interlocutors such as technology platforms (OpenAI, Google, Facebook, Microsoft…), are freely accessible on the Ministry’s website. Tang, who is a trained programmer, talks to all these technology players on an equal footing in terms of information. In Taiwan, there’s also some very interesting thinking going on about artificial intelligence. For example, how to train AI tools to integrate Taiwan’s different indigenous languages, and ensure the preservation of their linguistic heritage. It’s all part of Taiwan’s soft power strategies.
Above all, there’s a real desire in Taiwan to link civil society and technological innovation for the public good. They invite citizens to put forward ideas for improving – or reflecting on – digital-related subjects (autonomous vehicles, for example), through initiatives such as major consultations.
After the experience of developing the DEEP ECOLOGY prototype at the Villa Formose Immersive – Taiwan XR Prototyping Residency in Kaohsiung, how do you see the project evolving? What are your prospects for its future?
We prototyped this generative journey through present-day archives linked to concepts of ecology and technology. From the prototype we’ve been able to develop, we’ve been working with a team of developers to improve the aesthetics of the experience, and make it even more attractive to the public. Above all, we want to offer a multi-user experience, for around fifteen people, and explore the gamification aspects of the project. In principle, this development will be carried out in France within the studio – international co-production being a next step if all goes well.
Studio u2p050 has a certain hybridity between audiovisual and contemporary art. For the distribution of DEEP ECOLOGY, we’re also imagining a museum exhibition format, in galleries and also through the immersive branch, with events such as the Kaohsiung Film Festival and NewImages in particular. Our main challenge is to make the experience as accessible as possible. By entering their own information at the start of the experience, users can adapt the content to their own knowledge, and then move forward to explore these political, economic and technological issues from their own perspective.
We’re looking to bring these worlds together in the way we present DEEP ECOLOGY to the public, in an adaptive way, with generative artificial intelligence at the heart of the project: each time a user experiences the site, it will be adapted to him or her, with the possibility of doing so in any new language, for example. Today, it’s available in thirty different languages.
https://www.u2p050.com/deep-ecology/
https://france-taipei.org/Presentation-de-Villa-Formose
This article was first published in French, and is part of a paid partnership.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.