Research Title: Online Collaborative Creations: Fortune Telling Practices in Taiwan
The research will be divided into two parts: the exegesis and the major creative project. Investigation of the developed circumstance of net art will be the main focus of the written section. The research on the modes of fortune telling in Taiwan will be served as the conceptual core for the major creative project. Thereafter, a series of net art projects will be created based on the research findings.
Net art has existed since the inception of the early World Wide Web in the 1990s, with several movements developing at the same time. In Europe, a core group of artists, among them Russian artist Olia Lialina(b.1971) and Alexei Shulgin(b. 1963), British artist and activist Heath Bunting, Slovenian Vuk Cosic, and the Barcelona- based team jodi (Joan Hemskeerk and Dirk Paesmans), who were connected through the online mailing list nettime- founded by media theorists and critics Geer Lovink and Pit Schultz and devoted to Internet culture and criticismdrew attention to the genre of art on the Net and formed the " net.art"( with a dot) movement. The term was officially used for the first when Vuk Cosic organized a small gathering- "net.art per se"- in Trieste in 1996(Christiane 2003, p. 112). Net art has become a broad umbrella for numerous forms of artistic articulation that often overlap(Christiane 2003, p. 109). In fact, Internet provides artists with the pleasant experience of combining virtual reality and the real world. Due to the feature of height - interactivity function and popularization of using Internet, I have decided to create projects using Internet as the medium. There are many kinds of art forms based on internet usage. Besides, attributing to the era of high technology, the art form found in the Internet still has many variations ongoing with. After more than one year of my research progress, I have decided to focus on the form of collaborative creation in the internet sphere.
Whether it is the East or the West, fortune telling has always been an interesting phenomenon. In Taiwan, fortune telling is linked to the icons and symbols of a lifetime from palm reading, facial features or even the interpretation of a mole on one’s body. The so-called Five Elements Performance within the nature, is represented by the term “Qi” which could also be explained closely in the relation to the word “Fate”. The ritual that is generated from the process of seeking for the unknown future destiny is all being demonstrated in an interesting symbolic form. The flourishing zodiac in the west is also an iconic sign for fate. Interpretation of the meanings and patterns from the icons, cards or Tarot can also be represented through a series of meaningful signs. From collecting, sorting, and analyzing the symbols, rituals and significance of the events that related to fortune telling, these meaningful signs could be categorized systematically and then utilized as the conceptual core for the creation project.
Although originating from the ancient times, fortune telling is a popular tool for divination which has been carried out continuously in the modern hi-tech society. Accordingly, the idea of creating fortune telling service has brought about an interactive behavior, which has become an indispensable basic element to engage with people. While appreciating the process to seek divination, one is also experiencing at the same time an alternative form of combined ancient and technical kinds of fortune telling. This kind of philosophy thought will be the paradigm for this research.
The entire research of this project incorporates the theme of Taiwanese traditional fortune telling practices, with the function of collaborative creation based on internet medium. Due to the execution of this collaborative creation project, it will require public involvement. Thus, stimulating and enticing user to participate and contribute to the project is a top priority of concern for this creative project.
In the sense of collaborative creation through Internet, the outcome of the image or totem will keep changing itself by the increased number of participant. In other words, each participant has an effect on the creation of the art work. However, the participants cannot predict the changes in the next step of the work. Similarly, based on the assumption of fortune telling in China, it is deemed that everything in the world is impacted by each other(Zhou jian nan 2005). For example, a person who somehow being connected with “some people”, every thing that he or she has done will become potential elements impacting “that some people” in some ways. The destiny between the person and with ‘that some people’ are said to be having involvement with each other. In short, both the collaborative creation and people’s destiny are in the same way based on the perception of an outcome which keeps changing itself by having people’s participation.
When exploring the originality of art, it can be categorized into three doctrines from the sociological point of view which are: Theory of Decoration, Theory of Labory, and Theory of Religion. It can be said that religious belief and art are in fact deeply connected from their originality. The fact that our forefathers were unable to decipher the mystery and metamorphosis of the mother nature, and the creation and birth of various rituals including Nature Worship, Animal and Plant Worship, Totemism, Fetish Worship, Idolatry and Man Worship, and Ghost Worship and Ancestors Worship. In the times that followed, additional objects of worship were also added such as the roles of wizard and sciomancy medium (using ghost or some kinds of sprite that common people cannot see or communicate with). Based on the theories of origin of art, it could be attributed to the ritual form through various religions in the ancient time, and the development of fortune telling is on the basis of such religious beliefs. Thus the idea of combination between art and fortune telling is built on this concept.
In addition, the theme of fortune telling encompassed in this creative project attempts to motivate and stimulate end user to contribute to this project. According to my field studies that I have done till now, majority of people will pay their attention when some people indicate that they have the ability to predict people's fortune. From this simple point of view, I believe that user will be very keen to participate in this kind of creative work with fortune telling as the theme.
