GAME ART: CHANG TING-TONG × CHENG HSIEN-YU'S SECOND LIFE: HABITAT (2016)
Second Life: Habitat, a collaborative piece by Cheng and Chang Ting-tong (張碩尹), consists of a high-temperature box containing 8,000 mosquitoes that fed on the blood of the artists and a video game that electrocutes the insects when it is played. Think Damien Hirst with a gaming component. Second Life: Habitat, is currently on display in Taipei, as part of the exhibition Transistors at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which showcases 11 contemporary artists challenging the very idea of boundary:
Second Life: Habitat is an art installation that aims to construct controlled ecological life support systems and consists of three large glass tanks, and it is a collaborative work by artists CHANG Ting-Tong and CHENG Hsien-Yu and a laboratory. During the exhibition, the artists will breed over 8000 Asian tiger mosquitoes and provide several hundred grams of their own blood on a daily basis to sustain the mosquitoes. A mosquito trap is placed by the installation, and when the mosquitoes come into contact with the trap, signals indicating their demise will be sent to a computer, which will be converted into avatars shown in the adjacent computer installation. Each of these avatars has a lifespan of 10 hours, and members of the audience can control the avatars in a game, ordering them to eat, drink, sleep, roam around, or even die during their lifespan. However, since the lives of these avatars are supported by real living beings and are connected to human blood or dead mosquitoes, can this game still be considered a form of entertainment? Through the artwork, the audience is caught in a moral dilemma with virtuality and reality entangled.Ting Tong Chang (b.1982, Taipei, Taiwan) is an artist who lives and works in Taipei and London. Chang is known for his collaborative projects through a variety of media including installation, video, and theatre. After receiving his MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2011, Chang has exhibited internationally. He held solo exhibitions at the Cube Project Space, the Museum of NTUE and Taipei Fine Arts Museum and has participated in group shows and commissioned projects in Guangzhou Triennial, Taipei Biennial, Saatchi Gallery, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Wellcome Trust. Chang’s major awards include the 19th Taishin Arts Award, Taipei Art Award 2020, Hong Kong Art Central RISE Award 2016, VIA Arts Prize 2016, and Royal Society of Sculptors Bursary Award 2015. His works can be found in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Art Bank, Hong Foundation, Embassy of Brazil London, JM SR Collection Mexico and private collections in Europe and Asia. Second Life: Habitat was created in collaboration with the National Taiwan University’s Department of Entomology.
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Chang Ting-tong × Cheng Hsien-yu
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