Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts

Introduction

I. Training Purpose and Basis
This training is implemented on the basis of the following principle: “Lecture performance does not create new forms of experimentation, realism, or narrative; it rethinks existing ones as a dialogue of ideas.” This is appropriated from Timothy J. Corrigan’s statement regarding essay film in On the History of the Essay Film: Vertov to Verda. The original subjects of the sentence were “essay and essay film.”

II. Training Objectives
(1) To be equipped with sufficient narrative techniques, and be skilled in tide-turning and captivating story-telling processes.
(2) To nurture appropriate postures and gestures when talking, in aim to construct a role with outstanding personality, credibility, and authority.
(3) To train use of voice, while also combining narrative techniques and body language to shape comprehensive audio-visual experience in front of others.
(4) To strengthen the training of lecture performance in daily life, so that it is more than just an art form; in addition to practicing at all times, also examine other’s behaviors from the perspective of lecture performance.

III. Subjects of Training
(1)Everyone who pursues success and wants to know how to control others.
(2)Everyone who pursues freedom and wants to know how not to be controlled by others.
(3)Everyone.

IV. Training Content
(1) Understand own development barriers resulted from innate factors, such as nationality, gender, and ethnicity, and, through learning story-telling technique from countries, use “National Narratology of Success” to correct the limitations of “individual psychology of succes” in the 21st century and achieve goals. Refer to When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century for training details.
(2) Continuation of (1); observe, analyze, and learn from outstanding examples’ postures, including walking, sitting down, and speaking; understand how to dissect movements and the interaction of specific situations and speech postures, and practice in daily life. Refer to The Equipment Show for training details.
(3) Continuation of (1) and (2); understand the conspiracy between speech and action, lecture and performance, and audio and visual; learn voice performance and familiarize with the operations of the relationship of voice and image. Refer to The Ventriloquist for training details.

V. These Directions shall be approved by the Four Asian Tigers, and ratified through review of historical facts prior to taking effect. Amendments shall be processed accordingly.

Introduction

I. Training Purpose and Basis
This training is implemented on the basis of the following principle: “Lecture performance does not create new forms of experimentation, realism, or narrative; it rethinks existing ones as a dialogue of ideas.” This is appropriated from Timothy J. Corrigan’s statement regarding essay film in On the History of the Essay Film: Vertov to Verda. The original subjects of the sentence were “essay and essay film.”

II. Training Objectives
(1) To be equipped with sufficient narrative techniques, and be skilled in tide-turning and captivating story-telling processes.
(2) To nurture appropriate postures and gestures when talking, in aim to construct a role with outstanding personality, credibility, and authority.
(3) To train use of voice, while also combining narrative techniques and body language to shape comprehensive audio-visual experience in front of others.
(4) To strengthen the training of lecture performance in daily life, so that it is more than just an art form; in addition to practicing at all times, also examine other’s behaviors from the perspective of lecture performance.

III. Subjects of Training
(1)Everyone who pursues success and wants to know how to control others.
(2)Everyone who pursues freedom and wants to know how not to be controlled by others.
(3)Everyone.

IV. Training Content
(1) Understand own development barriers resulted from innate factors, such as nationality, gender, and ethnicity, and, through learning story-telling technique from countries, use “National Narratology of Success” to correct the limitations of “individual psychology of succes” in the 21st century and achieve goals. Refer to When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century for training details.
(2) Continuation of (1); observe, analyze, and learn from outstanding examples’ postures, including walking, sitting down, and speaking; understand how to dissect movements and the interaction of specific situations and speech postures, and practice in daily life. Refer to The Equipment Show for training details.
(3) Continuation of (1) and (2); understand the conspiracy between speech and action, lecture and performance, and audio and visual; learn voice performance and familiarize with the operations of the relationship of voice and image. Refer to The Ventriloquist for training details.

V. These Directions shall be approved by the Four Asian Tigers, and ratified through review of historical facts prior to taking effect. Amendments shall be processed accordingly.

About the works

When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century
Lecture performance, single-channel video installation, documents
Dimension variable
2019-2020

Successology is the study that specifically focuses on success and its attainment through accessible vital skills and processes such as self-management. The period of its popularity in Asia almost coincided with the economic rise of the “Asian Tigers.” Comparing successology and the four countries’ narratives of “economic miracle” and “long live democracy,” we can see that the two share similarities not only in the rigid definition of “success,” but also in their rhetorics. In When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century, the artist delivers a lecture in a way reminiscent of a successology lecturer, and references the “National Narrative to Succeed” to develop the personal successology needed in the 21st century, breaking it down to four interlinked principles of narrative. By questioning how personal and collective values are constructed, the work attempts to answer the salient question of why democracy in Asia hasn’t completely come to fruition yet.

In the live performance, the artist plays two roles—successology lecturer Victoria Chang and herself, remaining in character and talking about “National Narrative to Succeed” on one hand and jumping out of her character and sharing with the audience how she creates the role of Victoria Chang. The footages of the former have been edited and uploaded to YouTube like all other lectures of successology, and the artist has also purchased ads; the footages of the latter can be only seen in the live version.

Director: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Playwright: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Dramaturgy: HO Hsiang-Yi
Lighting Coordinator: CHOU Ya-Chuan
Lighting Technician: Tina WANG, CHEN Li-Ting
Lighting Equipment Supplied by Blackrice Studio
Video Recording and Post-production: Onez Production

About the works

When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century
Lecture performance, single-channel video installation, documents
Dimension variable
2019-2020

Successology is the study that specifically focuses on success and its attainment through accessible vital skills and processes such as self-management. The period of its popularity in Asia almost coincided with the economic rise of the “Asian Tigers.” Comparing successology and the four countries’ narratives of “economic miracle” and “long live democracy,” we can see that the two share similarities not only in the rigid definition of “success,” but also in their rhetorics. In When Did the Merlion Become Extinct? – The Narrative to Succeed in the 21st Century, the artist delivers a lecture in a way reminiscent of a successology lecturer, and references the “National Narrative to Succeed” to develop the personal successology needed in the 21st century, breaking it down to four interlinked principles of narrative. By questioning how personal and collective values are constructed, the work attempts to answer the salient question of why democracy in Asia hasn’t completely come to fruition yet.

In the live performance, the artist plays two roles—successology lecturer Victoria Chang and herself, remaining in character and talking about “National Narrative to Succeed” on one hand and jumping out of her character and sharing with the audience how she creates the role of Victoria Chang. The footages of the former have been edited and uploaded to YouTube like all other lectures of successology, and the artist has also purchased ads; the footages of the latter can be only seen in the live version.

Director: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Playwright: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Dramaturgy: HO Hsiang-Yi
Lighting Coordinator: CHOU Ya-Chuan
Lighting Technician: Tina WANG, CHEN Li-Ting
Lighting Equipment Supplied by Blackrice Studio
Video Recording and Post-production: Onez Production

The Equipment Show
Six-channel video installation
Loop
2021

Regardless of the mass media or behavioral psychology, how a public figure’s action connects with his or her words often becomes the criteria for the evaluation of whether a talk is successful or not. Anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell’s research shows that nonverbal communication accounts for approximately 60-70% of human communication; when hand gesture, eye contact, speed, and degree of movement, all become content of communication, in addition to conveying verbal contents, it is more important for all the speech acts to create images in front of audience. All the videos featured in The Equipment Show are from YouTube, as the work collects various examples of “successful” exercising of power through non-verbal behaviors from historical figures, politicians, movie characters, to successology lecturers, and invites theater actors to dissect the examples’ movements.

Director: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Editing: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Choreography and Performance: HO Hsiang-Yi
Cinematography: LEE Yi-Cheng, LIN Yong-Yi
Post-Production: Onez Production

The Ventriloquist
Single-channel video installation, documents
Dimension variable
2021

Since becoming a form of performance for entertainment purposes in the late 18th century, ventriloquism has continued to captivate audience until today. The key reason is unity of sound and image. By concealing the lip movements, a ventriloquist makes audience use their eyes to find an alternative source of voice; the image the puppet’s moving lips serves as the new source of voice, and this inevitable visual misunderstanding thus gives “life” to the puppet. Regarding dubbing as a technique like ventriloquism can reveal the relationship between sound and image hidden in the gap of “audible” and “visible” that manipulates the perceptions of audience like the Mechanical Turk.

The Ventriloquist invites two voice actors with over 40 years of experience, Lin Fang-shiue and Li Xiang-sheng, to partake in the filming. In addition to talking about the changes and evolution of dubbing techniques and the industry in their dialogue, the two voice actors also re-dub a number of historical footages. When “characterization” is no longer a theatrical issue, and has become a political problem that involves national leaders and individuals, ventriloquism will no longer be just a special skill, but an everyday action.

Director: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Editing: CHANG Wen-Hsuan
Voice actor: LI Xiang-Sheng, LIN Fang-Xue
Cinematography: LEE Yi-Cheng, LIN Yong-Yi
Post-Production: Onez Production