title: Art of Refusal in Taiwan - comment
author: Lee Tzu Tung
published: 2022-03-25
type: article

# Art of Refusal in Taiwan

Hi readers, as you may know, Taiwan has long been under China’s economic, political and military pressure. It has often sought ways to survive between the wrestles of US and China superpowers. Therefore, you may see that many artworks are about realizing the artist's utopian vision, seeking to queer up the status-quo and actualize alternative political-economic ecologies that inspire people to have a self-empowering, self-sufficient autonomy.

I am also one of the artists who create such artworks; for example, in the Positive Coin (2019), I issued a cryptocurrency with the feature of the AIDS virus. The project aimed to create a monetary-based community that extends HIV identities. And in *Fokonomy( )* (2020), a participatory project collaborated with Hong Kong artist Winnie Soon, we gathered an alternative assembly discussing: “How to own/or buy one milliliter of the South China Sea?” We generate a community agreeing to co-own and co-manage such a sea area full of territorial dispute.

**

My creative path started with the research in the Indigenous community, then later involved with the open-source and civic-tech groups in Taiwan. In 2016, I visited Katritupur. At the time, people were reconstructing their Palakwan, a gathering house for Katratupiur men erected by the Japanese empire. I saw Iming curving the ancestor spirit’s pillar in the semi-constructed house among other young workers. As an artist who brought a camera inside, the scene gave me a lesson. — According to an interview he had: ”I understand that our ancestors carved the same pillar way as I did. I understand that the way I moved my hands are the same as my ancestors. What I feel now is how our ancestors felt in the past.“ — His creative work is not about being presented in prestigious institutions, exhibitions, or to show in front of the so-called International yet actually mainly white audiences. In his context, he is not the sole author of that pillar, he creates and uses creation to connect with his ancestors, and his audiences are the ancestor's spirits and his people.

**

**

In the contemporary art scene, artists operate by claiming credit, by positioning themselves as the direct author and owner of a creative property. Iming’s practice opens up our authorship imagination and remanufactures our expectation of the audiencepraciship. The artwork primarily emphasizes the making process as its a way to connect with the community containing a ritualistic connection. Rituals and mysterious acts also disturb the current knowledge-making and archiving system, as they are constructed upon a colonial perspective. Both the creation or ancestor spirit pillar and the rebuild of the house are ways to build their subjectivity, resisting state violence and epistemological violence.

**

Such discovery leads me to participate in Taiwan's civic-tech and open-source communities. I see the political practice of Indigenous autonomy were realized in the digital realm. For example, the self-ruled, decentralized organizing in these tech communities can clarify how to decolonize the state. There are also many similarities as (1) the Indigenous/tech members are both following community practices to contribute collectively (2) many of its projects are long term and open-ended; (3) generally, individuals assert relatively low levels of authorial control; (4) the identifiability of individual authors does not always matter; (5) the structure of the collaboration is generally open to newcomers. Both communities show potential models on how to be independent of a colonial governmental force.

These above traits question the existing art environment, its epistemology and inspire people to put the alternative political act in practice, especially for artists who create space for experiments under the notion of art.

**

---
### Questions from Transmediale Workshop

` - what are the examples at the intersection of indigenous and FLOSS communities?
* shared political vision in regards to self-economy, independency [soverignity?]
- (the way I understand it) in relation to alternative community practices, is there a potential for the repeating of the same troubles that were in the dominant ones?`

--

`How does the critique of openness in open source play into this? Or indeed the colonial tendencies of network cultures and big tech? and the need to decolonise. Might there be a sense of indigenous tech? How far do the parallels go?
i.e. in the west the analogy was made to the enclosure movement (privatisation of land) to open source.`

--

`indeed, 'openness' is often most possible with communities that are less vulnerable (i.e. more power = more openness) - how to bridge that gap?`

--

`- as open source gets popularised, in some cases it is merging with existing political infrastructures and bodies; what are the origins of open source / situation in the civi tech community in Taiwan? - how did you choose the concept of forking? given its earlier connotations in open source - how do imperial structures of power unfold in relation to technology differently in Taiwan as opposed to the West?`

--

`Fascinating paper! Interesting to discuss alternative 'identities' than nation and origin. I'm wondering whether alternative identifications can be more participatory than e.g. origin and nation? Of course we all know the problems with these identification factors, but what are the consequences of moving to alternatives?`

--

`Super fascinating, I’m in particular drawn to the indigenous practices and imaginaries of technologies that you describe in the presentation, and of how the social/politcal/cultural/colonial context/past is reflected in them, and how the producers develop and use technology through ‘indegenous’ cultural ideas. But also thinking, as frased above: How far do the parallels go?" Perhaps, this is also about how cultural or symbolic forms, such as open source, get translated (rendered) in particular political (colonial/imperialist) and cultural contexts?`

--

`Discussion of open source situated within very particular geopolitical context. how are the critiques nuanced accordingly? I.e. in relation to Chinese imperialism?`

---