A business that can't be closed.
“Everything Will be OK”, or ”諸事會社“ in Chinese, is a Augmented Reality installation. Adapted from Japanese word “株式會社“, which means “corporation”, the title of the piece replaces the first two characters with its homophone 『諸事』, which means “everything”. It’s a absurd joke hiding inside a serious situation.
The piece is made of two desk bulletin boards,「今日の営業は終了しています」(Business closed) and「冗談だ」(Just kidding.), a five-minute looping videos and a Unity app with AR camera installed. The base material of the piece is my own avatar. I let my miniature to be duplicated, stretched, disassembled, and re-combined into different kinds of functional objects:
Two “Tong”s become the minute and hour hands of a giant clock, slowly spinning on their own speeds. The two sometimes overlap, sometimes come face to face, as if the two figures are experiencing a twisted love hate relationship.
When audience scan the two boards with the Unity app, they will see the secrets I hide behind this reception desk: A line of “Tongs” gradually transfer from a full human body to a floor lamp, while keep bowing all the time in front of the board 「今日の営業は終了しています」. While in front of the board 「冗談だ」, a fan comprising dozens of Tong’s torsos is blowing away a huge “Tong”, whose head, legs, arms and torso are all separated but swinging in the wind.
”Everything will be OK” explores the concept of “Social alienation” by German socialist Karl Marx, which describes the estrangement(Entfremdung) of people from aspects of their Gattungswesen ("species-essence") as a consequence of living in a society of stratified social classes. The alienation from the self is a consequence of being a mechanistic part of a social class, the condition of which estranges a person from their humanity.
Absurd, bizarre contents are displayed on the board with a formal, serious look and are hidden behind the virtual space that could only be seen through the lens of Augmented Reality camera. It’s just like the essence of life always hide behind mundane daily life. “Today’s business is over, which is just kidding”, the conversation on the two boards describes the struggle of being occupied by one’s “working status” at all time: People who are doing repetitively functional work are trapped inside the social order, the business of which can never be closed, not being able to obtain physical or spiritual freedom. Therefore we are alienated into the existence of non human nor objects.
「诸事会社」是一个增强现实 (Augmented Reality) 作品。
取材于日语中”公司“的书写方法「株式会社」，我将它替换为中文发音相同的「诸事会社」，并设计了一整套的logo图样，把作品包装成一个藏在严肃公司里的荒诞秘密。
它由两块告示牌 「今日的营业已经结束」和「开玩笑的啦」， 一个五分钟的循环视频，以及搭载Unity引擎的增强现实app组成。整个作品的原素材是艺术家本人的3d扫描模型。我将自己微缩后的身体拉伸，复制，拆解，再重新组合成各种功能性的物品。两个“我”变成了分针和秒针，在五分钟的循环视频里在钟面缓缓地转动，有时候互相重叠，有时候相对而立。当观众用安装了增强现实app的ipad扫描两个告示牌的时候，就会看到我藏在前台里的秘密：一排由完整人体逐渐变形成一个台灯的“我”们整齐划一地在「今日的营业已经结束」牌子前鞠着躬，而另一边 「开玩笑的啦」牌子前面，一个由几十个“我” 的躯干构成扇叶的风扇，把一个串在日本小酒馆门帘上的巨型“我” 吹动起来，头，腿，手臂，躯干各自都在随风摆动。
「诸事会社」是对马克思基于资本主义工业生产过程提出的“社会异化”概念的一个探索 :工人不可避免地失去对自己工作的控制，从而失去对生活及自我的控制。工人从来都不是自主、自我实现的人类存在，他只能以资产阶级欲其所是的模式而存在。 戏谑怪异的内容被印在了严肃的公司前台告示牌上，被藏在了广告牌的虚拟空间里，需要透过增强现实技术这一层滤镜的解密，才可以窥视到隐藏在日常生活下的本质。“今日的营业结束，这种话是开玩笑的啦” 描绘的是无时无刻不被“工作状态“占据的一种困境：一直在重复着功能性工作的人在永远营业的社会秩序里无法得到肉体和精神的自由，因而在长期压抑中逐渐被异化成为了非人非物的奇怪存在。
