installation

This project represent both the integration and breaching of the boundaries between the empirical self and the transcendental ego. Although participating in shamanic ceremonies is only a small part of my spiritual method, these rituals have provided opportunities for me to explore previously uncharted spiritual territories – metaphysical sojourns new to me and to my practice. Considering these mystical fragments and scattered images or illusions, I believe that they not only broaden my understanding of the dimensions of human consciousness, but they also have the potential to unify ordinary and altered states of mind.

Profoundly influenced by the Romantic, visionary poet William Blake, I appropriate the chapter title, "A Memorable Fancy," from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790). In this work, Blake incorporates poetry, aphorisms, prose, printmaking, and watercolor drawings to convey the thought: "Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary to human existence." He also subverts the classical conception of "evil" by, for example, claiming that "Good is the passive that obeys reason. Evil is the active springing from energy." Like Dante’s Divine Comedy, Blake brings his readers to the upper, middle, and lower worlds within the five chapters of "A Memorable Fancy."

DMT, Blake, Dante, mystical journeys, drumming, and deep reflection are all clues, hidden or obvious, to the origins and goals of this project and the journey it represents.

// October 2018, Taipei

* Please also refer to Sonic Driving for my practice of altered state of consciousness

反烏托邦，或一則（反）演化論的寓言
鄭文琦

「未來是倒敘過時的。」許多藝術家間接但卻明顯地傳達熱力學第二定律的模擬情境，也就是以推斷熵值的範圍來描述能量的迅速流失大於獲得最終極的未來，宇宙能量終於燃燒殆盡，而轉變為全面的均值化的靜止狀態。¹
──‭ ‬羅伯特．史密森（Robert Smithson）

1970年在美國大鹽湖創作知名地景藝術《螺旋堤》（Spiral‭ ‬Jetty）的藝術家羅伯特．史密森，曾在《藝術論壇》（Artforum）上發表一篇標題為〈熵與新紀念碑〉（Entropy and the New Monuments）的文章，後來被收錄在1996年出版的《Robert Smithson‭: ‬The Collected Writings》一書裡。其中，他透過19世紀中確立的「熱力學第二定律」傳達當時許多藝術家共同相信的模擬情境，即宇宙能量的迅速流失大於獲得，未來終將轉變為一種全面均質的死寂—即所謂的「熱寂」（Heat death of the universe），藝術家們因此投入一種超越時間的紀念碑。儘管如此，他的行文對於宇宙將終結似乎不太感傷，反而暗示人們在面對末日可能來臨之時的抒懷。

史密森的《螺旋堤》作為某種與自然共存的結構，他則在文中提及許多活躍於1960年代的藝術家也取法於自然科學，其結果是，這類新紀念碑幾乎「使我們忘了未來」。衰亡或生物演化的時間被這些藝術家的紀念碑抵消了。而時間的抵消也廢除了行動論（notion of action）在藝術裡的價值──「行動帶來反應（reaction），直到藝術家終於『厭倦』了並止息於紀念碑的非行動（inaction）」。他甚至宣稱，是「機械與電子科技最終皆崩壞的覺知，刺激這些藝術家建立了他們朝向或背離熵的紀念碑」²。

在21世紀回顧這些說法，啟發自熵的「非行動」雖然暫時擺脫了時間性，「熱寂」卻隨著最新的宇宙起源理論，成為一則不斷延遲的預言。與此同時，藝術家所謂的新紀念碑卻總是讓人聯想到近代科學家的發現，如仿效礦物結晶構造與自然界的幾何形式，或者電光能量的迸發瞬間。這種令人困惑的矛盾性也呼應了1970年代前後盛傳「雙魚時代」即將結束的北美社會氛圍，充斥陰謀論的大眾媒體卻傳達出對「寶瓶時代」的渴望。這究竟只是科技啟發藝術的宿命，抑或者冷戰時期的高壓特性所使然？

最近，有人試圖明確地界定「溝通理論」和關於熵的物理概念之間的類比，⋯我們不只是溝通真實的事物，也溝通非真實的。而非真實往往比真實指向更廣大的「實在」。故顯然所有資訊，包括一切可見的事物都具有熵的層面。³
──‭ ‬羅伯特．史密森

陳瀅如在最新個展「超星鑑定III：熵：25800」‭ ‬的同名影片裡，首次採用前文關於熱力學第二定律的推論，來串連「大年」（春分點完整繞行黃道一圈所需的歲差週期）的循環、「人與宇宙超靈的通訊」（摘自《一的法則》（The‭ ‬Law of One））內容和「神聖幾何」的圖案，構成她的反烏托邦論述。這套論述的前文本「超星鑑定系列」還包括引用《聖經》、13世紀波斯詩人魯米（Rumi）、《易經繫辭》等文字的《超星鑑定II：關於托勒密和哥白尼兩大世界體系的對話》（2016）以及她以‭ ‬1960年代極簡藝術家與通靈為題材的《超星鑑定》（2016），建構成一套三部曲。

我們很快就發現，藝術家似乎有意無意地引用大量的論證資料來模糊假說和實證的界線，並在影像訴諸與宇宙超靈RA的「通訊」來完成這件關於「末日」的單頻道錄像作品。最初是在紐西蘭拍攝的蒼涼風景，在引句和一段與RA通訊的文字後，是一系列包含熱力學、核分裂等科學動畫和檔案影像，其間插入另外兩次通訊，伴隨著電腦合成人聲的旁白和音效。這些陳瀅如嫻熟的實驗影像語言，此刻成了承載靈性訊息的法門，而我們卻難以堅定地抗拒或接收這些內容。同樣難以確認的是，《超星鑑定》的論證奠基於一本名為《兩個行星的居民》（A Dweller on Two Planets）的書，書中稱19世紀生物地理學家主張有一個「雷姆里亞」（Lemuria）的遠古大陸，後來沈沒於印度洋和太平洋之間。該理論原是為了解釋生物地理學的不連續性，卻在她的計畫裡成為藝術史轉向的遙遠脈絡⁴。

當然這不是陳瀅如第一次以浩瀚無邊的宇宙觀點和知識使人難以消化的時刻──這位藝術家擅長以神秘學與偽科學解釋個體心靈和宇宙整體關聯的敘事。從《共登世界大同之境》（2012）、《天一象、地一物》（2013–2014）到《屠學表》（2014）採用占星學詮釋歷史上大屠殺的行動與背景，《超星鑑定II：關於托勒密和哥白尼兩大世界體系的對話》採用了科學史的對話形式呈現神祕學與科學的交集。她更鑽研冷僻的古代圖象，常常藉著鍊金術或神聖幾何元素的繪製，緩和展場觀眾對於浩瀚宇宙尺度的不適應。而大宇宙與小宇宙層層交互指涉的視覺構成，更讓人們在肅穆的節奏裡逐漸擺脫大腦的慣習。

《超星鑑定III：熵：25800》透過「大年」、外星通靈檔案、熵依序鋪陳，傳達她的反烏托邦主張，指向不可挽回的宇宙終點。陳瀅如說詮釋歷史的神秘學是她用來研究權力結構、暴力、集體無意識的工具⁵，陰謀論則是「與反烏托邦分享著相似的思考方式，它們都揭示不可見的控制力以及行動的秘密含義」⁶；她期待觀眾即使不明白神秘學符號的意義，也能感受整體裝置試圖闡述的大小宇宙概念。果真如此，我們是否該放棄驗證《超星鑑定III》的論據而聚焦在超靈訊息：人類所導致的熱寂末日將在這次大年的「鐵（第四）紀元」結束後發生？（問題是若你我採信了這說法，又該如何面對不可挽回的宿命？於此她並未回答。）而這些難以蠡測的推論只是藝術家的信念，還是透過不斷挖掘矛盾材料的鍊金過程，帶領只能住在地球上的我輩觀眾──如她聲稱的外星訪客般從銀河另一端反向觀察這個早已麻木的行星，並問自己：它為何走到今天的局面？又將走向何方？

雖然人類已進化到一個萬物都可以被科學所解釋的年代，連宇宙的生死也即將有答案。然而我們仍不明白歷史上的巧合或命定；1960年代對於藝術家有什麼特殊的意義，為何在特定時刻形成具有「同時性」的藝術，而藝術家又想透過物件傳達何種訊息。或許陳瀅如的影像只是我們窺見那個年代神秘靈感的替代性詮釋，但同樣的神秘卻也使她加入她所探索的藝術家行列了。

如同伯格森（Henri Bergson）在《創造演化論》（Creative Evolution）結合實證科學與形而上思想，對進化論做出「生命驅力」（élan vital）的補充，「超星鑑定系列」作品對於人類歷史、低限藝術家的創作及生命的替代性詮釋，也透過直覺的引導爬梳史實，更以「熵」模擬生命驅力的反證──為此她不但不放棄時間，更安住在柏格森式的時間流裡尋找答案。於此，我們彷彿看到了神秘學試圖整合的二元對立──在終將合一的日子到來之前。《托勒密和哥白尼兩大世界體系的對話》教導我們，要在相對客觀的歷史面前保持對「真實」的詰問；陳瀅如則使我們看見，面對這個意圖懾服我們的宇宙，「傾聽」才是唯一的答案。

Dystopia or, an allegory of (counter-)evolution
Rikey Tenn

"The future is but the obsolete in reverse." In a rather round-about way, many of the artists have provided a visible analog for the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which extrapolates the range of entropy by telling us energy is more easily lost than obtained, and that in the ultimate future the whole universe will burn out and be transformed into an all-encompassing sameness.¹
── Robert Smithson

Artist Robert Smithson, who created the 1970 earthwork sculpture Spiral Jetty in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., once wrote an essay titled "Entropy and the New Monuments" for Artforum magazine that was subsequently included in the book "Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings" published in 1996. In this essay, he conveyed through the second law of thermodynamics established in the 19th century, a scenario widely accepted among artists of the time that energy loss far exceeds its acquisition in the universe, leading to an inevitable future of total and pervasive stillness — the so-called "heat death of the universe." Hence, artists were devoted to monuments that transcended time. However, his writings seem unsentimental regarding the end of the universe; rather, he hints at human expressions toward the coming of the possible end of days.

The structure of Smithson's Spiral Jetty coexists with nature. In his essay he mentions a number of artists active in the 1960s who also applied methods from the natural sciences to create new monuments that seem to "cause us to forget the future." The time it takes to decay or to biologically evolve is completely eliminated in the monuments created by these artists. This temporal offset also abolishes values attributed to the notion of action in art — "Reaction follows action, till finally the artist gets 'tired' and settles for a monumental inaction." He goes as far as to declare "the awareness of the ultimate collapse of both mechanical and electrical technology has motivated these artists to build their monuments to or against entropy.²"

Looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century, though the "inaction" inspired by entropy temporarily escapes temporality, the "heat death of the universe" has become a prophesy perpetually delayed by the newest theories on the formation of the universe. At the same time, the so-called new monuments of these artists always lead to thoughts of recent scientific discoveries such as simulations of crystalline structures of minerals and nature's geometric forms, or the momentary bursts of electro-optical energy. This confusing paradox also echoes the rumored end of the "Age of Pisces" in the North American social atmosphere, while a mass media infested with conspiracy theories conveys its desires for the "Age of Aquarius." Is this the fate of technology-inspired art, or an inevitable outcome of the highly pressurized Cold War era?


Recently, there has been an attempt to formulate an analog between "communication theory" and the ideas of physics in terms of entropy. As A.J. Ayer has pointed out, not only do we communicate what is true, but also what is false. Often the false has a greater “reality” than the true. Therefore, it seems that all information, and that includes anything that is visible, has its entropic side³.
── Robert Smithson

For the first time, an eponymous film in Yin-Ju Chen's latest solo exhibition "Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800," links the abovementioned Second Law of Thermodynamics with the cycles of the Great Year (the period of one complete cycle of the spring equinox around the ecliptic), contents of "the telepathic communication between humans and the universe" (excerpted from "The Law of One"), and patterns of "sacred geometry" in order to construct her discourse on dystopia. A prelude to this discourse in the Extrastellar Evaluations Series includes Extrastellar Evaluations II — A Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (2016), which references texts from the Bible, 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, and "Appended Remarks of the Book of Changes" (Yijing Xici); as well as her work Extrastellar Evaluations (2016) that revolves around minimalist artists from the 1960s and psychics — all combines as a trilogy.

We soon realize that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the artist seems to reference a vast quantity of discursive data to blur the boundary between hypotheses and factual data. The single-channel video work about the end of the world pivots around the telepathic communications with the cosmic oversoul "Ra." It opens with a desolate landscape filmed in New Zealand, followed by a quotation and the first communications with Ra, and then a series of scientific animations and archival footage on thermal dynamics, nuclear fission, and so on, interspersed with two additional communications accompanied by a narration of computer-synthesized human voices and sound effects. The experimental visual language that Yin-Ju Chen adeptly wields has now become the vehicle for spiritual messages; we are unable to either firmly resist or accept the content. Equally difficult to confirm is that the arguments posited in Extrastellar Evaluations have been based on a book titled "A Dweller on Two Planets", which claims that 19th-century biogeographers maintained the existence of an ancient continent called "Lemuria" that eventually became submerged somewhere between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. This theory was originally used to explain a discontinuity in biogeography, but has instead become a distant context for a shift in art history in her project⁴.

Of course this is not the first time that Yin-Ju Chen has used expansive and infinite universal perspectives and knowledge to create a moment that is difficult to digest — the artist is skilled at using occultism and pseudo-science as narratives to explain the individual psyche vis-à-vis the universe as a whole. From One Universe, One God, One Nation (2012), to As Above, So Below (2013–2014) to Liquidation Maps (2014), which used astrology to explain the actions and backgrounds of major massacres in history, or Extrastellar Evaluations II — A Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems that presents the intersections between occultism and science through a dialogue on the history of science, the artist further delves into rare ancient images, often using alchemy or sacred geometric elements to alleviate the viewer's discomfort with the vast scale of the universe. The visual construction of the overlapping layers of interaction between macrocosms and microcosms further enables the viewer to gradually abandon the habits of the brain within the solemn atmosphere of the work.

Through the sequences of the Great Year, extraterrestrial telepathy archives, and entropy, Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800 serves as her dystopian proposal and points to an irreversible end of the universe. Yin-Ju Chen has said that interpreting the occultism of history is her vehicle to research power structures, violence, and the collective unconsciousness⁵. Conspiracy theories and dystopias "share similar modes of reflection; they all reveal an unseen power to control and the secret implications of actions.⁶” She hopes that the viewer can somehow grasp the concept of macrocosms and microcosms expressed by the installation as a whole, even if they cannot understand the meaning of the occult symbols. If this is the case, should we perhaps abandon attempts to validate Extrastellar Evaluations III, and focus instead on the telepathic message: the heat death of the universe brought on by humankind will occur after the "Age of Iron" of this ecliptic cycle? (The problem is, if you and I accept this conjecture, how will we confront this irrevocable fate? She does not provide answers in this regard.) And these unfathomable conjectures are merely the artist's own beliefs, or a hermetic process of continuously excavating contradictory materials; to lead our generation of spectators who live on Earth in observing this already-numb planet from the perspective of her so-called extraterrestrial visitors from the other end of the galaxy, to ask ourselves: Why has it come to this? And where will it go next?

Although humankind has evolved to an era where science can explain all, with answers even for the birth and death of the universe, we still cannot comprehend the coincidences or predestined courses in history. What special significance did the 60s hold for the artists? Why was there a wave of art of "synchronicity" during that specific period of time? And what type of message did the artists hope to convey through these objects? Perhaps Yin-Ju Chen's images are an alternative interpretation of our glimpse into the mysterious inspirations of that era, but the same sense of mystery has also brought her into the ranks of the artists she examines.

Just as Henri Bergson combines empirical science with metaphysics in "Creative Evolution", supplementing evolutionary theory with élan vital, the Extrastellar Evaluations Series provides alternative interpretations for human history and for the lives and practices of minimalist artists, and, guided by Yin-Ju Chen's intuition, combs through historical truths using "entropy" to simulate refutations of life forces. She does not eschew temporality, but settles into a Bergson-esque temporal flow in search of answers. We seem to glimpse an attempt by occultism to integrate binary oppositions before the day of final unification. "The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" advises us to continue in interrogating the "truth" in the face of relatively objective history, while Yin-Ju Chen allows us to realize that the only way we can confront this universe designed to subdue us is to listen.

By re-examining historical incidents through the lens of the occult, Chen is not only attempting to rethink the subjective awareness of history writing in textbooks from the past, she is also questioning whether such actions by humanity are inevitable under the predetermined and inexorable laws of the universe, whether these laws constitute a form of cosmic force majeure. Corresponding to the belief that purification and perfection are achievable through violent means, in the artist's video work, the planet Mars represents the god of war and Pluto represents the utter persecution and destruction that precedes the reconstitution of order. This underlying concept is similar to Jung's belief that one's natal chart could represent a prototype of collective human consciousness. In critiquing Chen's work, critic Rikey Cheng pointed out that "natal charts are a form of intellectual temptation for their audience, as their symbolic meaning only surrenders to the manipulation of the hand that draws the chart, provided that information is masked and phases are purposely made vague… And these sketches adhere more closely to the labors of ancient astrologers rendering natal charts by hand in the absence of computer technology. Rather than bringing audiences an instant chart readout with internet technology, they lead viewers on a voyage of discovery towards the soul."¹

1 From "A User Guide to Internal Maps", Rikey Cheng's commentary at Yin-Ju Chen's 2014 Dead Souls at the Test Drive exhibition.

texts source: 2014 Shanghai Biennale - Social Factory

《天一象、地一物》是由個人的醫療經驗出發，綜合科學與偽科學、中世紀瑞士醫生帕拉塞爾斯（Paracelsus）對於大宇宙（自然）和小宇宙（人類）的思考，如宇宙學／占星術、現代醫學／鍊金術，繼續探索宇宙與人類之間的神秘關聯。

This is the first phase of her recent artistic practice from a long running project – As Above, so Below.

Based on her recent operation and its accompanying medical issues, Yin-Ju Chen is embracing science and pseudoscience, and exploring Paracelsus' idea of the mystery of the macrocosm (nature) and the microcosm (human).