[ LINK ]
Chiang Ping-Fan & Chuang Hsiang-Ching are a design duo whose collaborative project, Departing Shore, embodies their shared vision of reimagining colonial history across geographical, spatial, and religious lenses. Their long-standing friendship and creative synergy allows them to combine their individual strengths: Cookie, an architect and designer, is recognised for his transdisciplinary approach to urban interventions that challenges conventional interactions with space. Chester, who has a multidisciplinary background in design, research, and art, uses drawing and installation as means to dissect and reimagine human perception and cognition. Together, they create immersive experiences that encourage viewers to question and reinterpret their inherited history.
Artwork
Title
Departing Shore 惜別的海岸
Dimension
H30 x W120cm painting
Material
Metal, Basalt, Stone, Coral, Brick, Plastic, Paper, Ink
If the lost Dutch souls of Penghu were to return to Rotterdam—Europe's largest deep-water port, laden with offerings and goods from the Far East—would they still be able to find their way home? Over the past four hundred years, changes in the natural environment and man-made projects wiped the former coastline away, the old shipping lanes are unrecognisable, and the nautical charts on which they relied are long out of date.
During their fieldwork in Penghu, they were inspired by the belief in local amulet towers and, by observing the tides, coasts, and waterways, Ping-Fan and Hsiang-Ching uncovered a unique local landscape infused with energy. Here man-made objects are used to balance the changes brought by natural disasters. They gathered local materials imbued with special energy and crafted a rope piece symbolically linking Penghu and Rotterdam, intended to drive away evil and guide wandering souls safely on their journey home. The artists then imagined themselves as wandering souls washed ashore by the tide. With the sky as their eyes and their feet as brushes, they stumbled from the coast, guided by memory. They walked inland along the banks of the Maas, finally reaching the original site of the Rotterdam East India Company [ VOC ] chamber. There, they mapped out the city, marking the site as the place where the wandering souls can finally unload their trade goods and find rest.
[ LINK ]
Stef Veldhuis is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art and science, exploring collaborative relationships between human and more-than-human intelligences and phenomena. Through the use of technology, Veldhuis’ work harnesses the creative force of various more-than-human agents, allowing their contingent behaviours to enliven the work throughout its exhibition.
A central theme in Veldhuis’s practice is the role of memory, history, and archiving—elements often considered uniquely human. Veldhuis invites other intelligences into these traditionally anthropocentric processes, challenging the static nature of the archive. By incorporating more-than-human perspectives into the creation and storage of memory, energy, and objects, his work introduces dynamic elements into systems typically associated with preservation and control.
Artwork
Title
Swarming Circle | Hybrid Organism
Dimension
75 x 75 x 300 cm
Material
Narrowcasting Radio Transmission, Field Recordings, Concrete, Wood, Aluminum, PVC-Tubing, Junction Box
When thinking about the metaphysical nature of ghost, I always return to radio. Over the years, I have conducted multiple experiments with electromagnetic waves – listening to the radio signals of thunder, cosmic radiation, beehive communication, and extracting satellite images from the air. The ghostly concept of an “absent presence” – an intangible thing that penetrates walls and tissue – is the essence of radio. The air is constantly saturated with noise and signals that just need the right medium to be picked up on. As Doughlas Kahn points out in his book Earth Sound Earth Signal, “radio was heard before it was invented […], and before it was invented, radio was”. It has always been there, a crackling bustle of electromagnetic energy that trawls the stratosphere, which is why when it was first picked up by accident, even the most scientifically minded scholars were quick to jump to supernatural conclusions. Radio was stumbled upon by accident. Early telephone lines, acting as antennae, picked up bursts of signals between static, fueling reports of ghosts hiding in the megahertz.
Radio transmitters broadcast zones of information; they create a domain – a “here” and “there” – where the transmission is and isn’t available. When researching the island of Penghu, I found similar antenna present in each village. Small concrete temples and shrines commemorating military generals mark the boundaries and center of the towns. These structures serve as a conduit to the realm of spirits, allowing the generals to enter the realm of the living and serve as protectors for the town. A supernatural protective zone.
In Transference, I use the ghostly presence of radio to create a space for displaying works by collaborating Taiwanese artists. The sculpture functions as an extreme narrowcasting transmitter, creating an electromagnetic zone with a radius of approximately 3 meters around the antenna. Recordings made during my 2023 residency in Taiwan are transmitted through the antenna; a sonic archive of bells, dogs, electromagnetic waves, and other encounters during the 3-month stay. This system infuses the audience's bodies with the "ghost" of these signals. Occasionally, a small radio will pick up on sounds trawling the megahertz, bringing the absent presence into focus.
During my time in Taiwan, I constantly recorded the bustling sounds around me, trying to archive what I experienced in as many modalities as possible. Because of linguistic limitations and a lack of knowledge about the culture, I noticed that while recording it was impossible for me to label sounds as either noise or signal. The spoken words that I picked up had just as much meaning to me as the barking of dogs in the streets, the tweets of caged birds on the market, or the rustling of waves on the shore. It allowed for a completely unbiased form of listening in which every sound was heard with equal attention.
The title Transference refers to the movement of energy or particles from one medium to another. Radio waves, as electromagnetic energy, perform this act by moving through air and permeating spaces, thus imbuing the space with fragments of place, memory, and experience.
[ LINK ]
Chiang Ping-Fan & Chuang Hsiang-Ching are a design duo whose collaborative project, Departing Shore, embodies their shared vision of reimagining colonial history across geographical, spatial, and religious lenses. Their long-standing friendship and creative synergy allows them to combine their individual strengths: Cookie, an architect and designer, is recognised for his transdisciplinary approach to urban interventions that challenges conventional interactions with space. Chester, who has a multidisciplinary background in design, research, and art, uses drawing and installation as means to dissect and reimagine human perception and cognition. Together, they create immersive experiences that encourage viewers to question and reinterpret their inherited history.
Artwork
Title
Departing shore 惜別的海岸
Dimension
H30 x W120cm painting
Material
Metal, Basalt, Stone, Coral, Brick, Plastic, Paper, Ink
If the lost Dutch souls of Penghu were to return to Rotterdam—Europe's largest deep-water port, laden with offerings and goods from the Far East—would they still be able to find their way home? Over the past four hundred years, changes in the natural environment and man-made projects wiped the former coastline away, the old shipping lanes are unrecognisable, and the nautical charts on which they relied are long out of date.
During their fieldwork in Penghu, they were inspired by the belief in local amulet towers and, by observing the tides, coasts, and waterways, Ping-Fan and Hsiang-Ching uncovered a unique local landscape infused with energy. Here man-made objects are used to balance the changes brought by natural disasters. They gathered local materials imbued with special energy and crafted a rope piece symbolically linking Penghu and Rotterdam, intended to drive away evil and guide wandering souls safely on their journey home. The artists then imagined themselves as wandering souls washed ashore by the tide. With the sky as their eyes and their feet as brushes, they stumbled from the coast, guided by memory. They walked inland along the banks of the Maas, finally reaching the original site of the Rotterdam East India Company [ VOC ] chamber. There, they mapped out the city, marking the site as the place where the wandering souls can finally unload their trade goods and find rest.
[ LINK ]
Stef Veldhuis is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of art and science, exploring collaborative relationships between human and more-than-human intelligences and phenomena. Through the use of technology, Veldhuis’ work harnesses the creative force of various more-than-human agents, allowing their contingent behaviours to enliven the work throughout its exhibition.
A central theme in Veldhuis’s practice is the role of memory, history, and archiving—elements often considered uniquely human. Veldhuis invites other intelligences into these traditionally anthropocentric processes, challenging the static nature of the archive. By incorporating more-than-human perspectives into the creation and storage of memory, energy, and objects, his work introduces dynamic elements into systems typically associated with preservation and control.
Artwork
Title
Swarming Circle | Hybrid Organism
Dimension
75 x 75 x 300 cm
Material
Narrowcasting Radio Transmission, Field Recordings, Concrete, Wood, Aluminum, PVC-Tubing, Junction Box
When thinking about the metaphysical nature of ghost, I always return to radio. Over the years, I have conducted multiple experiments with electromagnetic waves – listening to the radio signals of thunder, cosmic radiation, beehive communication, and extracting satellite images from the air. The ghostly concept of an “absent presence” – an intangible thing that penetrates walls and tissue – is the essence of radio. The air is constantly saturated with noise and signals that just need the right medium to be picked up on. As Doughlas Kahn points out in his book Earth Sound Earth Signal, “radio was heard before it was invented […], and before it was invented, radio was”. It has always been there, a crackling bustle of electromagnetic energy that trawls the stratosphere, which is why when it was first picked up by accident, even the most scientifically minded scholars were quick to jump to supernatural conclusions. Radio was stumbled upon by accident. Early telephone lines, acting as antennae, picked up bursts of signals between static, fueling reports of ghosts hiding in the megahertz.
Radio transmitters broadcast zones of information; they create a domain – a “here” and “there” – where the transmission is and isn’t available. When researching the island of Penghu, I found similar antenna present in each village. Small concrete temples and shrines commemorating military generals mark the boundaries and center of the towns. These structures serve as a conduit to the realm of spirits, allowing the generals to enter the realm of the living and serve as protectors for the town. A supernatural protective zone.
In Transference, I use the ghostly presence of radio to create a space for displaying works by collaborating Taiwanese artists. The sculpture functions as an extreme narrowcasting transmitter, creating an electromagnetic zone with a radius of approximately 3 meters around the antenna. Recordings made during my 2023 residency in Taiwan are transmitted through the antenna; a sonic archive of bells, dogs, electromagnetic waves, and other encounters during the 3-month stay. This system infuses the audience's bodies with the "ghost" of these signals. Occasionally, a small radio will pick up on sounds trawling the megahertz, bringing the absent presence into focus.
During my time in Taiwan, I constantly recorded the bustling sounds around me, trying to archive what I experienced in as many modalities as possible. Because of linguistic limitations and a lack of knowledge about the culture, I noticed that while recording it was impossible for me to label sounds as either noise or signal. The spoken words that I picked up had just as much meaning to me as the barking of dogs in the streets, the tweets of caged birds on the market, or the rustling of waves on the shore. It allowed for a completely unbiased form of listening in which every sound was heard with equal attention.
The title Transference refers to the movement of energy or particles from one medium to another. Radio waves, as electromagnetic energy, perform this act by moving through air and permeating spaces, thus imbuing the space with fragments of place, memory, and experience.