如果要拍一部藝術家空間抗爭的紀錄片,你會怎麼開場?

讓我們想像鏡頭從樓頂楊俊拿著啤酒的神情開始,「這就是台北當代藝術中心(提案)!」,然後鏡頭一直後退,宛如倒轉柯恩兄弟的《撫養亞歷桑納》(Raising Arizona. Dir. Joel Coen. 20th Century Fox, 1986.)著名的「後現代電影」(Postmodern Cinema)垂直爬牆鏡頭,攝影機邊倒退邊穿過藝術家的作品(爬升越過吳瑪利的廢墟文件山丘)、二樓欣賞藝術展演的人群(經過王俊傑的相機)、一樓的簡易/貧窮吧台空間(余政達跟其他美眉們正在玩 Webcam 輪盤 chatroulette.com)與辦公室(崔廣宇跟美雅的工作桌),越過門口總是堵住、其中徐文瑞正在跟瞬間停滯在門口的人們簡要解說這個中心,然後倒轉著畫面融入進入 Google 街景(StreetView)的昔日畫面,最終 zoom out 到台北市的衛星地圖空中。片頭標題:「」。

什麼是一個影音運動者(video activist)?什麼是一個線上的影音運動者?這樣的片子是否是一個線上的(社會/空間抗爭)運動影片?是否只要是拍攝運動的影像、記錄影片就是運動影片(activistic video)?

如果依照戰爭辭典印度藝術家夏娜.阿南德(Shaina Anand)的詞條 Zoom 的說法,它的摘要是這樣寫的:

ZOOM begins with a popular film from the 1970’s that was said to define the “look of the 20th Century”. We wonder about the powers of then, and the powers of now.

The look acts at collapsable distances, and varying focal lengths. The captured subjects will not know whose eyes their bodies will receive, (even though they will imagine it), in which galaxies their images will wander, in blackholes of memory or as data-stamps of unique flesh. At various levels of X, equations emerge, governing the relationship between the subject/ actor and the explicit or phantasmic, but always-powerful “viewer”. We take a closer look at some of these ratios and their registers of violence: in visual anthropology, CCTV, iris scans and more.

我的想像開場最後退到街上、倒退進 Google Maps 衛星地圖的作法,模仿諧擬了經典影片 Powers of Ten 的作法;這樣的處理影像,其目的乃是為了要將這樣的視覺經驗,與一堆平行的歷史文本並置,在初步描繪空間現場的同時,也擺置影像記錄本身所身處的理論空間。而且更近一步地說,擺置(positioning)是為了要提問,再次穿透、貫穿這樣的理論現場與運動現場;為什麼空間得以是一種抗爭?空間如何地處理得以與抗爭結合,部分地解消、同時也與這樣的抗爭精神共存?

溫德斯最著名的攝影機運動,也是他被人所樂道的「簽名影像」,乃是藉由攝影機圍繞主體旋轉穿梭在可見與未見、此在與彼在、時間點 a 與時間點 b 之間。這樣的穿梭可以被視為一種融入、相似,對兩者差異性的解消與消融。我們可以質疑,這樣的影像蒙太奇當中有差異的保存或共存嗎?如果回到我們原來的例子裡,是否這個空間,正是「台北當代藝術中心(提案)」的完成與終結?人們在這個空間中各安其位,彷彿如同藝術家們在國家/地方文化政治脈絡中被擺置定位,空間的譬喻成為一個終結的符碼。

透過類似的思考操作,我們應該能夠開始思考「線上影音運動者」與「線上運動影音」的意義與參考框架。我們希望這些數位檔案保存的是「對話」而非「靜物畫」,差異(difference)而非相同(sameness);藉由一個被限定意義的攝影脈絡(例如 cctv 監控攝影機)、被限定意義的被攝/拍攝主體(街友遊民、青年;X 光、超音波、MRI 掃描機器),被打開改變的觀看/存取脈絡(例如 torrent 檔案、通用開放檔案格式)等等,(有/無自我意識的)影音運動者其實在畫出一個穿梭的、以獨特方式讓讀者感動的觀賞經驗,最終建置了運動影像批判的種子在觀者的心中。

活動名稱:Video activist online and online actvistic video.
時間:3/12(拜五)暗時 7.30~ 8.00 開場
地點:TCAC 台北當代藝術中心(北市延平南路160之6號

說明:

這個閒聊會將以「線上」「影音」「運動」這個三個關鍵字為例,試圖為一起來對話的朋友釐清其藝術與行動的可能性。

如果有興趣的朋友可以先在網路上瀏覽主談人準備介紹的素材,例如在 Youtube 當中的影片與演講;藉由這些運動影片與影音檔案記錄,主談者希望拋出「運動影片/影音」在這個網際網路時代的意義。

最後主講者會以實際操作的「運動工具」討論作為結束。

- 以中國(胡佳+曾金燕)、孟加拉(Shahidul Alam)為例
- 《自由城的囚徒》(2008)
- Majority World(2010)(暫定)
- 什麼是線上影音運動份子?何謂線上(網路)運動影音?
- 影音運動集散地:http://v2v.cc
- 藝術計畫:Dictionary of War http://dictionaryofwar.org/
- 藝術家:Graham Harwood 與 mediashed.org
“Tantalum Memorial”, “Telephone Trottoire”,
The Duellists (cctv freerunning film) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwueQrsTxXM
‘Rehearsal of Memory’ (1995)
- Larry Lessig 論 Youtube:山歌問答 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS6IC5AWh5c
- Video Vortex http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/)
- 運動工具與運動想像:網路、影音、重組

William Blake 的詩:〈老虎〉。(中國網誌作者 mzlj 所整理的〈英語名詩欣賞 — 老虎〉

Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

「矛盾,幽默,遞嬗/改變。」

知道生命是一個謎,認識唯有幽默帶來(真正的)力量,了解世事並不會維持原樣。深夜在加油站,你是否會碰見你的蘇格拉底?一旦你深夜無法入眠時,你的蘇格拉底也許就已經站在街角等待你發現他。

[在印度晚兩個半小時,但是卻同時震驚不已]

重大消息:英國衛報記者 Tania Branigan 在北京根據 Google 的官方部落格報導 A New Approach To China〈Google 在中國將不再自我監控與過濾內容〉(Google to end censorship in China)。這可能意味著也將跟中國政府重新協商「如果有任何可能的話,合法保障而且不用進行言論自我監控、過濾內容的作法為何」,而協商結果的其中一個可能是關門走人、關閉 Google 的中國辦公室。

Google 部落格文章的最後兩段在此:

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.