Real Part : 0.5m*5m Each (Four Scrolls in Total 0.5m*20m)
Imaginary Part: Size Variable
Real Part: Xuan Paper(Rice Paper), Printing Ink
Imaginary Part: /
Real Part: Chinese Seal Engraving and Movable Type Printing
Imaginary Part: NFT
Selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize Longlist,
Aesthetica Magazine, York, 2024
入選2024 Aesthetica Art Prize 長名單
https://artprize.aestheticamagazine.com/projects/melody-yat-wan-chan/
Selected for the Luxembourg Art Prize Finalist, Pinacothèque, Luxembourg, 2023
入選2023盧森堡藝術獎決賽名單
https://www.luxembourgartprize.com/en/finalists-en/ (Group 2)
Certificate for Artistic Achievement by the Museum - Luxembourg Art Prize 2023
美術館藝術成就證書 - 2023 年盧森堡藝術獎
(Chinese version of this artwork description is recommended.)
Based on the binary system, information is transformed into the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching using an original encryption method to create a unique ciphertext. The I Ching is an ancient Chinese divination text and is among the oldest of the Chinese classics.
This graduation work explores the combination of Eastern and Western philosophical concepts and cultural backgrounds in two forms: "Yin" and "Yang."[1] Chinese seal engraving and movable type printing represent the real part, while NFT represents the imaginary part.
By using "Cryptology" to explore the meaning of symbols in visual transmission, logical speculation, and humanistic empathy, this work attempts to strike a balance between humanism and the core value of "cultural evolution" in human civilization [2].
Regarding the artistic concept, I am aware that the relationship between artist and audience is constant, and artworks often allow for passive appreciation. Thus, "Mind Palace" aims to subvert this position by allowing for interaction in reverse as viewers make their subjective appreciation.
As a summary of a four-year study, my deepest affections are depicted in the visual images.
[1]: Mathematics, binary, sixty-four hexagrams, science, Taoism, and the East-West perspectives on the understanding and philosophy of nature.
[2]: The 20th-century Cambridge literary and physicist C.P. Snow (1905-1980) authored the famous document "The Two Cultures," acclaimed as the earliest articulation of the division between 'science' and 'humanities,' delineating the cultural imbalance caused by the schism between science and humanities.
Detailed Background Description
Motivation and Research Content
Motivation:
For the artist, the pen and paper always hold immense power. Just like Euclid (325 B.C - 265 B.C) wrote 'Euclid's Elements' two thousand years ago, using symbols as carriers of thought and logic, laying a solid foundation for plane geometry; or when we read 'Classic of Poetry' or 'Chu Ci,' a few lines of Chinese characters carry emotions that still tug at our heartstrings; or when we admire a masterpiece like Edvard Munch's (1863-1944) 'The Scream,' we can still glimpse into the artist's mental world through brushstrokes, colors, and composition. With just pen and paper, humanity can transcend generations, conveying eternal thoughts and emotions.
Research Content:
In summary, the graduation project focuses on the balance of humanism, using 'cryptography in art' to explore the significance of 'symbols' in visual communication throughout human civilization, bridging time and space with a pen and paper to convey human empathy.
The artist's initial intention in studying 'cryptology' and 'cryptography in art' is to convey emotions and messages to specific audiences through self-created ciphers. In terms of artistic concepts, the artist feels that the relationship between artists and viewers in the art world is often fixed, with artworks typically in a passive position for appreciation. Therefore, the decision was made to subvert this dynamic, challenging the viewers' abilities while they select works for appreciation.
Cryptology and Binary System
Cryptology is a branch of computer science and mathematics that involves significant information theory. American cryptographer Ronald Rivest (1947-) once said, 'Cryptography is about communication in the presence of adversaries'[3] Classical Cryptology primarily focuses on encrypting information, transmission, and corresponding decryption methods. Depending on the creativity of both adversaries and designers in coding and decoding, it is considered a practical art.
The binary system refers to a numbering system with a base of two, typically represented using 0 and 1 in mathematics and digital circuits. Logic gates in electronic circuits use 0 and 1 to denote true and false, widely applied in computers and various computer-dependent devices. The uniqueness of the binary system lies in its ability to represent complex data in an extremely simple form (such as through sound interruptions, light on-off patterns, etc.).
[3] Oral History of Ronald L. Rivest, (2017) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQJmqQrcazU
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a renowned German philosopher and mathematician who first published his essay on binary arithmetic, 'Essay on a New Science of Numbers (Essay d'unne nouvelle Science des Nombres),' in 1701 [4]. Later, he learned about the Yin-Yang philosophy of the I Ching from the French priest Joachim Bouvet (1656-1703), and found it to be analogous to his own invention of the binary system [5]. Inspired by the trigrams '- -' and '—' of the I Ching, he modified his binary system to use '1' and '0' and published 'Explanation Of Binary Arithmetic, Which Uses Only The Characters 0 And 1, With Some Remarks On Its Usefulness, And On The Light It Throws On The Ancient Chinese Figures Of Fuxi' in 1703 [6].
[4] Chinese Journal of the History of Science and Technology, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2002, pp. 54-58.
[5] Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz, 'Leibniz Korrespondiert mit China', (1990), P.94-97.
[6]Histoire de l′Academie Royale des Sciences, Année 1703n, Paris , (1705), P.85-89.
I Ching, Semiotics, and Modern Encoding: Unicode
The I Ching is a set of symbolic narratives that form a formal system. Philosophically, it starts with the concept of the 'Wuji' (無極, the Limitless) and the 'Taiji' (太極, the Supreme Ultimate) as the fundamental principles. The 'Liangyi' (兩儀, Two Primal Forces) are then represented by the symbols '- -' (Yin) and '—' (Yang), which are combined to form the 'Sixiang' (四象, Four Emblematic Symbols) and the 'Bagua' (八卦, Eight Trigrams), as well as the 'Liushisi Gua' (六十四卦, 64 Hexagrams). The basic unit is the 'Yao' (爻, Line), with six Yaos forming a single Hexagram.
Charles Sanders Peirce's (1839-1914) semiotic theory [7] is based on the triad relation of the sign, where the components are the 'Object, Representamen, and Interpretant'. In the I Ching, this corresponds to the visual representation of the Hexagrams, the descriptive Hexagram statements, and the deeper interpretations in the I Ching Commentaries. The I Ching generates its symbolic language (Yin and Yang) from abstract concepts to concrete representations, and the three-level attributes mutually influence the development of its comprehensive interpretive system. It then combines the external context to analyze the internal meanings, allowing for multiple layers of interpretation and the potential for infinite elaboration.
Unicode [8] is a universal character encoding system widely used in computer software. Unicode Blocks are defined to uniquely identify the encoded locations of specific scripts or characters.
[7]Peirce, Liddell & Scott Ancient Greek lexicon, 1906, EP 2:411 and CP 5.484.
[8]Unicode Library: https://unicode.org/terminology/about_term.html
Creative Expression
The I Ching Code
The artist uses a unique encryption method based on binary and Unicode (etc.) to transform information into the hexagrams of the I Ching, forming the artist's exclusive code. On a macro level, the work reflects the philosophical perspective of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, while on a micro level, it encrypts another set of messages the artist wishes to convey.
The form and content
The work is divided into two parts, the 'Chinese Seal Engraving and Movable Type Printing' in the real world, and the 'Non-Fungible Token' in the metaverse.
Physical (Yang) : The 'Seal-Carved Movable Type Printing Scroll' in the real world
The reason for choosing the long scroll is that the essence of the 'I Ching code' is based on a binary narrative, and in computer science, whether the display of codes on the screen, the writing logic in programming, or the priority rules in program execution, they all scroll and execute from top to bottom. The characteristic of 'landscape following each step' in traditional Chinese painting using the long scroll format perfectly matches the connotation of the 'I Ching code'.
Movable type printing is one of the four great inventions of China, and it is a crucial creation in the transmission of human information. Whether as the personal identity of the artist or in the exploration of information and symbol transmission, movable type printing is an unavoidable subject of inquiry. Tracing the history of human civilization, carving can be considered the earliest method of transmitting information, and the origin of writing evolved from symbols, with the earliest symbols visible on the inscriptions of primitive pottery in China, which can be considered an artistic form of information recording.
Therefore, in the exploration of the theme of this work, the choice of using seal carving as the medium for movable type printing, and the long scroll as the display format for the physical work, implicitly contains multiple creative connotations and symbolic meanings.
Virtual (Yin): 'NFT Non-Fungible Tokens' in the Metaverse
Blockchain is a peer-to-peer data transaction block chain designed by combining various contemporary technologies, involving cryptography and consensus mechanisms. NFT (Non-fungible token) is a unit of network digital accounting information on the blockchain, which can serve as an electronic certificate of ownership for network commodities. Since each token can represent a unique set of information, NFTs have become the virtual certificates of digital products and electronic art on the internet, thus giving rise to various NFT artworks. Once an artwork becomes a trading currency on the blockchain, the information cannot be modified or deleted. As long as the internet exists, the information of that artwork will be preserved for eternity.
Therefore, in the creation of the symbolic virtual 'NFT Non-Fungible Tokens', the artist has digitized the physical part of the graduation work, the 'Seal-Carved Movable Type Printing Scroll'. Using the Bitfontmaker2 system, a complete set of encrypted fonts was established, and the artist's personal ciphertext was written on the computer, becoming the 'Digital Version' and 'Digital Print' existing in the virtual world. They were then uploaded to the artist's personal page on the Mintable NFT trading platform, and the 'Digital Version' and 'Digital Print' were sold in the form of NFTs, thus the 'Virtual Part' of this graduation work has become a non-fungible token on the blockchain, a string of information preserved on the network (until the future).
Probing the Principles:
The surface of the work is presented using traditional Chinese techniques, including 'I Ching', 'long scroll', 'movable type printing', 'seal carving', and 'traditional printmaking', which embody the Eastern philosophical thoughts on 'heaven, humanity, and the Tao', and are rooted in the 'plain culture' of the East. The underlying layers of the work, however, contain 'mathematics', 'cryptography', 'binary', Western mathematicians and philosophers like 'Leibniz' and his 'philosophical concepts', which hide the spirit of the people seeking 'truth' in the 'maritime culture' of the West, reflecting humanity's philosophical pursuit of 'truth'.
The work explores the transmission of civilizations through the expression forms of tradition and contemporaneity (physical long scrolls and digital NFT art) in the 'virtual (yin)' and 'real (yang)' parts. The relics and artifacts of the past use symbols, words, paintings, and other carriers to pass down the timeless logic, philosophical concepts, and human empathy, which are spiritual connections beyond the physical realm. Similarly, our art, literature, and even scientific research today are also passing on our current spiritual pursuits, discoveries, inventions, and creations to the eternal future, gathering across time in the 'palace of thought', communicating, inheriting, accumulating, and transforming with people of the past, present, and future, which is called 'civilization'.
The work is titled 'Mind Palace' in English to explore this macroscopic 'probing the principles'.
Exhausting One's Nature:
As mentioned above, the artist's reason for creating the cipher is to convey the unspeakable emotions and words. Therefore, in addition to the above-mentioned macroscopic themes, as a work summarizing the artist's four-year learning journey, as a work of art with flesh and blood, the artist has also poured in the most heartfelt emotions. Hence, the work adds color to increase the combinatorial possibilities of information decoding, so that in addition to writing about 'Leibniz's philosophical concepts,' the artist's own deep and sincere thoughts are also embedded.
Therefore, the Chinese title of this work is 'Exhaust the principles of things and probe into human nature, even into the destiny of humankind'.
For this part, kindly refer to the Chinese version.
