穿越劇：在台灣各階段生命政治與運動的檔案文件史

Trans-fiction : On archiving in Taiwan through bio-politics and movements

 

穿越劇

穿越劇，Trans-Fiction，是從韓國穿越劇開始發想、正值發展的合作計畫。穿越劇一直都是通俗劇裡的重要類型，特別是去思考我們當前生命中的不可能性，並嘗試通過虛構（劇情片）去改變它們。在穿越劇中，時空穿越的必要性總是出現在現實狀況中（社會或全球世界）的不可能性（impossible）之處或時刻，因此我們可以說穿越劇的實踐就是面對我們世界中不可能性時所創造的實踐。

 

另外，穿越劇中的時空穿越總是由個體（例如《似曾相識》[Somewhere in the Time, 1980]、《回到未來》[Back to the Future, 1985]以及大多數的韓劇，或是一些特定的小團隊（如《星艦迷航記》[Star Trek, 1966/1979]）來進行。換言之，穿越劇其實是一種微型虛構，嘗試將微型感性（micro sensible）連結到社會或社群尺度的現實裡：意即微型政治（micro-politics）。雖然電影中還是可以發現小團隊足以改變宇宙尺度的世界，但其互動狀態的模型同樣是微型 V.S. 巨觀的連動關係。所以，我們可以說時空穿越的重點不一定是在「時間」，而是創造性作為如何超克「不可能」，直到「處境」（作為現實條件的時間）出現「轉機」。如此，虛構的行動就必然是時空穿越中的關鍵。

 

然而，隨著數位技術與網路時代的來臨而出現的新環境，「穿越」（transition）的觀念越出了科幻或神祕學的「時空穿越」，而進入到文化感受與資料流通的各種差異經驗裡，也因此，我們會發現這項虛構技術的探索，不限於穿越劇在具體再現中的「古今」穿越[1]，而同時在古裝劇的當代詮釋[2]和當代城市劇中的價值衝突[3]中，開展出一個關於穿越與異質時空的廣大場域。所以，為了讓我們能夠準確聚焦在「作為行動的虛構」（fiction as action）上，我想用另外一個詞，Trans-Fiction，來指稱穿越劇。

 

從發展史來看，穿越劇出現在六○年代的電視劇，1968年庫柏利克（Stanley Kubrick）拍出與亞瑟．克拉克（Arthur Clarke）合寫劇本的《2001太空漫遊》（2001 A Space Odyssey），同名小說於1972年出版；可以想見五、六○年代的太空科技發展以及連帶相關的太空科學，在當時已經觸動了許多創作者的靈感。在「不可能超越光速」的物理學假設下帶出了「超越光速」的想像以及連帶「時空扭曲」（time-space torsion）的推想，這種想像的浪潮在1978、1979年的中國改革開放與中美建交、以及隨之爆發的中越戰爭中，確定冷戰的意識形態鬥爭產生變異，隨即進入全球化經濟進程的布局；此外，1986年挑戰者號（Challenger）在升空時的爆炸，讓冷戰所建構的太空神話（物實政治[Res Politik]）也在世界面前瓦解為碎片，進入布魯諾．拉圖（Bruno Latour）所謂的「物本政治」（Ding Politik），繼之而來的柏林圍牆倒塌和蘇聯解體除了標誌出冷戰的正式結束之外，更準備開啟多元文化與多元價值的全球世界，以及全球通訊協定的網際網路世界。

 

當「穿越」此一課題從太空的想像墬地進入自由貿易網絡、生態系關係與虛擬空間時，「穿越劇」不再是單純的時空移轉模型，而是更為複雜的歷史交疊、觀念辯證和詮釋的蒙太奇，在世界貿易組織與自由貿易協定的推波助瀾下，各個區域漸次被納入各種分工與銷路的系統之中，無論個體或區域都難以有自足而完整的發展，「穿越」不再是一種對於「可能性」的追求，而是面對「不可能性」的挑戰，「穿越劇」也就成為挑戰不可能性的虛構。

 

「維基」（wiki）的出現將語言系統的控制論與自由書寫的民主化間的矛盾推到極致，一方面居．德堡（Guy Debord）筆下取代真實世界的商品世界更進一步進入到「意識」與「智識」的層次，我們進入到更為嚴苛的生命政治（bio-politics）時代，與此同時，另一方面普遍化的「檔案化」（archiving）則成為對此生命治理（governance of lives）與系統化宰制的一種抵抗，換言之，對於檔案的操作與表演成為今天「穿越劇」的重要形式[4]。

 

虛構首先挑戰了已知框架中的系統性複製，這種複製是今天極其嚴重的「病」（或說「壞掉」）；這個病一方面出自全球化底下所形成的新經濟宰制，另一方面則是冷戰以來代工系統所養成的偏執。機構化與系統性的複製是東亞社會中生命治理造成我們生命中普遍遭遇到的「不可能性」。穿越劇在我們面對這不可能性時開啟了非常重要的面向，甚至創造出虛構性的解套方式。

 

 

生命政治下的微建檔（micro-archiving）

德希達在《檔案之惡》中提到因為在建檔時本身就已有框架在，因此「檔案」本身就是界定書寫與生產的框架，但此框架並不會明顯地呈現在文本內容中。「檔案」對德希達來講可以說是一種系統、是一種隱藏在文本背後的語言，這個語言控制了日後的書寫。尤其是歐洲，因為檔案資料完備、理論書寫都必須依據檔案，所以史觀反而產生規格化與階級化，必須倚賴檔案才能獲得話語權。因此，在檔案匱乏與現代性文化崇拜底下，如何以經驗事實與書寫的收集回返來界定方法論，而不是以為全世界都遵循同一種方法，在台灣無檔案的情況下，有哪些書寫歷史的可能性？是這項研究工作提出的主要回應。

 

檔案是書寫歷史的框架，因此「缺乏檔案」或是「無法形成檔案」也意味著歷史的欠缺或斷裂；而後者正是目前東亞地區的現況。因此「如何在亞洲形塑檔案？」就成為一個巨大的挑戰，我們面對許多不同脈絡中顯得異質的材料，而這些材料甚至從來沒有過明確的整理或分類。除此之外，我們也不能只是跟隨20世紀60年代以來便不斷遭受批判的歐美檔案系統。我們必須透過批判性的思考來收集歷史的元素和素材。這就是為何我們將這計畫稱為穿越劇計畫，我們透過生產意義來蒐集材料，反之亦然。這個計劃的方法會以「生命政治」、「歷史書寫法」和「運動之後」三個部分組成。

 

1. 生命政治

1-a. 冷戰下的治理結構

1945 年8 月15 日，日本宣告無條件投降，第二次世界大戰正式結束、日本也結束長達五十年對台灣的殖民統治。此時，以意識形態為基礎形成了美國資本主義國家與蘇聯共產主義世界對立的局勢，特別在韓戰後，外沿亞洲的一系列島嶼，變成美國防堵中國與蘇聯共產勢力的戰略前哨。1947 年6 月，美國國務卿馬歇爾提出援歐計畫：「美國應盡最大的努力幫助恢復世界的經濟繁榮，如果不這樣做，就不會有政治上的穩定和有保證的和平」； 1949 年5 月20 日，在蔣介石退守台灣後在台實施戒嚴令，諸如報禁、黨禁等戒嚴法限制人民自由，而台灣的戒嚴延續了38 年之久，是世界上戒嚴最久的地區。與當時的第一島鏈國家，如南韓、泰國、菲律賓、印尼等國家發生的白色恐怖如出一轍。

美國運用各種軍事、經濟和政治手段，首先培植受植國內部的魁儡政府與獨裁者，魁儡政府與獨裁者可保證這些地方的內部具有某種同質性，符合同一意識形態、價值觀，達到國內政治管理的力量，讓整個社會在戒慎恐懼中達成同一化；而美國同時設立機構，從各個面向扮演國家好朋友、老大哥、幫助者的角色，令獨裁政權便與美國配合，在援助之名下接受反共和生產的布局，美國的勢力因而貫穿了太平洋的第一島鏈國家，包含韓國、日本、台灣、菲律賓、印尼和馬來西亞等地區。這些地方在內部壓抑的政治氣氛底下，「美國」反倒成了人民共同的夢想；冷戰不只是獨裁政治、意識形態，魁儡政府與獨裁者實行美國授意的恐怖政治，同時間，美國實行的是生命政治，「教化」人民甚麼生活方式對人民最好，於是自然而然人們就會去選擇那種生活模式。美國以生命政治鞏固了其政治結構、國際地位。

 

1-b. 美援作為生命治理

1948年，針對戰後的經濟復甦，美國開始以經濟合作法中的〈對華援助法案〉（The China Aid Act）援助台灣的台糖、台鐵以及台電，援華金額總數為4億美元，並規定以不超過十分之一撥款金額用於「中國農村復興計畫」並在美國指導和管理下成立「中國農村復興（中美）聯合委員會」（Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction）。1950 年6 月韓戰爆發， 1951年正式對台進行援助計畫，派遣第七艦隊進入台灣海峽、宣布「台灣中立化」（同年西方公司在台灣成立）。韓戰為台灣帶來關鍵性的轉機，美援分為物資援助、軍援與經援三部分，軍援由兩國國防部執行；經援由美國的「美國經濟合作總署駐台分署」（ECA in Taiwan）負責調度運用。雖然農復會與經濟安定委員會（Economic Stabilization Board of Taiwan）是由中美雙方共同組成，但這三個單位都是直接受美國控管，也幾乎等同於美國掌控台灣的權力中心。明顯地，除卻軍事與政治上的合作外，美國的援助計畫在民生、產業技術與文化上對於台灣的發展著力甚深，可說是一種全面性的生命治理。

 

美援透過物資援助和經濟軍事計畫，深刻影響台灣的發展與政治傾向，鞏固執政黨政權、安撫地主階級、剝取農業剩餘、將農業剩餘轉向工業化資本與勞力，並進一步壓低米價，造就台灣六○年代低工資的工業勞動環境，與符合美國需求的經濟文化依賴體系，雖擺脫五○年代日本的殖民統治，卻成為美國當代的新型態的殖民主義，台灣再次從屬於附屬地位。其中最令人印象深刻的，便是印有「中美合作」字樣的麵粉袋，穿著麵粉袋製成的開襠褲已成當時台灣社會的標誌景象。而事實上，在戰後由美國所主導的資本主義世界裡，各國，都有著類似的歷史處境。美國援助時期的麵粉袋和當時的合作機構－1948年至1979年先後在南京、上海與台灣的農業復興委員會，構成冷戰時期的意義和象徵。現代生命政治的操控手法已取代過往對思想的控制，生命政治滲透入文化、經濟和科技體制當中，但直到最近幾年這個部分才開始被討論。冷戰是對未來制度化的藝術文化、全球化網絡和創意產業的前期準備。以冷戰文物，特別是麵粉袋來展示這個部分。

 

1-c. 麵粉袋

在藝術家秦政德收藏的這批文物中，「中美合作」的盾形標誌幾乎出現在每一項物上。這個圖案源自於1948年，美國政府針對援助歐洲的馬歇爾計劃的美援物資所設計，每件物資上皆印刷「美國援助歐洲（For European Recovery, Supplied by the United States of America）」字樣的美國國徽盾型標誌。在美國援助歐洲之後，又陸續增加援助拉丁美洲和亞洲等地的其他國家，標誌也隨之改變；到了台灣時，則變成印有漢字「中美合作」的盾形標誌圖案（如〈中美合作電影膠片盒〉、〈鷹牌麵粉袋〉）。1953年，更進一步加上代表和平、美國老大哥牽引中華民國小弟的握手圖案，漢字「中美合作」也移到握手圖案的下方（如〈由美國人民贈送小麥袋〉、〈糧食和平運動麵粉袋〉）。麵粉袋是這批文物中最具代表性的美援物資，由於二戰之後，美國本土幾乎沒有受到戰爭破壞，再加上二戰期間美國大量生產供應歐美的民生機械，若戰後停止生產線將導致美國生產力的下滑，因此在配合農具機械的使用之下，導致戰後糧食生產過剩，美國急需要以正當名義將這批剩餘農產品銷售出去，不僅是作為援助受援國民間的糧食作物，連軍方與教職公職也被納入麵粉的配給範圍之中。通過這些麵粉袋我們可以閱讀到許多層次的時代意涵與歷史影響，首先這些麵粉廠牌的羅列，就呈現出美國在進行生命政治的網絡上是極為細緻的，再說，麵粉袋就跟其他物件一樣，足以鋪陳出帝國權力在軍事與政治之外對於「生命」進行關切的各種面向，此外，將權力印記、意識形態、品味與好生活，通過生存的需求疊合建立起一種美學意識。

 

這種與生命密切相關的美學意識，會直接的作用在經驗與觀念發展的動向中，與周遭切斷脈絡、超越在地經驗，指向以美國為標誌的現代性，而切斷經驗在歷史中的延續性，也因此，檔案總是碎裂散置。這種生命政治已經成為先進國家控制受援國的新形態殖民方法，不像從前的死亡政治對思想的箝制與鎮壓，生命政治是透過生物本能、品味追求、普世價值而成為「生命的偏好」。

 

1-d. 義士／間諜

「生命政治」不再是某種巨型國家機器，而是一種驅動個體生命動力投入到統治所制定方向上的微型起動器，簡言之，個體的意識內容與經驗事實被國家形塑的幻見內容所取代，也因此，首先存留的檔案都是這樣生產出來的幻見敘事，另一方面，個體的經驗變得碎裂而扭曲，與意識形態的關係既密合卻又存在實質差異，更甚者，在這弔詭的合離關係下，身分的轉換往往伴隨著國家暴力的痕跡。

 

劉吉雄在正式投入拍攝工作前，關切並思考相關的問題已經多年，而《寶島夜船》是他進行這方面調研工作的第一部紀錄片發表。這部影片集中在主人翁陳松（陳萬松）的回述與返鄉的紀錄，而影片通過主角所呈現的是，個體在特定歷史時空底下受到政治結構的誤導與扭曲。從聽到一段台灣的政宣廣播，開始想像台灣的美好生活並偕同其他七人計畫五年，於1965年潮台灣啟航並被台灣當局以「八仙過海」形容這項投奔自由的義舉，但隨即便被以涉嫌叛亂入獄，直至1972年才出獄。這個長約一小時的作品精簡地濃縮了冷戰的情境，包含意識形態對於人民意識的影響、個人企圖逃離意識形態統治的努力、政治結構的殘酷與荒謬，在這樣的多層敘事中我們可以見到「生命治理」作用在個體身上後，產生的幻見如何驅動行動的力量又如何被「國家暴力」無情地摧毀。

 

2. 歷史書寫法

台灣對於藝術的教育和評價系統在日治時期有巨大的轉變，這種不連續且混雜的西化狀況，在冷戰時期美國生命政治支持底下，有了很大的進展。歐美藝術史就是普遍化的（國際化的）藝術史，並連同傳統中國藝術史成為義務教育的一部份。這兩個系統由傳統的範式（中國）和當代的範式（西方）所組成，提供台灣藝術生產參考的訊息與框架。除此之外，很難期待在這種中國和西洋藝術史混和底下的台灣藝術生產，能夠真正推動台灣藝術史的發展。相反的，這兩種典範的抽象化壓縮了台灣藝術史書寫的可能性。（必然包含在兩種不同文化背景之下的發展與改變）在這樣的兩難底下，意即一方面必須學習完全與真實經驗無關的藝術史，另一方面又無法定義不同藝術史的位置，我們可以在台灣找到另類的文件與檔案化活動以作為缺乏歷史下的藝術書寫。

 

台灣在冷戰期間的威權統治對於歷史書寫與檔案建構的控制，使得社會經驗難以充分地在國家或政府檔案中呈現，更甚者，在蔣介石所建立的流亡政權下，文化價值並不產生自民間的活動，而往往來自政策的指定與認可，換言之，若沒有獲得相當的認可，許多的文化材料都沒有相應的調研工作予以整理、書寫和翻譯。也就出現了另一層次的檔案困境，而且相應而生的是公共性與歷史空間的匱乏焦慮。這種匱乏焦慮主要出現在個體於環境中的發展可能性上，在這個部分的研究工作中，我們集中在八○年代到今天的一種概略狀況，更準確地說這段期間是台灣結束戒嚴後快速進入全球化結構並大力推動國際化的時刻；事實上，解嚴並沒有真正讓檔案化這件事情獲得支持與解放，因為，國際化的大力推動召喚了過往隔離在國際社會之外所壓抑的欲求，意即對「前衛」的渴望，而這種前衛的渴望讓許多人無法真正關切到身邊的環境，同樣地，檔案化的工作再次地遭到延遲。

 

在這樣的發展下，我們關注到的是小型與網絡性強的「檔案」行動，這些檔案行動並非直接地指向制式的「建檔」，相對地，在檔案匱乏的狀態下生成對於制式建檔的不同批判性態度。這個部分主要選擇三種類型來展示這種批判性的歷史書寫：一個是關於空間（伊通）、另外一個關於出版（ACT）、以及個人（姚瑞中）的私藏。

 

伊通公園的檔案庫是經歷過相當過程而演變到今天的規模，其覆蓋面極為廣包；然而其起始點以及發展歷程和今天所呈現出的樣貌，有著極為密切的關係，也就是藝術社群，這個當時在學院之外的藝術社群主要經由賴純純所舉辦的Soca藝術美學課程建立起連繫，並在Soca結束後（1996-1997）以伊通（1997）來延伸並擴張這個連繫和群聚，並以對話與展覽延展出空間的意涵，交流與記錄因此構成「檔案」的基礎；而且，檔案的類型與關係也是由藝術家為中心所形成的藝術生產網絡來決定；因此，即使檔案庫入口以展覽的線性時間來排列，但每個展覽的藝術家的自身創作與展覽史、相關的評論以及合作的策展人，就會在這以人和關係為架構單元之上形成極為複雜的生產網絡。

 

ACT（《藝術觀點》）原本屬於台南藝術大學的學院刊物，但在2010年決定改版而出現了一個新的走向，這個方向與檔案之間有著極為深刻的關係，也就是針對每一特定時期的關鍵人物或特定計畫進行口述歷史的採訪，然後再邀集一些評論共同呈現出某項議題與當下藝術現象間的歷史、哲美學關係。換言之，《藝術觀點》定調在「台灣當代藝術的前衛性」上採用編輯和出版的方法，以重點式的田野訪調建構並「生產檔案」，這樣的檔案主要以一期期的專題編輯來提供問題性架構，藉此暗示藝術實驗與歷史間的脈絡關係。在改版的二十期之中，涵蓋了六○到八○年代的重要人物與事件，同時也跨領域地觸及影像、藝術史與政治等主要面向，相當於提出「以專題研究構成檔案內容與資料表列」的一種建檔方法。

 

姚瑞中則是一種藝術家個人旨趣的「收集」，若嚴格來說，他的收藏範圍與界定僅能以他自身在藝術範疇中的網絡來理解，與以展覽和藝術家為主軸的伊通公園，以及以專題規劃、訪問與編輯來構思和生產檔案的方式都不同，除此之外，他的無差別收藏相對地卻含納了許多的線索，可以說他的檔案處於一種渾沌狀態。這個渾沌世界主要包含幾個「群」，一是藝術家自身創作的資料、二是個別藝術家在二十年的跨度中有著甚麼樣的變化、三是相關藝術主題和展演型態的發展、四是藝術運動的資料、五是可以發現相關實驗性出版品的線索。我們特別選取了這些文件中與實驗性藝術運動較有關係的部分，主要有地下運動、另類空間、展覽主題、藝術事件、藝術計畫等部分。這部分還需要相當的調研來確認並補足建檔的工作，無疑地，因為藝術家自身的開放性與特異性，而保存了相當具有潛力的文件和資料。

 

3. 運動之後：

最後這個部分主要涉及到當下以及指向近未來的「檔案－運動」，意即隨著現場的事件與行動的「檔案化」。這種伴隨著網路時代、智慧型手機與平板而發展出來的建檔狀況，是今天我們必要面對的處境。台灣318學運的產生和影響，不只是政治或社會新聞事件，也不只是抗議活動，而是一種在生命政治底下社會氛圍的政治轉向。是否能造成改變或影響不是只關注那些正在發生的事件，它的各種條件和發展會對整個社會和不同世代都造成很大的潛在影響：因為這些經驗和情況很多事情和感情分化。而這種經驗是如何展現、找到位置和在公共空間中面對他人。

 

換句話說，重點並不是在場域中的身體，而是可以看到真實情況的位置。很多人因為在真實的地方獲得的實際經驗而開始思考身體、空間和圖像：如何面對政治經濟的威脅和行動中的不穩定。如何保留運動中的激情和潛力？隨著對生命政治越來越多的理解，我們可以說運動之後和實際的運動本身一樣重要。在生命政治的時代，反抗不能只是一個事件中的集體舉動，必須在運動的例外狀態之外的個人生命中持續發酵。對於保留激情，藝術生產變得必須且重要，可以產生新的想法和感受，並發展對社會的思考。通過這種方法，我們可以說藝術計畫和藝術生產可能文件化，不只針對檔案化，也重新激活文化活動的檔案。

 

我們選取了三支跟318學運相關的記錄作品來討論這種批判性建檔，一是袁廣鳴的《展領的第561個小時》，他連結自身創作的語言和記錄運動的參與而給出一種合作式、事件性影像檔案的呈現，二是由318學運參與者所規劃的論壇，這部分包含兩部總長一個半小時的論壇錄像。其一是運動學生邀請三位社運參與者，分別是「島國前進」的發言人、二是「都更受害聯盟」的執行秘書、三是「勞工協會」的秘書長，討論運動中藝術的可能性與運動內部的民主問題。另一則邀請藝術史既藝評陳譽仁對於運動現場的美學分析，以及藝術史研究的現場工作如何因應社會實況。

 

以上錄像都觸及到個體如何面對與參與到事件或運動的問題，而那往往也是與生命治理對質的時刻。

 

[1] 如《千年之愛》（ Thousand Years of Love , 2003）、《仁醫》（Dr. Jin, 2012）、《信義（神醫）》（Faith, 2012）、《仁顯王后的男人》（Queen In-hyun's Man, 2012）、《屋塔房王世子》（Rooftop Prince, 2012）、《九回時間旅行》（Nine, 2013）、《來自星星的你》（My Love from the Star, 2013）等。

[2] 如《黃真伊》（Hwang Jini, 2006）、《請回答1997》（Reply 1997, 2012）、《請回答1994》（Reply 1994, 2013）、《成均館誹聞》（Sungkyunkwan Scandal, 2010）、《懲毖錄》（Jingbirok, 2015）、《華政》（Hwa Jung, the Princess of Light, 2015）。

[3] 如《聽到傳聞》（Heard It Through the Grapevine, 2015）。

[4] 如阿佛瑞多．亞爾（Alfredo Jaar）、赫敘洪（Thomas Hirschhorn）、法洛奇（Harun Farocki）、克里斯．馬克（Chris Marker）、高達（Jean-Luc Godard、佩德羅．科斯達（Pedro Costa）等。

​

Trans-fiction

“Trans-fiction” is a cooperating project deriving from Korean time-slip drama and now developing at full swing. Since time-slip drama has always been an important genre in melodrama, especially when it tries to elaborate the impossible in our present life and in the same time to change them in fictional drama. In those time-slip drama, the necessity of slipping time always happens at the point of the impossible of our real social or global situation, thus we could conclude that realizing time-slip drama is how we realize the impossible in real world.

 

Furthermore, it is always an individual that execute the time slipping in time slip drama, like Somewhere in the Time, 1980, Back to the Future, 1985 and most Korean drama, or some specific groups like Star Trek, 1966/1979. In other words, time slip drama is actually a mirco-fiction that attempting to connect its micro sensible to those realities in a society or larger social scale, which means micro-politics. Although sometimes we could find examples on small groups are sufficient to change the world in these movies, its interaction model still based on the interrelationship between micro and macro environment. Therefore, we could stated that it is not about the time in time-slip drama but how creation surpasses the impossible until chances are shown in the present situation. In this way, a fictional action must be the key of a time slipping.

 

However, as digital technology and internet era has come, the notion of transition had been more than fictional and mythological time-slipping, but different experiences on cultural perception and information communication. That is to say, the developing of this fictional technology is not being limited on realizing the time travel in these time-slip dramas, but constructing a huge field about traveling through heterogeneous times, via presenting the value conflicts between the contemporary-interpreted of costume dramas and in the modern city dramas. In sum, in order to focus concentratively on the concept of “fiction as action”, we would like to use another word to refer the time slip dramas: trans-fiction.

 

In its developing, trans-fiction come out in TV shows in 60s, which is Stanley Kubrick’s film from the scrip 2001 A Space Odyssey which he wrote with Arthur Clarke, and its novel published on 1972 with the same name. We could infer that the flourishing of space technology and related space science had inspired many of the creators in the 50s and 60s. The imagination of superluminal velocity and time-space torsion has brought out according to physical hypothesis that nothing can travel faster than light, then it variated with the ideology conflict after the confirmation of Cold War, which is during 1978 and 1979 when China’s reformation and opening and the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relation and the war between China and Vietnam broke out, and then it bumped into the proceeding global economics deposition. Besides, the space mythology or the Res Politik, built during the cold war, had come into pieces when the Challenger blew up in its launch in front of the world and entered the Ding Politik according to Bruno Latour, then followed with the collapse of Berlin wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, both were not only signified the end of Cold War but opened a new world with multiple cultures and values and the internet world with HTTP techniques. 

 

When the topic of time traveling fall into free trade network, relations between ecosystems and virtual space from mere imagination of space, the trans-fiction is no longer a simple model of traveling through times but a complicated montage by intertwined history and dialectical and interpretational concept. Especially when world trade organizations and free trade agreements were adding fuel to make each areas in the world had been gradually assigned and included to different distribution and sales system, resulting that none of individual or area could live without it and the time travel is no more a pursue for the possible but a challenge to the impossible and trans-fiction a fiction challenging the impossible. 

 

Moreover, the emerge of Wiki has pushed the contradiction between control of language systems and democratic free writing to the extreme. On one hand, Guy Debord’s the merchandise world of replacing the real world had forced us onto the level of consciousness and intelligence leading to a stricter bio-politics era, on the other hand, the universal archiving became a resistance to governance of lives and systematic domination in the same time, that is to say, the manipulation and performance on archives has become the most important form of trans-fiction.

 

Trans-fiction firstly challenged the systematic duplication in known frameworks, which is a serious illness, or damage, of today, attributing to new economic domination of globalization as well as the prejudice nurtured from OEM system since Cold War. As institutional and systematic repetitions is the impossible that our lives shared in general in East Asian society under bio-politics, trans-fiction has opened an important opportunity in front of the impossible and even created a fictional solution to it.

 

 

Micro-archiving under bio-politics

Derrida had mentioned in Mal d’archive (or Archive Fever)  that there was a framework when establishing archives, thus an archive itself is a framework to determine writing and production, which would not reveal saliently in the content of text. According to Derrida, archive is a system, a language hidden behind the text, which controls any writing afterwards. Especially in Europe, a place with complete archiving, all the theoretical writing must based on archives, which is resulting to standardized and hierarchical history value, in order to get the right to speak.  That is to say, when lacking of archives and modern culture idolatry, how might we based on our experienced facts and collected writings to re-determine methodology? Instead of applying the same methodology that all the places in the world are following and neglecting the fact that there is no archive in Taiwan, how might we develop more possibilities on historical writhing? It is the main response we would make in this research project.

 

When archive is the framework of historiography, we can conclude that lacking of archives and incapable of archiving causes the lacking of history or fracture of history, the latter is exactly today’s East-Asia situation in general. It makes “how may we form archives in Asia” a huge challenge, when we face numerous heterogeneous materials in different context, and they even had never been organized or categorized. Besides, we can’t just follow western archiving system which is being harshly criticized since 1960s. This is the reason why we call this project trans-fiction, we produce meaning to collect information and vice versa. The methods of the project are combined with three parts, which is bio-politics, the way of history writing, after movements:

 

1. Bio-politics

1-a. Governance structure under Cold War 
On August 15th, 1945, Japan proclaimed their unconditional surrender then World War II ended, as well as Japan’s colonization to Taiwan for about 50 years long. At this time, the conflicting situation between the United States led capitalist countries and the Soviet Union led communists had established based on ideology. Especially after Korean War, a series of out-lying islands in Asia had turned into strategic front for America to stop China’s and Soviet Union’s communism power. In June 1947, US Secretary of State Marshall, European Recovery Program : “The United States should make best efforts to help restore economic prosperity of the world. Unless there will be no political stability and guaranteed peace.” ; On May 20th, 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan, enforced martial law included ban on newspaper, party, etc to restrict people’s freedom which then lasted about 38 years long, which is the longest duration in the world and just the same as those white terror happened in other First Island Chain countries like South Korea, Thailand, Philippine, Indonesia. The United States utilized a variety of military, economic and political means. At first, they cultivated puppet government and dictator in each countries, which could guaranteed some homogeneous between these countries according to the same ideology and values, in order to obtained domestic political control and assimilate the society under vigilance and fears. In the same time, the Untied States established institutions to play roles like friends, big brothers, helpers to these countries in different aspects, which made dictatorship surrendered, in the name of support they accepted policy of anti-communism and disposition of production; thus, The U.S. power had went through the First Island Chain included South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Philippine, Indonesia, and Malaysia.  Under domestic atmosphere of political oppression, “The U.S.” provided dreams to people; in this case, we can conclude that what America did is not just forcing puppet government and dictator to execute terror politics and manipulating ideology, but realizing bio-politics, educated people what kind of life is a better life, resulted that people would choose this kind of life automatically. The United States had stabilized its political structure and international status through bio-politics.

 

1-b. US-AID as governance of life 
In 1948, focusing on recovery of economic after war, The United States started to support Tai-Sugar, Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA), and Tai-power of Taiwan under The China Aid Act of Economic Aid Agreement, as total supporting amount up to four billions USD and regulated that less than one-tenth of the amount should be utilized on Rural Reconstruction Program and to found Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction under America’s command and management. In June 1950, it was the outbreak of Korean War, and later on 1951 The Untied States officially launched supporting program to Taiwan, in the mean while sending the Seventh Fleet to Taiwan Strait and announcing “Taiwan Neutralized” (West enterprise was officially established in Taiwan). Korean War had brought about a critical turning point to Taiwan, when US-AID had divided into three parts as material support, military support, and economic support, and the military support were executed by Department of Defense from the two countries and the economic support authorized by US Economic Cooperation Administration Branch in Taiwan (ECA) in Taiwan. Although the Economic Stabilization Board of Taiwan was formed both by China and America, the above three organization were managed by the US directly and almost equal to a American power execution center in Taiwan. Apparently, regardless of military and politics collaboration, the US-AID had pretty much influence on development of Taiwan from livelihood to industrial technology and even culture, concluding as a comprehensiveness, saying “governance of life”.

Through material assistance and economic military plans, The US-AID had a profound impact on the economic development and politic leaning of Taiwan, as it strengthened the power of ruling party, pleased the landlord class, stripped surplus crops and redirected them to industrial capital and workforce. Then further depressed the price of rice, which caused low-wage working environment in 60s of Taiwan, attributing to America’s ambition of building a economical and cultural dependent system. At this time, Taiwan got rid of colonization of Japan in 50s, but accelerated America’s new model of colonization and made Taiwan once again fall into a subordinate position. To what are the most impressing and typical society scene in Taiwan was the flour’s bags printed with “China and America’s collaboration” were made into open pants for children and wore all around. As a matter of fact, in the capitalized world that is ruled by The United States after war, this was a common historical situation between countries. It were the flour bags and institutions of collaboration at that time, like Commission on Agriculture Reconstruction established during 1948 to 1979 in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Taiwan, made up the meaning and symbol during Cold War around the world. Even though the suppression on thought had already been replaced by manipulation of bio-politics for a long time, and it had immersed into cultural, economical, and technological system, but only until recent years it started being discussed. As Cold War is the former preparation of futuristic systematic art culture, globalized network and creative industry, we presented selected objects from Cold War, especially the flour bags, for this section.   

  

1-c. The Flour’s bags
In these collection from artist Chin Cheng-Te, the shield-shaped sign of “China and America’s collaboration” almost shown in every objects. This sign derived from the year 1948, The U.S. government designed for Marshall’s European Recovery Program, each objects from the program had printed a shield-shaped American country sign and “For European Recovery supplied by the United States of America” on them. After America’s supporting on Europe, they launched support on other countries in Latin America and Asia with the sign changed adequately, just as in Taiwan it became a shield-shaped sign printed with Chinese characters said “China and America’s collaboration,” or “Movie film box of China and America’s collaboration” or “The eagle flour bag” ,for instance. In 1953, they added on a sign showing that The U.S. big brother holding hands with their little brother Republic of China as a symbol of peace, and with the Chinese character of “China and America’s collaboration” moved below the holding-hands sign, like “Wheat bag from the American people” and “The flour bag of food peace movement”. The flour bags are the most significant objects in these collection of US-AID, arising from the land of America almost had no damage during World War II and The U.S. had produced machines for Europe and America’s livelihood in bulk during World War II, which aroused the risk of productivity drop in case of the production line stopped. Moreover, in keeping with usage of farming machine, resulting that the excess of food production which pushed The U.S. to sale all these excess crops with polished reasons after war, which is not only as crops for the supported countries’ people, but for army troops, teachers, officials to gain assistance. We could conclude different levels of implication and historical influence from those times through these flour bags: first of all, we could tell that The U.S. manipulated bio-politic’s network delicately from the evidence of those brands on flour bags; secondly, the flour bags are as competent as other objects to declare that how the empire concerned about bio besides military and politics through their power; last but not least, they had folded their power imprint, ideology, taste and concept of “good life” with living needs, then created a sense of aesthetics.   

As this sense of aesthetics is highly related to life, it would directly influenced on the way people developed life experience and thought, and further it cut off their connection from their surroundings and went beyond their local experience, but pointed to “America” as the symbol of modernity, which breaking the continuity of individual’s experience in history and leading to the scatter and breakage of archives. This kind of bio-politics has already become a new model for developed countries to control assisted colonized countries, unlike the death politics that used to suppress and restrain on thought, it the bio-politics combined biological instinct, pursue of taste and universal values then to form a preference of life. 

 

1-d. Anti-communist Martyrs or Spies

Bio-politics was no more a kind of huge state apparatus but a micro starter that motivated individual’s life energy to get indulged with authoritative manipulation, in short, individual’s perceived and experienced facts are replaced with phantasm created by nation-state. Therefore, the existing archives been produced and saved firstly are based on the narratives of national phantasm, on the other hand, individual’s life experience became fragmented and distorted, and their relationship with ideology became somehow coherent but in the same time existed fundamental differences. What’s more, we could found that in this awkward “linked but indifferent" situation, role shifting within one person are often followed with imprints of violence from state.

 

Before Liu Chi-Hsiung officially started shooting the film, he had concerned and thought about this theme for years and Journey to the Promised Island is the first documentary film he made for research on the topic. In Journey to the Promised Island, he focused on depiction of the main character, Song Chen’s returning back to his hometown and his retrospective narration. What was shown in the film is how an individual was distorted and misled by political regime under specific time and space. It began with listening a political announcement from the radio, which induced an imagination of beautiful life in Taiwan and a plan took about five years with other seven parters, then they sailed to Taiwan in the year 1965, as the mission named “Eight immortals cross the sea” by the government in memory of this anti-communist action for freedom. But all of sudden they were sentenced to jail for rebellion and released from prison until 1972. This one hour work compiled people’s situation during Cold War included people’s perception affected by ideology, individual’s intended effort to flee from govern of ideology, and the cruel and absurd of political regime. The film presented us the effect of bio-politics on individuals with multi-layers of narratives, and how the generated phantasm launched the dynamics of action and destroyed them cruelly by violence of state.

 

2. Historiographies
During the period of Japan’s colonization in Taiwan, the art education and evaluation system had an enormous change, and this discontinuous and mingled westernization had another important progress under bio-political support from The U.S. during Cold War. Western art history been made an universal or international art history, and a part of compulsory education as traditional Chinese art history. These two systems were built on different paradigms, while Chinese from traditional and Western on modern, which provided two reference or frameworks for Taiwanese art production. Besides, it is really hard for us to anticipate within this mingled art historical context that art production in Taiwan could profoundly drive the development of Taiwan art history. On the contrary, the abstract of these two paradigms compressed the possibility of Taiwan art historiography, when writing necessarily included these different developments and changes from two distinguished cultures. Under this dilemma, which is on one hand being obligatory to learn art history that is totally unrelated to real life experience; on the other hand having difficulty to define a differentiated position in domain of art history, therefore we could only found alternative documents and archiving as art writing when lacking of history.

 

Under control of authoritarian on historiographies and construction of archives during Cold War in Taiwan, social experience were hardly been revealed in national or governmental archives, what’s worse, culture value were not grown from people’s daily activities but from assignation and recognition from policy; in other words, unless getting permitted, many of the cultural materials were neglected and without appropriate research to edit, rewrite and translate. Therefore, another aspect of archives’ predicament appeared: the anxiety aroused from the vacancy of publicity and historical field, which revealed in individual’s possibility of development in the environment. In this part of research, we concentrated on the period from the 80s to today, or more specifically it’s after the end of martial law and prompted into globalization and advocated internationalization. As a matter of fact that ending of martial law didn’t liberate the consciousness of rights and to support archiving, while forcing on internationalization made a call to the repressed desire when isolated from international society, which is the desire to be avant-garde, and this desire of being avant-grade caused people’s inability to concern about surrounded context, inevitably delayed the process on archiving.

 

Concerning this development of archive, we focused on micro scale and intertwined archiving activities, which were not directly for the purpose of establishing an institutional archiving but raising various critical attitudes on actual archiving system under the state of lacking archives. In this part we selected three categories to present this critical historiography: when the first one is about space, the IT-Park, the second is on publication, the Art Critique of Taiwan, and third part a personal collection from Yao Jui-Chung. 

 

Archives from IT-Park had been through quite a journey to evolved to its present scale, since its coverage is extremely comprehensive. From its starting point and development and even its appearance now are all highly related to an art community in Taiwan, which was formed during SOCA, a private program on art and esthetics founded Lai Tsun-Tsun outsides of academy. After the end of SOCA space, 1996-1997, this community renamed “IT”, to extend and maintain connection of its gathering, then further stretching to meaning of space from their discussions and exhibitions, which happened and documented in the space and became the foundation of archives. Since the types of archives and relationship between archives are determined from production network formed by artists-centered community, resulting that the entrance of database is chronological structure of exhibitions and intertwined with each exhibited artist’s personal creations, exhibition history, related critiques and collaborated curators, further constructed an extremely complicated production network above units that formed by individuals and their relationships.

 

The second part, ACT, was an academic publication of Tainan National University of Arts, but revised itself to a brand new direction which is profoundly related to archiving in the year 2010. The revision made the magazines focusing on a key man from a specific period or special project then interviewing with them to develop an oral history, and according to the topics in each of them, they invited critics to write about it. In sum, ACT all together to present the historical and philosophically esthetic relationship between critical topics and present art phenomenon. In other words, the ACT based on the Avant-garde contemporary art in Taiwan to develop its way of editing and publishing, and via thematic field research and interviews to construct and produce archives. This kind of archiving provides problematic structures from featured editing in issues, for the sake of giving out implication of contextual relationship between art experiments and history. During these twenty issues of revision, it covered important persons and events from the 60s to 80s, and also combined aspects like image, art history and politics which are beyond the categories of discipline, which is in equivalence to provide a way of archiving from “establishing archives content and information list through thematic research.” 
 

Yao’s “collection” is based on artists’ personal interests, or more strictly, his collecting range and limits could only be understood from the network within his own artistic boundary, which is different from IT-Park that constructed on exhibitions and artists and ACT contemplated and produced archives through thematic projects, interviews and editing. Besides, his indifferent collecting relatively contained a lot of clues that could be stated as in chaos. This chaotic world included several “clusters”: the first is the archive of artist’s own creation, second with how individual artists changed within these twenty years crossed, the third is the development of relative art issues and the presentation of exhibition and performance, the forth is archives on art movements, the fifth is that we could discover some other related experimental publication and clues. We deliberately chose those which are more related to experimental art movement in these collections, they are mainly about underground movements, alternative spaces, exhibition topics, art events, art plans, etc. Through these documents are still in demand of further research to confirm and make it a complete archive, inevitably, they are documents and information that preserved with relatively potential because of the artist’s own openness and distinction.

 

3. Post-movements
The last part is about present moment and “archiving—movement” that pointing to near future, that is documentation according to present event and action. This way of developing archive that followed with internet era, smart phones and tablets is exactly the situation we must face today. The occurrence and influence of 318 Student Movement in Taiwan is not just a political or social news event, or not even a protest action, but a political turn in social atmosphere under bio-politics. It is not just focusing on those happened events to conclude that whether it creates change and influence or not, but its different conditions and development gave rise to potential effect to the whole society and between generations, for the reason that this experience and situation brought about division on opinions and emotions. However, we would like to know more about how did those experiences been presented, found their position and faced others in the public.

 

That is to say, the point is not about the body presented on the spot but the position that overview the real situation. Many people began to think about body, space and images after gaining real experience in a real place, and considered about how we face threaten on political economics and instability in actions. How might we preserved passion and potential during the movements for the after? According to our understanding to bio-politics, we could stated that after movements is as important as movement itself. In the era of bio-politics, resistance couldn’t just be a collective action in certain event, it has to ferment continuously in individual’s life beyond the exception state of movement. In order to preserve passion, the production of art became important and a must, since it produced new thoughts and feelings and developed deliberation on the society. As above, we could considered the possibility of documenting art plans and art production, which not only archiving them but files that re-activate culture activities.
 

We selected three documentation works about 318 Student Movement to discuss on critical archiving, while one of the three is The 561st hour of Occupation from Yuan Goang-Ming, he linked his own creative language with documentation on participation of the movement to provide a presentation of collaborative and conditional video archive. The second works is videos about a forum planned by the participants of 318 Student Movement, which included two one-and-half- hour documentation of the forum. One of which is about the students of the movement invited three participants of social movements, they are speaker of Taiwan March, the executive secretary from Taiwan Alliance for Victims of Urban Renewal, and secretary-general of Taiwan International Workers’ Association, to discuss about the possibility of art in the movement and democracy problems in a movement. The other is about that they invited a art history profession and art critiques, Chen Yu-Ren, to analyze the esthetic in the scene of movements and how do art history research work in the scene respond to social situation. All of above are touched to the issue of how an individual face and participated in an event or movement, and somehow it is exactly the moment that we fight against bio-politics.