閱讀計畫 (2013)

創作自述

我們到底怎麼讀？我們又讀到了什麼？

日常經驗裡，「文字」或「書藉」經常是「閱讀」一詞直接連結的對象。當然，我們還經常閱讀影像、閱讀文字與影像相加後的產物，也閱讀影像加上其他影像的關聯或結構，無論是否自覺。

對於「閱讀」作為事件，以及製作「書籍」作為物件，《閱讀計畫》以一個廣義的閱讀概念，檢視影像、文字、物件三者以及其中交疊、相互限定的微妙關係，探究過程中意義如何製造，以演示本創作發展的立論基礎：意義不是固定內存於影像、文字或物件中，以本質方式存在，再展現、傳遞使人接收理解，而是讀者／觀者在特定脈絡或框架下，「解碼」後透過參與、實踐的方式生產意義（或歧義）。閱讀的意義不是給定的，而是我們組織、製造出來的，同時在隱性架構下又非無政府式的任意（義）而為。

因此，《閱讀計畫》嘗試使影像內容成為操作符碼，進行一連串文字對應指涉物的實驗：建立連結、將影像建構為系列、建立新理解脈絡；再將影像彙編為書藉實體，改變閱讀情境，凸顯閱讀行為具備的物質屬性。透過關鍵字或描述，我們進入閱讀狀態，也進入影像本身多義性的闡釋空間。猶如符碼的「顯義」（signification）過程，這些相對應連結是由創作者任意附加，一旦人為定義的連結改變，脈絡改變，意義亦跟著改變。也唯有如此， 我們才可能跳出慣例，經驗解碼、釋義時的微妙差異。

閱讀一向被視為是安靜、私人、離群進行的心智活動，在某些作家筆下甚至具有反社會特性。看似平靜的外表下，閱讀過程暗伏讀者／觀者進行解碼的動力，與意義拉鋸、漸變的張力。猶如文學評論家伊格頓（Terry Eagleton）所言，「意義是零碎或散佈在整個符徵的鎖鏈中，它無法輕易敲定，絕對不是充分現存於某個單一符號，而是一種現存（presence）與匱缺（absence）同時不斷閃爍的狀態。」一旦能感受到那種意義的「閃爍」或搖擺，或許我們可以說：原來我這樣閱讀。

而我正在讀。

The Reading Project (2013)  Statement

How we actually read? What we really read from our reading? 

Texts or books are usually related to reading in terms of daily experience. We read more than texts or books, of course, no matter if we are fully aware of this: we read images, the new context of juxtaposition of images and texts, and the structure among images.

The Reading Project is an exploration of reading as an activity and making a (photo)book as an object, examining how the image-text-object relationship is interlocked by signifying and being signified, and re-creates the context by the duplicated images. This project assumes the meaning we get from reading activity is not something in essence, fixed or already exists that can deliver to the readers/viewers and to be received by them. But rather, the meanings are produced and practiced by them in the process of decoding. What we read and decode should not be taken as a given, and in fact we organize and produce its significance. We cannot ignore the hidden structure, however, from which we create meanings or understandings, since the reading/decoding activity does not indicate anything goes.

This project, therefore, is the attempt that puts the images and the texts into codes. It is the experiment to link up the texts with their signifieds, to construct a series by its arbitrary rule, to re-create a context, and finally to materialize the concept into the book object in order to emphasize the base of reading activity. It is also an examination of polysemy that is dynamic and motivated by the readers/viewers. We can experience the subtle differences only if we get rid of usual practices of reading. 

Reading is regarded as a quiet, private and solitary brain activity, which is even characterized an asocial behavior by some writers. In despite of the tranquility, there is the underflow generated by dynamics of tension during the activity. As the literary critic Terry Eagleton put it: “Meaning, if you like, is scattered or dispersed along the whole chain of signifiers: it cannot be easily nailed down, it is never fully present in any one sign alone, but is rather a kind of constant flickering of presence and absence together.” As long as we perceive the flickering moments or indefinity, we may eventually realize that is how and what we read.

And I’m reading.