Forking Sovereignty! Mutates Through Contagion
@ Curatology Issue 13 The Economy of Curation and the Capital of Attention
✨ The article is about:
1. Indigenous Land Rights and Colonial Injustice: The source highlights the historical and ongoing injustices faced by Indigenous communities in Taiwan, particularly concerning land rights. The Japanese colonial government's classification of Indigenous people into categories like "Raw Savages" was used to justify land appropriation, denying them legal personhood and rights. This historical context is crucial for understanding contemporary conflicts over land. 2. Forkonomy() as a Critique of Ownership: The Forkonomy() project, a participatory art piece by Winnie Soon and Tzu Tung Lee, directly addresses the concept of ownership by queering the idea of the commons. Through workshops, participants explored different models of ownership related to the South China Sea, such as "private-owned" and "co-op". This project uses artistic methods to critique and question established notions of sovereignty and property rights. 3. Positive Coin and the Commodification of Identity: Positive Coin utilizes HIV as a lens to examine neoliberal identities and the commodification of bodies. The digital currency's design and functionality, including fluctuating prices based on stigma levels, simulate the complexities of living with HIV and challenge the notion of self-ownership. The project was adapted in Beijing, China, where it was used to gather audience responses on HIV control, which were then preserved as censorship-resistant NFTs. 4. Surveillance and Control Mechanisms: The text draws a parallel between public health measures and state control, referencing China's COVID-19 policies as an example of a "high-tech panopticon". This connects to the broader theme of how surveillance and control can infiltrate individual bodies, impacting personal freedoms and heightening stigma against certain identities. 5. Challenging Stigma through "Viral Gift Economy": The concept of "bug chasers" is introduced as a counter-narrative to the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS. This phenomenon is presented as a way for individuals to reclaim agency over their bodies and identities, challenging governmental control and societal norms through a "viral gift economy". 6. Artistic and Technological Interventions for Social Change: Both Forkonomy and Positive Coin are examples of how artistic and creative uses of technology can challenge economic illusions and promote social change. By using open-source principles and decentralized tools, these projects invite audience participation and reflection, creating spaces for queering static nationalistic and economic imaginations. Tzu Tung Lee's broader artistic practice, including open licensing under Creative Commons, further emphasizes the challenge to traditional notions of ownership.
Collective Translation as Forking
@ The Journal of Electronic Publishing Volume 27, Issue 1, 2024, Multilingual Publishing and Scholarship
✨ The article is about:
1. Forking as a Translation Method: The project uses the software development concept of "forking," where a project is split or duplicated, enabling independent modification and development. This allows translators to move away from strict adherence to the original text and create new, independent versions open to collective reuse. The article clarifies that a new version is an iteration or update from the same source, while a fork produces something different and independent of its origin. 2. Challenging Traditional Norms: The project challenges traditional academic publishing and translation practices that often prioritize individual authorship and a fixed, authoritative text. By forking the book, the translators aim to disrupt these power dynamics and foster a more equitable, collaborative approach to knowledge production. 3. Cultural Context and Language Politics: The translation process considers the cultural and political context of Taiwan, including the complexities of the Chinese language and the influence of English as the dominant language in technology and academia. The project seeks to be sensitive to language diversity and challenge Western-centric perspectives in programming and translation. 4. Collective Translation: The translation is carried out by a group of volunteers with diverse backgrounds, using collaborative platforms like HackMD and GitLab. This collective approach aims to incorporate multiple perspectives and address the challenges of translating technical and conceptual terms across languages and cultures. 5. Queering Translation: The project explores the concept of "queer translation," which involves reappropriating terms and disrupting conventional norms in language and culture. This approach acknowledges the diverse backgrounds of translators and seeks to challenge the authoritative imposition of linguistic norms. According to Michael Warner, queering stands against the regimes of the normal, evoking a colonial history of insult and violence. The article mentions participatory workshops in Taipei and London where participants engaged in collective translation exercises, exploring different approaches to translating key concepts from the book.
Sailing in the Pirate Sea of Art
@ Makery, From Commons to NFTs series.
✨ The article is about:
From Commons to NFTs” is an (expanded) writing series initiated by Shu Lea Cheang, Felix Stalder & Ewen Chardronnet. Cautioned by the speculative bubble (burst) of NFTs, the series brings back the notion of commons from around the turn of the millennium to reflect upon and intervene in the transformation of the collective imagination and its divergent futures. Every last day of the month Makery publishes a new contribution of these “chain essays”. Seventh and last text by Lee Tzu Tung. Lee Tzu Tung, a Taiwanese political artist, examines how the blockchain and NFTs could be used to construct property regimes outside the colonial legacies of the state, embodying indigenous and community principles. They draw on their own work and field research in Taiwan Indigenous communities, placing it in the context of broader anti-colonial struggles for recognition and autonomy.
How to Buy/Own/Mint One Milliliter of the Ocean from the South China Sea?
@ ACM Interaction Magazine, Exhibit X, XXIX.4 July - August 2022
✨ The article is about:
1. Background: The South China Sea is a vital waterway for international trade but is also the site of complex territorial disputes involving Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Multiple Asian governments claim sovereignty over rocks, reefs, other geographic features, and undersea natural resources. 2. Forkonomy() Art Project: This project aims to question the ownership of the South China Sea through digital art practices and connect marginalized individuals, establishing "kinship" connections based on mutual respect for traditions and histories. Forkonomy() seeks to "queer" the South China Sea in an alternative way by subverting the concepts of ownership and possession. 3. Experimental Methods: - Workshop: A workshop was held on December 19, 2020, at C-LAB in Taiwan, inviting policymakers, scholars, marine life conservators, cultural workers, artists, and activists to jointly explore the ownership of one milliliter of water from the South China Sea. - Co-ownership: Participants decided to co-own one milliliter of water from the South China Sea at a price of 1.61 TWD/ml and collectively take ecological and economic responsibility for the South China Sea. - NFT (Non-Fungible Token): The co-owned one milliliter of water from the South China Sea was placed as an NFT on the blockchain network to further explore the concept of ownership. 10,000 editions of the cooperative contract (written in English, Chinese, and computer code) were published, and their potential royalties will be used to generate the subsequent 10,000 editions, forming an endless cycle of edition production. Each transaction is recorded on the blockchain, transcending national sovereignties, thereby continuously generating more water buyers as co-owners of the South China Sea. 4. Goal: Through free and open-source software and decentralized protocols, the participatory project was established as a common platform for people who care about and want to challenge hierarchies, ownership, and gendered labor divisions, jointly resisting threats to land and sea autonomy. Forkonomy() will sail the economy and autonomy into a queer ocean of freedom and a sea of commonwealth.
