Concept of Exhibition de CLUSTER
Exposition de concept de CLOUSTER, Digital Art Festival Taipei V, DAC:2010, Taipei(ISBN:9789860277180)
Cluster computing series, compressing the distance between people
Does technology always come from human nature? The more technology matches the habits of people, the less people can avoid the problem of privacy in public. Most programs provide custom-made configuration settings or accesses to personal data authentication in order to facilitate the non-physical behavior of negotiation in the cyber world. This behavior not only affects the individual's thinking habits, but also is likely to cause the problem of user’s identity in public. In particular, the nobles, those of higher social class, have no privacy at all in the digital age. Today's mass media of network creates this phenomenon, and it is very different from the early social structure in which newspapers were the main medium. In 2010, Facebook, the largest social networking website, with 5 hundred million users, brings the true identity of individual from the virtual network to the real world. The chain of friends is like a bunch of grapes. Anyone in the chain of relations can share a piece of news. It is even possible to connect to and collect all information provided by anonymous insiders, which is looking for a real person or a truth. As bunches of grapes, chains of relations are similar to strings of notes in music which stacks as “tone cluster”. Its mode of interaction and division of labor are similar to cluster computing. Because of the application of cluster computing technology and popularization of Internet, working of cluster computing with Internet is equal to organize a global network by threading many computers densely covered all over the world. It breaks the concept of global village. In other words, this is a large and fully operational body. However, in the structure of parallel computing system, each end of the link is in fact an isolated and autonomous island. The connection between one main subject to another is not only to share information and work with each other, but the interaction of different values between subjects beyond the limits of languages, boundaries and social norms also highlights the characteristic of the era of new media art where each subject complements the other.
New ideas of Cluster
Although there is a scale limit for the technical or practical application of cluster, the concept of cluster computing can be extended from the relations between machines to the interactions between people. The fifth Digital Art Festival, Taipei based on a scale or range limit of resources, builds a small community pattern according to the experiences obtained in the past and the increasingly amplified forms of art exhibitions in various fields. The global information overflows, the previous structure of time and space is changed, and the compressed time-space accelerates the pace of daily life. Any digital worker in different places or at home can complete a job through the Internet. That is efficient and time-saving. This partnership highlights the alienation of modern man within virtual community. 2010 Digital Arts Festival, Taipei will use “Cluster”as the title of the overall activities. That means the result of Cluster should be in accordance with each unit and the reconfiguration of regional resources. If the Digital Art Festival, Taipei adjusts well the balance along each axis, it will form a pattern that continues to expand the scale of the system, and pours energy or new ideas into the nature of digital art so that it will not be trapped in the dilemma zone.
The chinese character "串" (literally translated in English as ‘series’) is a glyph formed by a single character. It is also called as a special linear form. The meaning of the word "串" can be interpreted directly, but it seems very abstract to use it in a specific situation. The relationship between the Chinese character and cluster has been established in the path of behavior. In addition to the continuous relationship or the interaction between the two, the word "串" in the digital age includes another meaning that is "series of learning", referring to a technology that has been internalized as habits in life. Take a look at the projects sought at the fifth Digital Arts Festival, Taipei 2010, the curatorial team of International Digital Art Exhibition, the Digital Art Performance Award, the Germany and France artist-in-residence project, and the first selection of digital art short essays, these are the experiences of the series of division of labor. The Digital Art Awards, Taipei and the K.T. Creativity Award, which also celebrates its fifth year this year, including sound, performing, visual and academic art, both present a new art form. The International Festival of Electronic Art 404 from Argentina and the ZKM（Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe）of “RECORD > AGAIN! – 40jahrevideokunst.de – Teil 2”in Germany both take part in Digital Art Festival, Taipei 2010 for the first time. Artists come from all over the world. Each of them brings his/her own experience and the individual uniqueness to form a number of strongholds as blocks, and the blocks pull and collide with each other to integrate into a luminous body (Digital Art Festival, Taipei). Apparently it (the luminous body) is a series of a lot of digital art platforms, conflicts and delays occur frequently during the intersection of each unit, but the normal operation of the whole needs to be maintained. The only solution is to obtain the proper balance among each affected aspect. It is also an important issue in Digital Art Festival, Taipei this year, to talk about something new and unknown produced by the impact of combination.
「串」策展理念
串（CLUSTER）叢集運算的串聯，緊縮人與人的距離關係
科技始終來自於人性？愈貼近人們習性的科技，愈無法避免個人隱私的曝露，多數程式提供量身訂作的使用模式之設定，或是個人資料認證的存取等，都是為了方便在網路上進行非實體的交涉行為，這不僅影響個人的思考習慣，也容易造成使用者身分的曝光，尤其位於社會階級較高的貴族，他們在數位時代中毫無隱私可言，現今的網路大眾傳播媒介造就了此現象，它與早期以報紙為主要媒介的社會結構大相逕庭。2010年擁有五億使用人數的最大社群網站Facebook更是將個人真實身分從虛擬的網路推往現實的世界，朋友的關係鏈它像是一串串葡萄，在關係鏈裡的任何一人都可以共同分享一則新聞，甚至可以串連匿名知情者所公開的資料，從中尋找人物或者事件真相。一串串葡萄般的關係鏈，它像一串串音符推疊起來的「音堆」（tone cluster），它的互動和分工模式像Cluster（叢集）運算技術，由於Cluster運算的技術運用和網際網路的普及化，叢集運算結合網路等於串連了密布全球網絡的眾多部電腦，它突破了地球村的概念，換言之，這是一個大型且完全的運算體。但在平行運算系統的架構裡，事實上網路連結的每一端都是各自為政的孤島，主體緊連的另一端主體不單是相互分享資訊、分攤工作而已，主體和主體之間在超越語言、國界、社會規範等價值相互產生影響，使新媒體藝術時代凸顯了主體性相互輝映的特質。
Cluster串的數位時代新思維
雖然Cluster在技術或實際應用上有一個規模底限，但Cluster運算概念可從機械與機械之間延伸思考人與人之間的互動關係。第五屆台北數位藝術節就在一個底限的資源或範圍內，以過去累積的經驗和日益擴增的藝術各領域展演形式建構一個小型的社會型態。在全球資訊溢出的狀態，過去的時間和空間結構被改變，時空的被壓縮使得日常生活的步調加快了，無論在異地或足不出戶的數位工作者，皆可透過網絡空間與外界共同完成一件事，既有效率又可節省時間，此合作關係凸顯現代人既疏離又處於虛擬社群之中的距離關係。2010年台北數位藝術節將「Cluster串」作為整體活動名稱，意旨Cluster的成效需依照各個單位以及區域資源重新配置，如果數位藝術節能夠在每一主軸取得相當的平衡，便像一模組不斷擴大系統規模，相互在數位藝術本質上灌入能量或新思維而不容易產生滯留不前的窘境。
「串」是由單個字符所組成的象形文字，也可稱它為特殊線性表。串在字義上的解讀相當直接，但在具體的說法上又顯的抽象，它與Cluster之間的關係被建立於行為的路徑，除了具連續性的關係或聯繫二者的互動之外，「串」在數位時代中包括了另一涵義「串習」，指的是一種科技在生活中已內化的習慣。微視第五屆台北數位藝術節在2010年規劃的徵件項目，國際邀請展策展團隊、數位藝術表演獎、德法交流駐村以及藝術評論短文之首屆徵選都是經驗串聯的分工型態，台北數位藝術獎、K.T. 科藝獎至今也邁進第五年，涵蓋了聲音、表演、視覺、學術等藝術領域，以一種新的藝術型態呈現；來自阿根廷的404國際電子數位藝術節和ZKM（Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe）德國錄像藝術特展皆首度參與2010年台北數位藝術節，創作者來自於全球各地，各自帶來了自身的經驗和個體的獨特性，形成多個區塊狀的據點，由每一區塊相互牽引、碰撞而聯集成一個發光體（台北數位藝術節）。表面上看來它（發光體）串聯了許多數位藝術平台，每一單位交集的過程中經常發生矛盾、延宕狀況，但仍須保持整體的正常運作，只能在每一受到影響的層面上取得適當的平衡點，因結合而撞擊出未知的新東西也是今年台北數位藝術節主要訴說的重要課題。
