blog of Joe cz Liao

It took me a while to sum up my thoughts and finally conclude my own learning about the piece XLIEUX – an interactive installation art piece by the very talented Wendy Tai, in collaboration with myself.

Frankly, XLIEUX could not be considered highly technical, but it is precisely the simple and direct concept that gave rise to all the possible ways of interacting with it, and interpreting it. Even between Wendy and I, I think we have always agreed on the main direction it was going to be, and listened to each other for suggestions on many details, but were never 100% in sync with each others’ interpretation of the project. Through the process, under resource and time pressure, and consideration of differing impact on viewers by adjusting certain aspects of the piece, we have arrived at the version that was open to public for two weeks at experimenta during late June to early July this year.

I have always introduced people to the piece in slightly different ways from Wendy’s, possibly also due to our different sets of diction. Wendy has written her account of the piece in detail on her blog. In my own words, “XLIEUX is a section of the infinitely small distance between people that internet has made possible.”

Internet, the increasingly dominating media of our time, has brought long distances to nil, rendered space ‘non-existent’. The reaction to such a pervasive phenomenon is seen on so many different levels, social networking, for example. In the essay Seattle Central Library: Civic Architecture in the Age of Media, Koolhaas and the OMA’s effort in creating a space that harnesses the classical concept of a library while reacting to the new realm of social interaction, gives a great example of how architecture is also influenced by humanity’s changing media. The coexistence of virtual and the real, in terms of space, is a common theme shared by the Seattle Central Library and XLIEUX.

As mentioned, XLIEUX is a section of an infinitely small ’space’ – i.e. a plane, or better yet, an ‘interface’, a virtual space. The section itself, however, is a space, a physical space, an ‘art’ space. It is somewhat a spatial oxymoron. It became an unusual context for participants to explore and experience the concept of space.

A thorough encounter with XLIEUX begins with arriving at the gallery, and immediately confronted by a large ‘X’ constructed with black rubber, standing in the way to the depths of the gallery. As in an architectural plan, an X implies a void. We used this symbolism in our space (and publications) to convey the idea that this gallery space could, to some, be a ‘void’: By having two persons from somewhere else talking to two projections on two gallery walls via their own internet video chat setup, both of their experience would be hardly distinguishable from a normal, directly connected video chat, hence naturally being unaware of the space, considering it non-existent, a void. The difference is that the sound of their conversation would fill the space, and all sounds within the gallery, including visitors’ chatter, would be taken in as well; Their face would be seen on the walls, and participants who venture pass the X ‘barrier’ would even be able to further engage into the conversation i.e. intrude others’ conversations, by simply standing in front of the projections. The action of entering into the ‘void’ physically gives the two conversing nodes from afar a revelation of the ‘medium’ – a space – through which they were connected. Afterall, the awareness AND unawareness of space, physical and virtual, remains to be the super theme of this project, just as Wendy’s use of the (borrowed) words ‘place’ and ‘non-place’ (Have I mentioned that LIEUX is the french word for ‘place’?). Essentially, such psychological relationship with space is also the emotional words, or more like prepositions, that helps make up the language of architecture, in my humble opinion.

XLIEUX has been a straightforward experiment for me to witness the interaction between virtual and physical space, and people’s reaction to it. I genuinely believe that architecture, as a combination of art and science, is the reflection as well as the product of a particular time in history, and hence the pursuit of a ‘timeless’ design, is in itself anther oxymoron. In this day and age, embracing the influence of digital media, how it has reshaped our society and people’s relationship with each other and its surrounding environment, seems to be the greatest revelation of architecture.