hyper.data-N°3

A set of three pieces: hyper.data-N°3a, hyper.data-N°3b, hyper.data-N°3c

At 14:46 Tokyo time on March 11, 2011 — the instant the Tōhoku earthquake struck — more than 1,100 observation stations across Japan set down a complete record: each station's location in latitude and longitude, the time of measurement, its measured seismic intensity, magnitude, and seismic waveform. It is text and images such as these that have long constructed our understanding of the world and its environment, and framed the way the senses read it. hyper.data-N°3a–c takes this body of data as its source — yet no longer allows it to appear in any familiar form.

This image installation in three parts contains no pre-recorded footage: all three image sequences are generated in real time, by software reading the seismic data and computing it in the present moment. What appears on screen is the operating state and appearance of the program itself — the original text and images unfolding anew within the virtual world and its code; the recorded instant, in the machine's present tense, is executed again and again.

With figurative imagery stripped away, what we truly face is the code and structure of the program. The body's senses are forced to receive data the human brain cannot translate — signals pour in without pause, while comprehension falls ever further behind. When data exceeds the threshold of human recognition, anxiety becomes the senses' last remaining response to this unseen world: a state of digital anxiety.

With the support of the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan.

作品共三組件：hyper.data-N°3a, hyper.data-N°3b, hyper.data-N°3c

2011年3月11日東京時間14時46分，東北強震發生的瞬間，日本全境一千一百多個觀測站留下了完整的記錄——每一站的位置（經緯度）、時刻、計測震度、規模與地震波形。長久以來，正是這些文字與圖像，建構著我們對世界與環境的認知，也框定了感官解讀的方式。《hyper.data-N°3a–c》以這批資料為源，卻不再讓它以我們熟悉的面貌現身。

這件三組件影像裝置中，沒有任何預先錄製的影片：三套影像皆由程式即時讀取地震資料、於當下運算生成。螢幕上顯現的，是電腦程式自身運作的狀態與樣貌——原本的文字與圖像，在虛擬世界與程式編碼中被重新展開；那被記錄下來的一瞬，在機器的現在式裡，持續地重新執行。

當具象的圖像被抽除，我們真正面對的，是程式的編碼與結構。身體感官被迫接收人腦無法轉譯的資料訊息——訊號持續湧入，理解卻無從跟上；當資料超越了人所能識別與認知的臨界點，焦慮便成為感官對這個看不見的世界僅存的回應：一種數位焦慮的狀態。

本作品獲臺灣國家文化藝術基金會贊助。