Yen Tzu Chang

The Anomaly- theater Version 異態現象 -劇場版 | 2024

New Media Theater

The Anomaly - Re-narrating Women, Bodies, and Nature

異態現象 - 女性、身體與自然的再敘述

2024 The work 《The Anomaly - Re-narrating Women, Bodies, and Nature》, TNUA Center for Art and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

2023 The 3rd of Taoyuan Technology Performing Arts Awards, entered the second round of review, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

During her art residency in 2023, the artist personally experienced the unruly shouts of men on the street, which led her to contemplate the phenomenon of women being attacked and to explore the living conditions of Asian female immigrants in the area. This experience prompted her to change the original direction of her residency creation, reassess her research and creation schedule, and present her residency results through staged performative presentations, paving the way for more in-depth future creations.

Chang began to conceive the relationship between her gender, body form, and society due to her residency experience. She imagined whether different bodies and appearances would lead to different experiences. In the digital age, the body is reshaped in the virtual world, sometimes even completely stripped of human characteristics, with the soul seemingly able to control entirely new forms. The body and experiences are redefined and given new meanings in the digital world. As the concepts of digital avatars and reincarnations become increasingly popular and integrated into everyday life, Yen-Tzu Chang uses the body in the digital world as the basis

for her imagined reconstructions. Through theatrical forms, she presents this recreated world, allowing the audience to open new perspectives on the body.

In her book “Simians, Cyborgs, and Women,” Donna Haraway proposes that nature is both discovered and constructed. She redefines the boundaries between species, women, and machines through the cyborg’s perspective. Chang’s work integrates AI-generated images and sounds to create forms that transcend species, women, and machines, exploring how the body is represented. The focus is on the connection between the digital body, women, and nature, as well as the fusion between organic and inorganic entities, and how these influence and establish the sense of identity between the self and its avatars in new realms.

作品《異態現象》最早是藝術家張晏慈透過投件參與財團法人台北市文化基金會藝術村營運部2023年亞太交流計劃三方進駐合作專案，於2023年二月前往西澳洲 PICA 伯斯當代藝術中心進行駐村。在駐村期間，張晏慈因親身體驗到街頭男子的無理叫囂，開始思考女性被攻擊的現象，並探討亞裔女性移民在當地的生活狀況。這次經驗使她改變了原定的駐村創作方向，重新評估研究與創作期程，並以階段性的演說性表演作為駐村成果，後續進行更深入的創作。

因為駐村經驗開始構思自身性別、身體形態與社會的關係。她想像著不同的身體與樣貌是否會帶來不同的經驗。在當今數位時代，身體在虛擬世界中被重新塑造，甚至完全去除掉人的特徵，靈魂彷彿可以操控全新的形態。身體與經驗在數位世界中再現並產生新意義，隨數位分身與轉生的概念逐漸普及化和生活化，張晏慈以數位世界的身體作為再造的想像基礎，透過劇場形式呈現，讓觀眾進入這個再造的世界中，打開新的身體觀點。

唐娜·哈洛威在《猿猴、賽伯格和女人》一書中提出，自然是被發現與建構出來的。她藉由賽伯格的觀點重新定義跨越物種、女性、機器的界限。作品融合 AI 生成影像與聲響，創造跨物種、女性、機器的形體，探討身體如何被再現，聚焦於數位身體、女性與自然之間的連結，以及有機體與無機體之間的融合，並在新的場域中如何影響和建立自我與分身之間的認同感。

Creative Director/Music Design | Yen-Tzu CHANG

Co-Creative Choreographer | Ting-Ting CHAO

Dancer | Pei-Xuan ZHAN

Visual Design | Guo-Han LI

Stage Manager | Chu-Xin CHENG

Stage Technical Director | Bo-Yan LIU

Lighting Design | Xin-Ci CAO

Sound Engineering, Ambisonic Programming | Zhi-Lin CHEN

Executive Producer | Jing-hang LIN

Graphic Design | Xun-Jia LIN

Photography | Ting-Zhen ZHANG

Motion Photography | March Film Studio, Bo-Yan XU

Organizer | TNUA Center for Art and Technology

Production Unit | Yeles Studio

Preliminary Support | Taoyuan Arts Center

Special Thanks | Quanta Arts Foundation, Bo-Jie CHEN, Ting-Jun LIU, Anarchy Dance Theatre, Hispot Workshop, PICA Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Taipei Culture Foundation Arts Village Operations Department

主創導演/音樂設計 | 張晏慈

共創編舞 | 趙亭婷

舞者 | 詹佩瑄

影像設計 | 李國漢

舞監 | 程楚心

舞台技術指導 | 劉柏言

燈光設計 | 曹芯慈

音響工程、Ambisonic程式設計 | 陳致霖

執行製作 | 林竟航

平面設計 | 林熏家

平面攝影 | 張庭甄

動態攝影 | 三月影像許博彥