A Tale of Wayfinding the Virtual
游弋虛像迷宮
Topology-mancer:“Why can’t you understand that I cannot draw you a map?”
Progress-tracer: “I don’t request a detailed map, you only need to draw me a rough one, and then I can identify the paths myself.”
Topology-mancer: “Isn’t the world I live in built by you? All the connections, information portals, signal channels, cables, bricks, shortcuts, and encrypted pathways—this entire intricate digital palace was constructed with your hands. Why do you need me to draw you a map?”
Progress-tracer: “Our blueprint has been invalidated already. We built this place based on it, but now that construction is finished, we’re trapped inside—it’s like how the ancient aristocrats buried the workers who built their tombs.”
Topology-mancer: “You just mentioned you’re ‘trapped inside,’ so what’s outside?”
Progress-tracer: “A place similar to this, but not entirely habitable. I only started to memorize the details of that place since I became confined here. This place feels like a mirror image of the ‘outside’; perhaps the main difference lies in the density of time. Time here flows faster than my own blood—my skin overflows with it, and my mind is engulfed by its pulse signals… look at this place, how does it resemble the blueprint at all? There is no orientation, no coordinates, nothing like our crystal-clear plan!”
Topology-mancer: “Poor man. But I still don’t understand why I need to draw this map for you.”
Progress-tracer: “You are not like us. You were born here, and are indigenous to this place. Although we came into existence before you, you're more geographically ‘authentic’ than we are. Anyone who’s seen the blueprint will be inscribed with a tremendous number of details of this place’s alleys, pathways, and structures—we are human beings after all, and are genetically inclined to remember shortcuts and instructions, and to ‘figuring out the environment.’ This is the gift and curse brought by ‘evolution.’ Once we are inscribed with blueprints, we are no longer able to generate alternative maps; instead, we crave optimal solutions, but optimal solutions won’t get us out from this place—blueprints are deadfalls in this world.”
Topology-mancer: “You should know that… it’s more difficult for me to draw a map than for you to find your way out on your own. I have no idea of orientation or coordinates… I can’t generate a ‘bird-view’ from within my mind. Even if I try to draw you a map, I doubt you could read it. It’s a pity that I’ve never been to the ‘outside world,’ otherwise I might just walk you out.”
Progress-tracer:“Sounds like my ancestors. They used to walk through the jungles and wilderness.”
Topology-mancer: “So what happened to them afterwards?”
Progress-tracer: “Then they invented a blueprint.”
Topology-mancer: “Then?”
Progress-tracer: “Then… blueprints became everything. Everything passed through a blueprint, and was derived from one. Precise clocks, modelled furniture, accounting machines, electronic pets, cannon balls that fall ‘on-time,’ roaring rockets, financial transactions conducted in milliseconds, communication across continents… everything, including this simulated world.”
Topology-mancer: “Your ancestors seem to be marvellous. I don’t think I could ever invent a blueprint, since I can’t even figure out the landscapes here.”
Progress-tracer: “Ah, let’s forget about the older generations and whatever stories they may have told. How about you just walk me around, as you know how it feels to wander around here. I somehow remember the intersection area of the two worlds… if we run into the brane borders, I can get us out.”
Topology-mancer: “Sounds good, I know how to take a walk.”
Progress-tracer can’t remember how long they wandered in this place, but the endless walk inflicted pain on his skin caused by the fleeing signals. The voltage difference also felt more bearable as time moved on. Over time, he realised that their walk could not be measured by distance or even directions; instead, it was full of zigzagging, sudden pauses, and unpredictable trajectories. If they walked in one direction for too long, they would end up back at the starting point. He gradually found out that this world did not betray the blueprint, it only grew organically into a topological version of it. All the data points in the original blueprint were replaced by the relationship of planes, and hence, all shortcuts were invalidated—the only way to “figure it out” is to explore without a map. The moment of realization became the moment of escape, and he finally found his way home.
What about the Topology-mancer?
He never left his own place. He did not even go for the walk—all he did was become engulfed in a nice, long dream.
This story is a re-imagination of “shortcuts.” Shortcuts are fast leaps across information scaffolds, and cartridges for accelerated time. Shortcuts imply lower costs, since they train us to become beings who are not used to staying still, pondering, or meandering. Shortcuts symbolise strategic success, and energy-saving efficiency. But, one reminder that we were given in the year 2020—a time of global uncertainty —is a new perspective on “what we shortcut into.” The lesson is that perhaps we need to rethink our priorities, and develop an alternative blueprint that does not prioritize shortcuts.
The exhibition “The Long Cut” features works that investigate the remote, latent, and liminal space of technologies, and how this awareness can trigger alternative pathways and maps for our shared technological reality. More importantly, it investigates how artists navigate between the perspectives of the “Progress-tracer” and “Topology-mancer” in order to find their own way of living with the hybridity of the physical and the digital.
*The text is also inspired by Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi’s writing, “Breathing: Chaos and Poetry,” which explores the relationship between the acceleration of cyberspace and the rhythm of mental time.
拓扑梦游者：“你为何听不懂，我没办法给你画一张地图。”
进程追踪者：“我不要求这张地图有多细致入微，只要告诉我大致的方向排布，我便能找到路径。”
拓扑梦游者：“我生活的地方，不就是你们建出来的世界吗？这里所有的链接、信息中转站、信道、电缆、一砖一瓦、快捷方式和加密栈道，如此庞杂繁复的宫殿，是你们亲手设计，为何来问我要这里的地图？”
进程追踪者：“我们的蓝图早就失效了。我们照着它的模样，建成了这里，没想到就像古代修墓葬的人一样，墓修好了，修建者被反锁在里面。”
拓扑梦游者：“你方才说，这里是里面，那么外面是什么？”
进程追踪者：“一个和这里类似的地方，虽说也不是非常适合我们居住，我也是困在这里后，才回想起那边的种种。怎么说呢，这里有些像是外面的一个倒影，但区别在于，这里的时间密度过于高了，呆在这里，时间每天都给皮肤过电，比血流还快，脉冲信号卷着我走，可别说什么蓝图了，当时那蓝图画得干干净净、明明白白，你看看现在这里的样子，早偏离了蓝图的方向，连东南西北、上下左右都对不上。”
拓扑梦游者：“我还是不懂，为何需要我再来画一张这里的地图？”
进程追踪者：“你和我们不同，你诞生在这里，是真正的原住民。虽然在时间上，我们先于你而存在，但在地理上，你才是这里的主人。看过蓝图的人，脑中都会被印刻上那一条条明栈暗道的走向，我们是人类，我们会自觉地在地图上寻求捷径——这是进化教会我们的。而一旦大脑被印刻上捷径，地图的信息便会缩减，我们的大脑现在无法再建构关于这里的，不同于最优解的地图，而最优解恰恰是我们被困在这里的原因，蓝图成为了我们的陷阱。”
拓扑梦游者：“可你要知道，画地图这事，对我来说可比你们找出口还难。你们说的东南西北，我可并无概念，地图不都是从上往下看的吗？我没办法在脑中创造这个视角，即便我真画，多半也会画出张你们见所未见的地图。只可惜我没去过外面世界，不然，我带着你们走，反倒快些。”
进程追踪者：“我们的祖先在那个世界，也是像你这样过来的。他们总是在丛林和荒漠里走，一个人带着一个人，一群人引着一群人。”
拓扑梦游者：“他们后来如何了。”
进程追踪者：“后来他们发明了蓝图。”
拓扑梦游者：“再后来呢？”
进程追踪者：“蓝图成为了万物。万物也因蓝图而得以传递。精确的钟、千奇百怪的家具、会记账的机器、会自己走路的电子狗、准时落下的炮弹、不懈登天的飞船、微秒级的金融、跨大洲的传讯、还有这里。”
拓扑梦游者：“你的祖先听起来很厉害，我不觉得我能发明出蓝图，我连这里的地貌都搞不清楚。”
进程追踪者：“啊，别太计较祖先的故事了，不如你带着我们随意游走。反正，你知道在这里行走的感受，而我们记得两个世界交界处的样子，如果无意中碰到了，那我们就能出去了。”
拓扑梦游者：“也好，走路我会。”
进程追踪者在这个世界里，走了不知道有多久，漫长的行走冲刷了他肌肤表面信号流窜的疼痛，空气的电压差，似乎也变得可以忍受起来。他发现这段行走，全然没有方向可言，时进时退，时左时右，有时沿着一个方向太远，反而会回到原点。他倏尔意识到，这个世界其实并没有脱离蓝图，它只是逐渐生长成了蓝图的拓扑——所有原图上的距离数值都被位面的关联所替代，所有的捷径都不再是捷径，他倒是就这样，头歪歪闯到了这个“电子世界”的出口。
拓扑梦游者自始自终没有离开原地，只是做了个梦而已。
The Long Cut是对「快捷方式」/「捷径」的重新想象。「捷径」是信息栅格之间快速跃迁的方式，也是加速时间的弹药。「捷径」意味着较低来去成本，它把我们训练成不善停留和蜿蜒的物种。「捷径」也象征着策略性的成功，节能而有效。2020年给我们的一大提醒，则是「捷径」对象的悬置乃至落空，当全球性的不确定性蔓起，我们需要的或许是一种去捷径化的蓝图。
「Long Cut」关注那些试图思考技术所容许的遥远、潜在、阈限地带的作品，观照创作者如何在对技术本身保有自知的前提下，就这个世界提出多样的路径和「其他的地图」， 更重要的是，「置身其间」的第一经验。
