W.Y.S.I.W.I.G (book)

Description

Have always wanted to make pocket flip books. The idea of a pocket flip book is like a Walkman, a paperback with duration. As the pages brush through the fingertips, the secrets between time and retina emerge. The pocket flip book came to my mind when first conceived of W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G. Flipping from the front of the book shows a text cursor pointer that flashes ten times in ten seconds. Flipping from the back of the book is prose and poetry, fragmented, in the reading order of ancient Chinese books.

W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G features the GUI caret icon as a light sculpture displayed against a patterned wall with checkers indicating transparency in graphic programs. The vitrine is hereby virtualized into a space that signifies a vacuum ad infinitum. Originally shown as What You See is Where You Go, the second iteration, Wear Your Soul in Wordy Yesterday Gold takes the idea of ultimate asemia further — on the blinking brink of “I”, we stand at the metalinguistic door and set our feet in the undertows of cyber sea, taking refuge in the noise, forever waiting on meanings to dawn.

I was once asked whether this light piece was controlled by computational signals, and my answer was a firm no. W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G is just plain, boring, relentless flickering. Like the emergence and disappearance of thoughts, like the waiting before consciousness is translated into language. As the naming of many of my works, W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G carries the floating nature of contemporary semiotics. The English words or phrases that I have imposed periods and halts in challenge the most common meanings and reading habits. Letters reorganize and iterate as if they had a life of their own.

一直有做口袋手翻书的愿望。口袋手翻书如同随身听，是被赋予了时延体验的纸本。书页在手掌指尖掠过，时间与视网膜的秘密随之隐现。第一次构思W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G时，眼前便有了这本口袋手翻书。正面翻页是文本光标指针，十秒十次闪烁。背面翻页是碎片的散文与诗，古代中文书籍的阅读顺序。

将GUI图形用户界面中的文本光标指针制作成灯管，展示在表示图形程序透明度的格子图案的背景中。橱窗空间于是虚拟成一个象征着无限真空永恒延续的空间。原本以“What You See is Where You Go 所见即所达”为题展示，第二次迭代的“Wear Your Soul in Wordy Yesterday Gold 戴上你的灵魂在冗长的昨日黄金”则进一步推进这种极致的“示意不能” (Asemia)。在“自我/1”的闪烁边缘，我们站在元语言的门前，将脚踏进赛博之洋的海底，在嘈杂中避难，等待意义降临的曙光。

曾被问及这个灯管作品是否受计算化信号操控，我的答案是很肯定的否定。W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G就是普通、甚至无聊、不辍的闪烁。好像思绪的明灭，或是意识化作语言前的等待。如我很多作品的命名，W.Y.I.S.I.W.Y.G承载当代语言符号的流动与不确定。而被我如此强加顿点休止符的英文单词或是短语，挑战最常见的语义与阅读习惯，字母好像自有生命一样重组迭代。