Time becomes increasingly compact nowadays due to our daily fast pace of living. Land development does not result in more living space. Technologies bring speed and convenience, but at the cost of reduced human mobility and sensitivity. Machine developments push civilization forward, but simultaneously cause damage to nature and the environment. Fewer people would raise concerns for others as beneficial stakeholders. When every level drops to half—mobility, sensitivity, understanding, trust, and the ability to care—how should we react to this situation of “Semi-being”?

“...an anomaly is an element which does not fit a given set or series; ambiguity is a characteristic of statements capable of two interpretations.” Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger. Wong always finds that he is not coping well with his surroundings. However, as the environment changes rapidly in recent years, it seems that “Semi-being” invades most of us.

In response, Chris tries to investigate materials from daily life to develop the indescribable semi-being state through visual language. He creates unknown forms by combining interactive logical mechanics with organic materials to experiment and discover the interactions between robotics and organisms, between systems and possibilities. He also questions the state of being useful or useless, as well as the relationship between self and the environment (the world) in this new era. If most people rely on technological feeds without in-depth knowledge, would organic structures become entirely fake one day?

Also, quoting from John Dewey‘s “Art as Experience”, “Experience is the result, the sign, and the reward of that interaction of organism and environment which. when it is carried to the full. is a transformation of interaction into participation and communication... Oppositions of mind and body, soul and matter, spirit and flesh all have their origin, fundamentally, in fear of what life may--bring forth. They are marks of contraction and withdrawal... it makes possible the drawing of a ground-plan of human experience upon which is erected the superstructure of man's marvelous and distinguishing experience. What is distinctive in man makes it possible for him to sink below the level of the beasts. It also makes it possible for him to carry to new and unprecedented heights that unity of sense and impulse, of brain and eye and ear, that is exemplified in animal life, saturating it with the conscious meanings derived from communication and deliberate expression.”

Physical space-time is a structure shared by everyone’s experience. When you choose to press the shutter of “convenience”, energy resources accelerate their consumption, and the lazy mind and body simultaneously deteriorate. If we have to ring the doorbell of dialogue and believe in waiting for scientific dialectics, perhaps opening the door to art first is a more practical way to allow humanity to sincerely face each version of itself.