Reorganizing ocean plastic debris into a display device with information transmission and reception.
This piece reflects on the “Hyper-textual”, or “hyper-link” feature of the new media. I embed some microchips and laser transmitters into the marine waste plastics, which were picked up on the north coast of Taiwan. The marine wastes then can communicate with each other by passing through Morse Code. The content of the communication is the poems by the eighteenth century English writers which admired the ocean. The receiving end will decode the Morse Code in real-time and display the poem phrase on the LCD screen.
Using Morse Code to transmit literary poems instead of using faster Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or radio, is because that Morse code is an audible and sensible information transmission method for the audience. Poems can be formed word by word, with physical sensibility and timeliness. In addition, this piece also embodies the intention of Media Archaeology —Morse code was an international standard for maritime communications from 1838 to 1999. I intend to connect with this old communication protocol to the “wonderful past” and “possible future” of the ocean, and by which create a problem awareness that contrasts the past and the present. I also hope that the audience could think about the relevance and importance of our technology, the marine environment and marine waste plastics.
—
將海洋廢棄物重組為具備信息傳輸與接收的展示裝置。
運用新媒體的「超文本」(Hyper-textual)，也就是「超連結」特性，我以在台灣北海岸撿拾之海廢塑膠為材料，嵌入微晶片與雷射發射器，讓海廢物件能透過摩斯電碼(Morse Code)相互溝通，其溝通內容為十八世紀英國文學家讚嘆海洋之詩句，接收端會即時將摩斯電碼解碼，並將文字顯示於液晶螢幕上。
使用摩斯電碼來傳輸文學詩詞，而非選用更快速的藍芽、wifi或無線電，主因在於，摩斯電碼是觀眾可聽、可感的訊息傳輸方式，可以逐字形成詩詞，具有身體感受性與時間性。另外，也帶有媒體考古(Media Archaeology)的意圖―摩斯電碼在1838年至1999年間，都是海事通訊的國際標準。我意圖藉此連結到海洋「美麗的過去」與 「 可能的未來」， 創造今昔對比的問題意識，思考科技、海洋環境與海廢塑料的關聯性與重要性。
