Emilie Choi Sin-yi - Towards the History of East Asian Technology: infrastructure and artistic practices

What is East Asian media technology? East Asia encompasses not only the geographical region but also the specific geopolitical and sociopolitical conditions in conjunction with the colonial history, technological modernity and post-Cold War structure (Chan, 2006). Adopting East Asia as a crucial framework for illustrating a situated and discursive approach, helps examine the interconnection between the assemblage of media technologies in the region and the urgency of a decolonial perspective.

In the contemporary techno-capitalist landscape characterized by heightened forms of violence operating in a new extraction and logistic system. East Asia remains a significant digital labour market. Many international corporations employ workers from Asian regions to maintain the digital systems of the platform economy. For instance, numerous repetitive online tasks (microwork), such as image tagging for machine learning on platforms like Amazon's Mechanical Turk, are outsourced to Asian workers at low pay rates. This exploitative practice perpetuates the "invisible" digital circuits and reinforces the entanglement of colonialism with techno-capitalism, as well as the power dynamics between the Global North and Global South.

The formation of technology and infrastructure, in fact, is in conjunction with our knowledge, sensibilities, and social relations, drawing from the social history of media technology in East Asia. The historical trajectory and its materialist implications, like the 1970 Osaka World Expo as a critical reference point, has refracted two key influences. One is the technological modernity through infrastructure building across East Asian cities, such as Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo. Another one is the experimental modes of media technology in artistic practices, reconfiguring the colonial narrative and challenging dominant infrastructures through the creative strategy.

For example, Kao Chung-li, a pioneering media artist from Taiwan who subscribes to the belief of "Historical materialism," which posits that the history of technology is dialectically intertwined with its production. Kao asserts that "the only way to redeem our history and future is to develop our own audiovisual machine; the struggle against modern enlightenment and the conclusive victory." Reflecting on this ideology, his artistic practice delves into the perception of war and image-making. Through works like Anti‧mei-ology 002 (1999), Camera Lucida Cinema (2008), Ballet Mécanique (2014), and Slideshow Cinema series (2014), he employs outdated machines and even invents his own low-budget mechanical projector using nonstandard objects. Embracing a do-it-yourself (DIY) methodology, Kao rejects technological perfection and embraces improvisation and the artistic process corresponding to the nonlinear and heterogenous modalities toward technology (Hertz, 2023). This approach allows him to navigate and bridge gaps in infrastructure, unlocking creative freedom and autonomy throughout the time of Cold War, Martial Law and the paradigm shift of capitalism and colonialism in Taiwan.

Anti‧mei-ology 002 (1999), Kao Chung-li. Taken in Re-Present Kao Chung-li at Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Camera Lucida Cinema (2008), Kao Chung-li. Taken in Re-Present Kao Chung-li at Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

Another example is the work Rediscovery of anima (2018) by Japanese artist Akinori Goto. Goto deviates from digital and industrial technologies, instead relying on stone, wood, hemp, and sunlight to create motion infused with atmospheric elements. This media archaeological approach considers technology as a co-participant with its own agency, suggesting a conceptualization of the subject as a "tool-being." This perspective, situated along the presence-at-hand/readiness-to-hand axis (Harman, 2002), renews our relationships with material objects and enables new articulations.

Rediscovery of anima (2018), Akinori Goto. Courtesy of the artist's website.https://www.akinorigoto.com/rad

Rediscovery of anima (2018), Akinori Goto and its reference. Courtesy of the artist's website.https://www.akinorigoto.com/rad

By engaging in counter-histories to mainstream media history and seeking alternative ways to comprehend the current media cultural landscape of our digital world, this article aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between East Asian media technologies, decolonization, and power dynamics.