Dancing Brush: an Exploration of Taoist Aesthetics

Dancing Brush An Exploration of Taoist Aesthetics

Yi-Lan Yeh

Doctor of Philosophy in Media Arts

The University of New South Wales 2008

Everything has an inherent meaning, it is not necessary to verbalize it. Tao Yuan-ming, Jin Dynasty

ABSTRACT

Dancing Brush video installation is dedicated to legendary Taiwanese dancer Tsai Jui-Yue (1921-2005) in the memory of her suffering, creativity and faith in life. This work reveals the true meaning of Chinese scroll paintings as an infinity of time and space. It draws on the notion of mobility as expounded in the I Ching or Book of Changes. Dancing Brush creates a modern cityscape where the principal of Taoism, ancient Chinese landscape painting, and calligraphy meet new media aesthetics. The focus of this thesis is to reassess media arts practice and aesthetics via the traditions of Chinese Taoist aesthetics. The research was conducted in three dimensions: “non-linear aesthetics” in Chinese arts as the new media art form, “unity of emptiness and fullness” as the animation principle, and “subtraction aesthetics” as the principle of creativity. I propose Dancing Brush video installation as a presentation of “aesthetics of wandering contemplation”. The work suggests a feature of Chinese moving image aesthetics as a ‘spatial montage’ form of media arts. I applied the Taoist “decreative-creative process” as the creative method in which the “decreative” process leads to the “creative”. The “decreative-creative process” is based on the Taoist teachings of zi-ran (spontaneity) and wu-wei (non-action). I interpret it as “subtraction aesthetics: less is more”. The process is to eliminate interferences with restricted narrative format and visual effects, then to receive the immediate presentation of things as pure materials. Through the subtracting process, it gains not less but more. Kong Bai (emptiness or formless) in Chinese art is the result of subtraction aesthetics. It reveals the creative principle derived from the Taoist idea of “usefulness of useless”. The ‘subtracting process’ in creating animation is to bring ‘unknown’ to life. The ‘image beyond image’ is the product of “unity of emptiness and full” where Chinese artistic realm yi-jing is created. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following:

Yogi Yu-Chun Chan for her generous contribution of choreography and performance. Colin Offord for his inspiring friendship, guidance, music composing and production assistance. My supervisor Phillip George, for his support and guidance over these last four years. Terry Cox from Windwood Studios for his sound recording and mixing; Georgia Tapper, Kuba Dorabialski Technical Assistant Time Based Art;

Michael McIntyre KUDOS Gallery; finally I am indebted to my family for their support and love.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1

LIST OF FIGURES 3

INTRODUCTION 8

CHAPTER ONE Dancing Brush Video Installation 28

1.1 The Creative Concepts 28 1.2 The Movies 33 1.3 The Music 42 1.4 Visualized Music: Motion Graphics and Animation 49 1.5 Chinese Scroll Painting and New Media Language 65 Interpretation of the Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels 68 The Double Screen as Space/Time Metaphor 72 Chance Meeting as Montage Principle 76 1.6 Subtraction Aesthetics and Creative Method 83 Intuition Contemplation 84 Method of No-Method: The Spontaneity of Mind 87

CHAPTER TWO Chinese Culture of Time and Space 94

2.1 The Universe: Yu-Zhou 95 2.2 Manifestation of Tao 98 Change: Production of Reproduction 98 Returning 102 Emptiness/Nothingness 105 Being and Nonbeing Grow Out of One Another 106 2.3 Yin and Yang: Unity of Opposite 112 Chi : Breath 114 The Source of Beauty: Tai-ji 117

2.4 Non-linear Aesthetics in Chinese Arts 125 Synthesis of Opposites 125 View Things as Thing View Themselves 129 Interfusion of Subject and Object 131 The Idea of Distance 133 Perspective of All Perspectives 138 Sculpturing Time: Montage in Chinese Poetry/Painting 141 Aesthetics of Wandering Contemplation 147

CHAPTER THREE Formation of Imagery 151

3.1 Xiang : image/symbol/ phenomena 151 Idea and Image 160 3.2 Calligraphy as Performing Art 164 3.3 Kong-Bai 173 Colour of Colourless 174 Form of Formless 178 3.4 Mountain and Water: Unity of Emptiness and Fullness 187 3.5 Jing : Image beyond Image 198

CONCLUSION 210

APPENDIX I A Short History of Tsai Jui-Yueh (1921-2005) 213

APPENDIX II An Interview with Australia Musician/Composer 216 Colin Offord

APPENDIX III Chronological Table in China 227

BIBLIOGRAPHY 229

ABBREVIATIONS

Changes I Ching (yi-jing) ·W or Book of Changes, Class of Changes Xici ‘Xici Zhuan’ eÞ, ‘appended phrase’ in Commentary on I Ching Xici I ‘Xici Zhuan’ section one eÞ| Xici II ‘Xici Zhuan’ section two eÞª|

TTC 1-83 Tao Te Ching (dao-de-jing) ;

Chuang Tzu Book of Chuang Tzu ~Û CT 1 Chuang Tzu Chapter 1: Free and Easy Wandering éäá CT 2 Chuang Tzu Chapter 2: Discussion on Making All Things Equal ú¨Ë CT 3 Chuang Tzu Chapter 3: The Secret of Caring for Life õØ CT 4 Chuang Tzu Chapter 4: In the World of Men ì CT 5 Chuang Tzu Chapter 5: The Sign of Virtue Complete <ÇI CT 6 Chuang Tzu Chapter 6: The Great and Venerable Teacher 6Ü CT 7 Chuang Tzu Chapter 7: Fit for Emperors of Kings @¥ CT 8 Chuang Tzu Chapter 8: Webbed Toes ñu CT 9 Chuang Tzu Chapter 9: Horse’s Hoofs ö CT 10 Chuang Tzu Chapter 10: Rifling Trunks oN CT 11 Chuang Tzu Chapter 11: Let it be, Leave It Alone Èè CT 12 Chuang Tzu Chapter 12: Heaven and Earth ? CT 13 Chuang Tzu Chapter 13: The Way of Heaven ; CT 14 Chuang Tzu Chapter 14: The Turning of Heaven â CT 15 Chuang Tzu Chapter 15: Constrained Will b¸ CT 16 Chuang Tzu Chapter 16: Mending the Inborn Nature `° CT 17 Chuang Tzu Chapter 17: Autumn Floods CT 18 Chuang Tzu Chapter 18: Supreme Happiness Ò CT 19 Chuang Tzu Chapter 19: Mastering Life ã CT 20 Chuang Tzu Chapter 20: The Mountain Tree v CT 21 Chuang Tzu Chapter 21: Tien Tzu-Fang (tian zi-fang) ¡ÛF CT 22 Chuang Tzu Chapter 22: Knowledge Wandered North Ð2á CT 23 Chuang Tzu Chapter 23: Keng-Sang Chu (geng-sang chu) L5 CT 24 Chuang Tzu Chapter 24: Hsu Wu-Kuei (xu wu-gui) ±&M CT 25 Chuang Tzu Chapter 25: Tse-Yang (ze-yang) î

1 CT 26 Chuang Tzu Chapter 26: External Things ¤¨ CT 27 Chuang Tzu Chapter 27: Imputed Words Å³ CT 28 Chuang Tzu Chapter 28: Giving Away A Throne Ú¥ CT 29 Chuang Tzu Chapter 29: Robber Chih 0ù CT 30 Chuang Tzu Chapter 30: Discouring on Swords Ê CT 31 Chuang Tzu Chapter 31: The Old Fishman H CT 32 Chuang Tzu Chapter 32: Lieh Yu-kou (lie yu-kou) kÂc CT 33 Chuang Tzu Chapter 33: The World ª

2 FIGURES

Figure 1-1: Method of viewing handscroll 31

Figure 1-2: Kudos Gallery Display 32

Figure 1-3: TIME (TV on stage) 36

Figure 1-4: TRANSIENCE 37

Figure 1-5: LOTUS 37

Figure 1-6: CHANCE 38

Figure 1-7: INK 38

Figure 1-8: BLUE 41

Figure 1-9: ROSE 41

Figure 1-10: MOUNTAIN & WATER 41

Figure 1-11: In BLUE the web of bare branches works as a metaphor

for the jail of Tsai Jui-Yue. 52

Figure 1-12: In ROSE, red is a symbolic language of passion. 53

Figure 1-13: LOTUS is series of distinct pictures but without a narrative plot. 54

Figure 1-14: Circular motions of INK act rhythmically evoking a sense of music. 55

Figure 1-15: In TRANSIENCE, the reflections reveal a musical quality of real life. 56

Figure 1-16: Raindrops and people walking create the visual rhythms of CHANCE. 56

Figure 1-17: Len Lye’s Free Radicals are painted directly onto film. Circa 1958. 61

Figure 1-18: The fabric brush animation in BLUE. 62

Figure 1-19 : Norman McLaren, Pas De Deux, 1967. 63

Figure 1-20 : Film strips from Stan Brakhage’s Existence is Song. 63

(the last of four sections of The Dante Quartet), 1987.

3 Figure 1-21: John Whitney, Permutations, 16mm/8 min, 1967. 63

Figure 1-22: A selection of images from John Whitney’s triple-projection

computer film, 16mm/17 min,1967. 63

Figure 1-23: A sequence from Erica Russell’s Triangle,1994. 64

Figure 1-24: Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels, 287x3355mm. 75

Figure 1-25: Clips from Rybczynski’s film Tango, 35mm/color/8’10”, 1980. 79

Figure 1-26: By editing time and place CHANCE meetings are created. 80

Figure 1-27: Lao Li’s Night Revels by Wang Qing-song, 2003 81

Figure 1-28: China Mansion, by Wang Qing-song, 2003 82

Figure 2-1: The two basic modes (the yin and yang) generate the four basic

images (xiang), the four basic images generate the eight trigrams. 100

Figure 2-2: Eight hexagrams: all things and matters induct eight figures.

The eight hexagrams compose them. 100

Figure 2-3: Tai-ji Tu 119

Figure 2-4: Ju Ming’s Tai-ji Series sculpture, Bronze, 1998. 123

Figure 2-5: Ju Ming’s Tai-ji Series sculpture, Bronze, 1998. 123

Figure 2-6: Ju Ming’s Tai-ji Series sculpture - Single Whip, Bronze, 1986. 123

Figure 2-7: Ju Ming’s Tai-ji: Arch series sculpture, Bronze, 2001. 123

Figure 2-8: The fabric animation in BLUE resembles Ju Ming’s tai-ji sculptures. 123

Figure 2-9: The ‘brush strokes’ in INK are animated by nature

(wind & water) and presented as tai-ji movements. 124

Figure 2-10: In TV Buddha, a stone Buddha sits facing its own image on a

television monitor. 128

Figure 2-11: The ‘high perspective’ looking up from below. 137

Travelers amid Mountains and Streams Ý¯n by Fan Kuan

4 E (circa 950-1032).

Figure 2-12: The ‘level perspective’ looking towards the distance. 137

The Fishmen H by Wu Zhen ê1280-1354).

Figure 2-13: A combination of ‘three perspectives’ as mobile viewpoints 149

Returning Home at Evening by Dai Jin 7à (1388-1462)

Figure 2-14: An illustration of moving focus by David Hockney. 150

Figure 2-15: David Hockney’s photo collage, 1983. 150

Figure 3-1: Examples of arrangements of trigrams 152

Figure 3-2: The Chinese Character ‘horse’ and the development of scripts. 154

Figure 3-3: INK reveals the idea of ‘one brushstroke’ and the relationship

between yin and yang. 157

Figure 3-4: Imagery: Eight Formulae of Ouyang Xun 158

Figure 3-5: TRANSIENCE demonstrates the view of “looking up and down-all

embracing perception of existence”. It discloses the experience of

interfusion of subject and object. 163

Figure 3-6: Duteng Tie , wild cursive of Tang calligrapher Zhang Xu. 165

Figure 3-7: Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy, 165

( ) Carefree (Buddhist scripture), 69x69cm,1995.

Figure 3-8: Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy, Boundless, 69x69cm, 1994. 165

Figure 3-9: Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy, ( ) 166

Everything has an inherent meaning, it is not necessary to verbalize it.

(Tao Yuan-ming, Jin Dynasty), 53x234cm, 1996.

Figure 3-10: The stroke order of writing yung ½ 170

Figure 3-11: The Cloud Gate dancer evoked images of the Chinese character

yung ½ Curvise I, 2001. 171

5 Figure 3-12: The Cloud Gate dancer wore black as she danced against a plain

background, seemingly writing calligraphy on paper as she went

through the choreographed movements. Curvise I, 2001. 171

Figure 3-13: The choreography in Water Moon are inspired by tai-ji movements. 171

Figure 3-14: The fabric brush animation in BLUE. 172

In the shifting cadences of the lines created by fabric brush,

the abstract meaning of words is transformed into concrete images

in the viewer’s mind.

Figure 3-15: Yu Chien Á! (13th century) “Boats Returning from a

Distance Shore”, Eight Views of Hsiao and Hsiang $«.] . 176

Figure 3-16: Fishman (detail) by Wu Zhen (1280-1354), ink on paper. 176

Figure 3-17: Long Chin-san, Fishing Under the Snow, photography, 1969. 177

Figure 3-18: Long Chin-san, Spring by the Riverside, photography, 1934. 177

Figure 3-19: Wang Ya-hui, The Gap, 2002. 184

Figure 3-20: Wang Ya-hui, Roll, 2002. 184

Figure 3-21: Yuan Goang-ming, City Disqualified-Ximen District, 2001. 186

Figure 3-22: In MOUNTAIN & WATER the female silhouette makes a

monochrome painting. 193

Figure 3-23: Traditional Chinese water-and-ink painting techniques are applied 194

in animation Passion of Landscape , 1962.

Figure 3-24: Clips from The Crow boy’s Flute w>, 1964. 195

Figure 3-25: Franz Kline, Untitled, oil on canvas, 1957. 196

Figure 3-26: Snow, Gao Xing-jian, 1989. 203

Figure 3-27: The Thought, Gao Xing-jian, 1989. 203

Figure 3-28: Bill Viola, The Crossing, video/sound installation, 1996. 206

6 Figure 3-29: Wu Chi-chun, Wire Netting, 2003. 207

Figure 3-30: Wang Ya-hui, Sunshine on Tranquility 4’36”, 2005. 207

Figure 3-31: Kong-bai in CHANCE. 209

7 INTRODUCTION

Dancing Brush is a multi-projection video installation. It was filmed in Australia and Taiwan in collaboration with Taiwanese choreographer/dancer Yogi Yu-Chun Chan

ΣǪ± and Australian musician/composer Colin Offord. The exhibition was first exhibited at the Kudos gallery, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales,

Australia in April 2006.

Dancing Brush was inspired by the extraordinary life experiences of legendary

Taiwanese dancer Tsai Jui-Yue ͬʜǯ (1921-2005). The work is dedicated to the memory of her suffering, creativity and faith in life. Dancing Brush reveals the true meaning of Chinese scroll paintings as an infinity of time and space. It draws on the notion of mobility as expounded in I Ching (yi-jing)1 Ǜ̒ or Book of Changes. The work creates a modern cityscape where the principals of Taoism, ancient Chinese landscape painting and calligraphy meet new media aesthetics.

Along with Confucianism, Taoism (or Daoism) is one of the two great indigenous philosophical traditions of China. The word ‘Taoism’ corresponds to different Chinese terms. Tao-chiao (Dao-jiao) ‘teachings/religion of the Tao’ refers to Taoism as a religion. Tao-chia (Dao-jia) ‘school of the Tao’ refers to ‘philosophical’

Taoism, the studies of scholars, and thinkers such as Lao Tzu (Laozi)2 ̰Č and

Chuang Tzu (Zhyangzi)3 ͠Č, referring to what are commonly regarded as its two

1 I Ching is also called Book of Changes or Class of Changes. It is a symbol system designed to identify order in what seem like chance events, it describes an ancient system of cosmology and philisophy that is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centers on the ideas of ‘the dynamic balance of opposites’, ‘the evolution of events as a process’, and ‘acceptance of the inevitability of change’. On line source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I Ching 2 The common belief is that a teacher named Lao Tzu, or “Old Master” (3rd Cent. BCE) founded the school and wrote its major work, called Tao Te Ching (Dao-de-jing), ϷŹ̒ also sometimes known as the Lao Tzu. 3 Chuang Tzu, or “Master Chuang” (369-298 BCE) was after Lao Tzu. Chuang Tzu is ranked among the greatest of literary and philosophical giants that China has produced. His style is complex—mythical, poetic, narrative, humorous, and indirect. Chuang Tzu’s version of Taoist philosophy was highly influential in the reception, interpretation, and transformation of Buddhism in China. The text through

8 classical and most influential texts: Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu. The Chinese tradition is also called “Lao-Chuang” philosophy ̰͠Áĕ. However, my research is disregards the dichotomy of ‘religious’ and ‘philosophical’ Taoism. For me, Taoism is all about life, the philosophy of life.

The original meaning of the character Tao (Dao) is a “way,” a path along which one can travel. Tao is the process of reality itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. All this reflects the deep seated Chinese belief that change is the most basic character of things. I Ching accepts changes as the natural order of things, the true nature of life. Taoism inheriting notions from it has had a great influence on nature. Taoist thought focuses on zi-zan ͋ɻ (spontaneity), wu-wei ɺɸ

(non-action), humanism, and emptiness. In Lao Tzu’s teachings, man is part of the universe and cannot change the course of nature, but rather should feel as a part of the cosmology and becoming one with nature. Chuang Tzu even denies the patterns of common social behavior like logical thinking and ritual grief. For him, things are relative to each other, and the only fixed basis is the natural way of the universe.

According to Chuang Tzu, spontaneous behavior (including thought) enables us to respond directly to reality as it truly is, to transcend the limitations of our social and linguistic worlds, and to identify with and nurture the primal source of our nature. 4 Taoism teaches that the link between man and nature leads to an understanding of the world as a “simultaneity” of time and space. This concept has greatly influenced Chinese arts.

My research explores the relationship of Chinese philosophical position and the contemporary Western technological space from Chinese point of view. The exploration

which we know his work was the result of the editing and arrangement of the Jin dynasty thinker and commentator Guo Xiang Ѕλ (Kuo Hsiang, 312 C.E.), On line source: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/z/zhuangzi.htm 4 On line source: http://www.iep.utm.edu/z/zhuangzi.htm

9 of “Taoist aesthetics” in Chinese arts is to suggest an examination for the creative method and visual thinking in media arts filed. My goal is to propose new aesthetic possibilities of media art practice. The issue in my research is not the imperative to define or refine Taoist philosophical thought so much as it is to identify its influences on, and to argue its specific relevance to, the artistic practice and the expressive forms produced in this program of advanced studio practice. The “East” (or Eastern) if mentioned in this thesis refers to Chinese and Chinese influenced culture in Asia geographically such as Japan and Korea5. The “West” here focuses on its historical background on the development of presenting human perception in visual arts since

European Modernism broke up the Renaissance system of perspectives that influences media arts.6

Non-linear Aesthetics in Chinese Arts as the New Media Art Form

The ‘expanded cinema’ events of the 1960s raised questions about point of view that are fundamental to moving image works. In his book Expanded Cinema of 1970

Gene Youngblood (1942-) revealed “Today when one speaks of cinema, one implies a

5 The ‘Eastern world’ from a European perspective refers very broadly to the various cultures, social structures and philosophical systems of “the East”, namely Asia and Eastern Europe (including Russia, the Indian subcontinent, the Far East, the Middle East, and central Asia). The concept of an Eastern, “Indian” or “Oriental” sphere was emphasized by ideas of racial as well as religious and cultural differences. Such distinctions were articulated by Westerners in the scholarly tradition known as Orientalism and Indology. In his 1978 book Orientalism Edward Said (1935-2003) uses the term to describe a tradition, both academic and artistic, of hostile and deprecatory views of the East by the West, shaped by the attitudes of the era of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. When used in this sense, it often implies essentializing and prejudiced outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples. On line source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_world & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism 6 In William Fleming’s book Arts and Ideas, pointed out two key ideas of the art in latter part of the 19th century are “scientific method” and “the interpretation of experience in terms of time”. He mentioned “The application of Bergson’s theory of time to the arts of the late 19th century can be very illuminating.” In his book An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903) French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) stated “This reality is mobility. Not things made, but things in the making, not self-maintaining states, but only changing states, exist.” In the book Duration and Simultaneity of 1922 Bergson’s distinction between duration and simultaneity establishes the measurability of ‘time through movement’. His idea is closer to Taoist consciousness of time and space.

10 metamorphosis in human perception”.7 It is within the form of expanded cinema that a recognizable and tangible relationship occurs between film and the other visual arts.

Expanded cinema events echoed the dreamlike collage aesthetics of avant-garde 60s film in large-scale projected environments involving film and 35mm slide sequences. At the same time, an emerging body of video work with a rigorously conceptual approach to viewer participation and social space began to emerge, including installations.8 In the experimental film and video context, the investigation into point of view has taken a number of diverse forms, for example, the multi-screen works in which the spectator’s point of view is divided across several images, the works using technological modifications to reconfigure the relationship between camera and subject, as well as films which challenge point of view on its own ground by endlessly redefining the field of view of the camera’s singular position. 9 Multiple simultaneous viewpoints presentation in media arts such as juxtaposition, double-sided or split-screen sequences within conventional narrative structures that so called ‘multiple-montage’ or

‘spatial-montage’ can be traced back to Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th century since Cézanne broke up the Renaissance consistent linear perspective with multiple objects in the distance.10 The following cubist pictorial idiom developed by

Picasso and Braque explored the possibilities of representing space and the sensation of time through moving viewpoints around the objects appeared as overlaid fragmented

7 Expanded Cinema is the first book about video as an art medium, which was influential in establishing the field of media arts. Gene Youngblood asserts in the preface “When we say expanded cinema we actually mean expanded consciousness.” (London: Studio Vista, 1970). 8 Chrissie Iles, “Video and Film Space”, Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art, Erika Suderburg, ed. (Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), pp. 252-253. 9 Nicky Hamlyn, Film Art Phenomena (London: British Film Institute, 2003), p.103. 10 Prior to the Renaissance in Europe, painting itself is not independent from the architectural space such as walls. The spatial form applied in painting is not deemed as an independent part. Following the Renaissance, the technique of perspective becomes the important foundation of Western painting. The form of Western painting does not take shape until the scientific approach based on the visual accuracy was established. The influence of perspective lasts till the end of the 19th century. Jiang Xun, ͭ ‘Time and Space in Chinese Art: The Aesthetic Significance of Long Horizontal Scroll and Vertical Scroll Painting’ A Contemplation on Chinese Art )̧ʺɁƂ*(Taipei: Xiong-Shi Fine Arts, 2003), p. 138.

11 shapes of time. Jurgen Habermas points out “aesthetic modernity is characterized by attitudes which find a common focus in a changed consciousness of time. This time consciousness expresses itself through metaphors of the avant-garde.”11 However, the consciousness “non-linear” time and space has been in Chinese culture and arts since ancient times.

The fundamental concept of Chinese thought is the inseparability of time and space which is the idea of the ‘way of heaven’ a rhythmical living entity. Man and universe, as conceived by Chinese philosophers, constitute together a system of comprehensive harmony. This harmonious relation is traditionally known simply as the theory of ‘unity of Man with Nature’ ý5. Traditional Chinese culture in the background of ‘unity of Man with Nature’ is the essence of the nature attitude toward to the world view.

Taoist world view is constantly changing and in a perpetual circular flowing motion. In

Book of Changes it states “there is no departure so that there shall not be a return”12

Chinese perceive time as revolution. Lao Tzu confirms this concept in Tao Te Ching13

ϷŹ̒:

There was something formless yet complete, that existed before heaven and earth; without sound, without substance, dependent on nothing, unchanging, all pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven. Its true name we do not know; ‘Way’ is the by-name that we give it. Were I forced to say to what class of things it belongs I should call it Great (da ü). Now da also means ‘passing on’ (shi ϫ), and passing on means going ‘far away’ (yuan Ϻ), and going far away means ‘returning’ (fan ¡). (TTC 25)14

For Lao Tzu, returning is the matter of Tao, he states “in Tao the only motion is

11 Jurgen Habermas, “Modernity-an Incomplete Project” in Hal Foster ed. Postmodern Culture (London & Sydney: Pluto Press, 1985), p. 5. Quote from Stephen Kern, The culture of Time and Space 1880-1918 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983). 12 ɺŭŶѴýÝЮ' ѲHexagram Tai ɍ: Peace 93 Xiang) 13 Tao has been translated as ‘the way’ or ‘the path.’ Te in this context refers to virtue and Ching refers to laws. Thus the Tao Te Ching could be translated as The Law (or Canon) of Virtue and it’s Way. 14 ǰʉɜƞѴ_ýÝʡ ħiĭiѱʐ˫ǃѴ·΁̲Ȭ ©9ɸýȱ ¶ˎl¯Ѵč" ǫϷ Ţɸ"ѵ¯ǫü üǫϫ ϫǫϺ Ϻǫ¡

12 returning.”15 It covers the meanings of revolution and transformation.

Chuang Tzu proposes Space and Time as an integral system. His statement says:

It has reality yet no place where it resides; it has duration yet no beginning or end. Something emerges, though through no aperture this refers to the fact that it has reality. It has reality yet there is no place where it resides----this refers to the dimension of space. It has duration but no beginning or end-this refers to the dimension of time. (CT 23)16

Although heaven and earth are limited, the concept ‘extension-duration’ is without limit. The above definition reveals two qualities of time: ‘continuing’ and ‘revolving’.

Chinese perceive time as an eternal process of regretting the passing of time.

Chinese scroll paintings reflect the Chinese concept of time and space as infinite. It is perceived to be continuous, unbounded, and flowing. The process of unrolling a long scroll painting is consistent with how Chinese perceive time and space. Time can be still, stopped, or fixed for a very short moment. Chinese has developed mobile perspectives

(or wandering perspectives). It appears that visual elements in Chinese scroll paintings, often coexist in spatial relationships in which the viewer may move and be directly present how one views totality from different angles simultaneously. In The Language of New Media Lev Manovich defines ‘spatial montage’ of simultaneously coexisting images and asserts that ‘spatial montage’ as “an alternative to replace traditional cinematic temporal montage sequential mode in Twentieth-century film practice has not been explored as systematically.”17 Dancing Brush explores the meaning of ‘spatial montage’ through Chinese aesthetics to bring out a possibility of media arts aesthetics and practice. The work was inspired by the well-known Chinese scroll painting Han

Xi-zai’s Night Revel фɽϘúģÚ, in which non-linear cinematic experiences is well

15 ¡̱ѴϷ" (TTC 40) 16 ǰĮ̲ɺ#͸ѴǰЛ̲ɺ#ǹѴǰƤs̲ɺ˪̱ǰĮ ǰĮ̲ɺ#͸̱ѴĖ' ǰЛ̲ɺ# ṉ̀Ѵĝ' řȍȒ 17 Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001), pp. 322-323.

13 demonstrated.

Chinese arts are rooted in the notion of ‘unity of Man and Nature’. When Chinese confront the Heaven, Earth, and Man, they adopt multiple directions to view situations as a whole presented as ‘perspective of all perspectives’. It is derived from Taoist concepts to attain a ‘synthesis of opposites’ through ‘interfusion of subject and object’ to accomplish the spiritual realm of ‘unity of Man with Nature’. Chuang Tzu describes it as ‘transforming things’ ʉ. When Chuang Tzu’s discussion on ‘synthesis of opposites’ refers to eliminating distinctions between subject and object. He once stated:

Everything has its ‘that,’ everything has its ‘this.’ From the point of view of ‘that’ you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, ‘that’ comes out of ‘this’ and ‘this’ depends on ‘that’-which is to say that ‘this’ and ‘that’ give birth to each other. (CT 2)18

The Taoist view is the totality of the spontaneity of all forms of existence by merging with the world. Taoism asks people to “view things as things view themselves”

9ʉΎʉ which is to lose ourselves into the world, into the flux of events, the million changes constantly happening before us. ‘Viewing things as things view themselves’, is to eliminate the distinctions and view things from both ‘this’ and ‘that’. According to

Yip Wai-lim’s ͦ̕Ŝ (1937-) interpretation, to eliminate distance and point of view, we need to change point of view constantly. It recommends ‘simultaneity’ that we view things from both ‘this’ and ‘that’.19 This activity relies on the state of non-self mind which leads to the state of wu-wo ɺƟ. Only when we empty out subjective position, the pure spirit can express inexhaustibility. The development of mobile viewpoint in

Chinese art is to break through the limits caused by time and space then to achieve the

18 ʉɺтŬѴʉɺтǠ ͋Ŭ|ΊѴ͋ˎ|ˎ" ǄǕŬsǓǠѴǠ2ÔŬ ѮʉΪ 19 Yip, Wai-lim. “Taoism Aesthetics” in China and the West: Comparative Literature Studies, edited by William Tay, Ying-hsiung Chou and Heh-hsiang Yuan (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, Seattle: Distributed by the University of Washington Press, 1980), pp.17-18.

14 free land.

In Dancing Brush I applied the methods of observation appearing in ancient

Chinese paintings and poetry to view the modern cityscapes such as “looking up and down-all embracing perception of existence” :ΎKī, “viewing the part from the angle of totality” 9ĶΎü; “comprehension of the distant through the near” which discard the concept of level space and attempted to move distance into viewer; and

“viewing things as things themselves”. The viewing experience is to represent the wandering perspectives of ancient Chinese artist in a landscape. What Chinese artists see from mountains, rivers, miniature trees, and rockery or ponds seek to become a microcosm that is itself creative in the manner of the microcosm, an open space in which real life is possible. The design of the exhibition space and projections displays is to represent the experience of viewing the Chinese scroll painting. In the process of unrolling, time is overlapping repeatedly on the same axis, forming countless circles.

There are no starting or finishing points on a circle. In other words, every point on a circle is a start and an end.

I propose Dancing Brush video installation as a presentation of ‘aesthetics of wandering contemplation’ ϳΎ̧ĕ which suggests the feature of Chinese moving image aesthetics, and a new perspective to understand the multiple-montage

(simultaneous points of view) language of media arts.

Unity of Emptiness and Fullness as the Animation Principle

Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), the leading twentieth century philosopher of Japan, has used the notion of ‘the form of the formless’ to differentiate between the Eastern and Western cultures.20 Formlessness is identified with the infinite, the inexhaustible.

20 Kitaro Nishida, A Study of Good, trans. V. H. Viglielmo (Japan: Printing Bureau, Japanese

15 Thus it is often described in the negative terminology of ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’.

Emptiness or nothingness is a central element of Taoist philosophy. In Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu describes the Tao as a manifestation of nothingness “It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang” (TTC 1)21 Chuang Tzu also teaches that the Tao cannot be conceived in other than its relation with emptiness. He says: “In the Great Beginning, there was nonbeing; there was no being, no name. Out of it arose One; there was One, but it had no form.” (CT 12)22

What formless is the source of all forms, but itself is empty of forms. Lao Tzu further defines “as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.” (TTC 11) His statement implies the function of fullness is activated through emptiness. Lao Tzu further describes the concept as “In Tao the only motion is returning; the only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Nonbeing.” (TTC 40)23 Chinese understand emptiness is not a dead thing but the creative principle. Chinese scholar

Francois Cheng ˠƭ (1929-)24 makes it clear by saying that “emptiness is not, as one might suppose, something vague or nonexistent. It is dynamic and active. Linked with the idea of vital breaths and with principle of the alternation of yin and yang, it is the preeminent site of transformation, the place where fullness can attain its whole measure.”25

Book of Changes reveals: “The reciprocal process of yin and yang is called the

Government, 1960), p. 211. 21 ɺ¯ýÝ"ĉѶǰ¯ͤʉ"ȱ 22 ɍxɺǰѴɺǰɺ¯Ѵ"ƤωѴǰ̲ǷŦ ýÝ 23 ¡̱Ϸ"ѶŠ̱Ϸ"ʢ ýͤʉʡǓǰѴǰʡǓɺ 24 Francois Cheng is a writer, poet and calligrapher, born in China, became the first Asian academic in France in 2002. 25 Cheng Francois, Empty and Fullness: The Language of Chinese Painting, translated by Michael H. Kohn (Boston: Shambhala: Distributed in the United States by Random House, 1994), p. 36.

16 Tao.” (Xici I)26 Yin and yang change from one to another; in doing so, bring about life as transformation. What Chuang Tzu says “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness,” is the transformation between form and formless. Yin and yang are pushing movement that brings about a decrease. It leads to transformation. The function of yin and yang is described in “Xici Zhuan I”.

This is why closing the gate is called Kun, and opening the gate is called Qian. One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustibility of their alteration is called their free flow. What one sees of this is called the images. As these take physical shapes, we may say that they are concrete things.27

According to Webster’s Dictionary28, animation as a film genre is more about bringing things to life, to reveal life energy. With this in mind, I suggest that the Taoist yin and yang are worthy of consideration as animation principle. The best present of yin-yang relationship is in landscape paintings. Chinese use ‘mountain and water’

(literal translation of shan-shui Ŀȸ) for it. ‘Mountain and water’ suggests solid and fluid, emptiness and fullness, Chinese terms xu ͹ and shi Į. ‘Mountain and water’, as opposites need one another for completion. A dynamic conception of unity relates the synthesis of opposites (yin-yang) as both cyclical (night and day) and interactive (union of male and female). ‘Mountain and water’ evokes the sense of a dynamic landscape moved by vital breaths. Their relationship is animated by emptiness. Inspired by the

Taoist concept of ‘Mountain and water’, I created animations in Dancing Brush to experiment how emptiness operated through creating the yin-yang relationship. The

‘form of formless’ is the product of ‘unity of emptiness and fullness’ ͹Į̏ where

26 ЧЪ"άϷ 27 Тƣά"àѴФƣά"( ТФά"ζѴŭC˧ά"Ϫ Ί ά"λѴŦ ά"Í 28 In the Webster’s Dictionary definition: animate ...[< L. animatus, pp. of animare, to make alive, fill with breath < anima, air, soul]. l. to give life to; bring to life. 2. to make gay, energetic, or spirited. 3. to inspire. 4. to give motion to; put into action: as, the breeze animated the leaves. adj. 1. living; having life. 2. lively; vigorous; spirited. SYN.-animate implies a making alive or lively (an animated conversation) or an imparting of motion or activity (animated cartoons);....

17 the illusion, ‘image beyond image’ created. I apply Chuang Tzu’s words “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness.” as a new dimension of examining animation aesthetics in digital production.

Since my Master of Fine Arts study is in computer arts, experimental animations works always inspire me in visual concepts, aesthetics and skills. By extending my practice field to media arts in particular video arts, I consider exploring video as pure material. It leads my works towards to abstract ‘video painting’. The concept of

‘visualized music’ is an important feature of Chinese arts, calligraphy and painting as well. It has great influence on me and is the starting point of Dancing Brush.

Dancing Brush attempts to put the connection between music, dancing, and

Chinese calligraphy in the foreground by experimenting on ‘spontaneous animation’ and ‘subtracting process’ techniques. I created animations in nature and kinetic environment using the camera not merely to observe and record, but to transcribe physical reality into animation, with the assistance of digital manipulation

(re-animation). I describe it as ‘processing reality’. This ‘processing reality’ is based on

‘spontaneity’ that captured ‘unpredictable’ images where the naked eye couldn’t see.

Different from the traditional animation production process that creates ‘illusion of life’ by ‘adding’ movement in between two poses (key frame), the ‘subtracting process’

‘subtracts’ in-between frames to bring ‘unknown’ to life. By reviewing the master of experimental animation, Norman McLaren’s definition in animation that “Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn; what happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame;

Animation is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible interstices that lie between the frames”29 that implies the ‘images’ can be gained by ‘unity of emptiness and

29 Georges Sifianos, ‘The Definition of Animation: A Letter from Norman McLaren’ in Animation Journal 3, 2 (Spring 1995), pp. 62-66. Quote from Maureen Jurniss, Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics

18 fullness’ that provides a direction for future animation.

Subtraction Aesthetics as the Principle of Creativity

Within this thesis, I applied Taoist philosophy as a basis to my work. It is an attempt to interrogate introspection current trends toward the narrative form and special visual effects technology in digital production. As an example of Taoist thinking, Lao

Tzu states in Tao Te Ching chapter 12 “The five colors blind eyes; the five sounds deafen ears; the five flavors dull taste.”30 This is his warning that if we indulge in the five senses without limits, the five senses would end up paralyzed. Chuang Tzu had the same response:

There are five conditions under which the inborn nature is lost. One: when the five colours confuse the eye and cause the eyesight to be unclear. Two: when the five notes confuse the ear and cause the hearing to be unclear. Three: when the five orders stimulate the nose and produce weariness and congestion in the forehead. Four: when the five flavors dull the mouth, causing the sense of taste to be impaired and lifeless. Five: when likes and dislikes unsettle the mind and cause the inborn nature to become volatile and flight. These five are all a danger to life. (CT 12)31

In the philosophy of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, they have thorough discussions concerning senses and state of mind. Art leads to the elevation and liberation of the spirit through minimum sensual stimuli. Thus, provoking sensual excitement is not what

Chinese art aims at. ‘Emptiness, void, insubstantial, and state of mind’ are all expressions that are used against ‘senses.’ Where there is unknown emptiness, there are shapes, colours, and sounds to be explored and created.

(UK: John Libbey, 2007), p. 5. 30 0͘85˂˃Ѷ0х85̳̺Ѷ0¸85¤ʂ 31 ÿāƃǰ0 ǫ0͘)˂ѴB˂Ǚ ,ǫ0̸)̳ѴB̷̳ ǫ0͌ͰѭѴÕƒ ы Òǫ0¸ɱ¤ѴB¤ʂ 0ǫϋ͕ɨŻѴBƃѐƹ ȧ0̱Ѵʻʡ"Ģ' ýÝ

19 In his comparative literature study, Chinese scholar Yip Wai-lim originally defined the Taoist world view and the way in which it opens up a “decreative-creative” йŞ

ʡ dialectic with a special set of “perceptual-expressive procedures” that characterize much of Chinese poetry and poetics.32 He annotates “usefulness of useless” as the central idea of Taoist “perceiving-receiving activities”. The concept explains that the function of fullness is activated through emptiness. This “decreative-creative process” is disclosed in Tao Te Ching:

In Tao the only motion is returning; the only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Nonbeing. (TTC 40)

In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu states:

Learning consists in adding to one’s stock day by day; The practice of Tao consists in subtracting day by day, Subtracting and yet again subtracting till one has reached inactivity. But by this very inactivity, everything can be activated. (TTC 48)33

Lao Tzu also teaches us in his remarkable lines:

To remain whole, be twisted! To become straight, let yourself be bent. To become full, be hollow. Be tattered, that you may be renewed. Those that have little, may get more, those that have much, are but perplexed. (TTC 22)34

Yip Wai-lim points out the “decreative-creative” dialectic appears on the surface in the form of negation or renunciation. “The renunciation is not negation, but a new way of repossessing originality by dispossessing hypotheses through the process of abstract

32 Yip Wai-lim has translated the Chinese terms as “decreative-creative process”. I quoted “decreative-creative process”, “perceptual-expressive procedures” and “perceiving-receiving activities” as Yip Wai-lim used in his essay “Taoism Aesthetics”, p. 24. 33 ɸĕǕʽѴɸϷǕƻѴƻ"ƻ9͎ǓɺɸѴɺɸ̲ɺɸ 34 Ǭ|dѴȂ|˄ ˦|ʼѴǈ|ǐ ķ|ųѴù|ƍ

20 thinking. Thus, without taking actions of abstract thinking, everything is done in accordance with our instinctive nature. Without exercising our conscious mind, we can respond fully to things presented in front of us.” He suggests that one should follow the

“decreative-creative process” by which the “decreative” leads to or becomes the

“creative”.35

According to Yip Wai-lim’s explication on Taoist “perceiving-receiving activities”,

I interpret the Taoist creative process as “subtraction aesthetics: less is more” ɞɉ̧ĕ.

It is not based on mathematical value but spiritual freedom. Subtraction aesthetics is the application of ‘usefulness of useless’. Through such as subtracting, decreasing, negating process, it is not just less but more. The ‘more’ is gained from the ‘unity of emptiness and fullness’.

The Taoists emphasized ‘pure’ experience. ‘Pure’ experience means to receive the immediate presentation of things without interference of intellectual knowledge.36 To approach the ‘pure’ experience as creative experience, I applied Taoist

“decreative-creative process” as a creative method of Dancing Brush. This process of

‘subtraction aesthetics’ is to eliminate interferences with restricted narrative format and default visual effects, then to receive the immediate presentation of things as pure materials. Without presuming ‘concepts’, Dancing Brush was filmed spontaneously through the camera’s “optical unconscious”37. The process is operated by ‘chance meeting’ principle of I Ching. It is teaching frequent change by the hexagrams which deal with moment of time. In Dancing Brush, chance happens in three ways: the intuitive reflection of things, the decision making process of creation, and the point

35 Yip Wai-lim asserts the Taoist “perceiving-receiving activity” must also be viewed from this “decreative-creative” dialectic. “Taoism Aesthetics”, p. 24. 36 Yip, Wai-lim. Hiding the Universe: Poems by Wang Wei. Translated from the ChineseNew York: Grossman Publishers, 1972), pp. viii-ix. 37 In 1931, Walter Benjamin first used the term “optical unconscious” in his book Small History of Photography.

21 when audience meet with images of individual projection in the gallery. The creative process of Dancing Brush is to learn to give up intention by letting the camera go capturing what happens in accord with nature of optical effects. Through production I have developed the language of ‘chance montage’ and ‘spontaneous animation’.

Taoist philosophy, based on the ideas of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, takes important status in the history of Chinese culture and philosophy. They believe that nature is the quintessence of Taoism. The viewpoints held by Taoists concerning nature have effects upon aesthetics, literature, and art. Thus, nature becomes the core of Chinese aesthetics.

Chuang Tzu describes the existence of Tao as the great beauties of heaven and earth.

Heaven and earth have their great beauties but do not speak of them; the four seasons have their clear-marked regularity but do not discuss it; the ten thousand things have their principles of growth but do not expound them. The sage seeks out the beauties of Heaven and earth and masters the principles of the ten thousand things. Thus it is that the Perfect Man does not act, the Great Sage does not move-they have perceived [the Way of] Heaven and earth, we may say. (CT 22)38

For Chuang Tzu, the greatest beauty is to achieve individual liberty that is the essence and core of his aesthetics. Chuang Tzu considers that beauty is gained from the spontaneous and non-action movement of Tao that is “unwrought simplicity”.

In stillness you will be a sage, in action a king. Resting in non-action, you will be honored; of unwrought simplicity, your beauty will be such that no one in the world may vie with you. (CT 13)39

The Great beauties of Heaven and Earth do not speak for themselves thus presenting as the feature of emptiness, non-action, and primordial simplicity as made in heaven. Taoist has revealed the principle of creativity.

38 ýÝǰü̧̲ΒѴÒǡǰǙɉ̲γѴͤʉǰƞʖ̲Υ ̴5̱ѴýÝ"̧̲ϸͤʉ" ʖ ǠǄ͍5ɺɸѴü̴AѴΎǓýÝ"ά' ˎϳ 39 с̴̲Ѵ̲ʓѴɺɸ'̲ĳѴț̲̋ý͂͒͡"ʀ̧ ýϷ

22 The focus of this thesis is to reassess media arts practice and aesthetics via the traditions of the Chinese aesthetics. Chapter One: Dancing Brush Video Installation focuses on the concepts and method of creating Dancing Brush; the application of

‘subtraction aesthetics’ as creative method; and an exploration of non-linear aesthetics presentation in Chinese scroll painting as new media language forms in Dancing Brush.

From a reading of the Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels, it suggested a sequential experience in time and a movement beyond the limits of the painting into the boundless infinity of the universe. The painting reveals the empty space as one of the spectacular features in the

Chinese scroll painting. The empty space does not mean ‘nothing,’ but the ‘usefulness of the useless,’ it is where time begins and stops. By analyzing Han Xi-zai’s Night

Revels, it provides an aesthetical perspective for what Lev Manovich describes as

‘spatial montage’ in his book The Language of New Media.

Taoist creativity is an intuitive reflection of things. Book of Changes teaches the method of creative intuition. Intuition contemplation; spontaneity of mind, zi-zan; and wu-wei, non-action are the key principles. I refer intuitive and spontaneous process to

‘optical unconscious’ of the camera lens. Based on both philosophical content of chance: ever-change ɺŒ (or impermanence in Buddhism term) as chance of life and the production technique of ‘chance meeting’, I developed ‘chance montage’ which provokes the thinking of ‘co-existence’. Manovich suggests “ontological montage” of the coexistence of ontologically incompatible elements within the same time and space.

This term is developed from Rybczynski’s film Tango. I adopt the same film to illustrate ‘chance montage’ in “Chance Meeting as Montage Principle”.

Chapter Two: Chinese Culture of Time and Space explores the nature of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics with particular regard to Book of Changes, Taoists Lao Tao

Te Ching, and Chuang Tzu which disclose the Chinese consciousness of time and space.

23 Also, an expatiation on the manifestation of Tao as nothingness (or emptiness) and the infinite function of vacuity demonstrate the ‘usefulness of useless’ that provides the theoretical background for ‘subtraction aesthetics’.

The concepts of yin and yang are essential to the commentaries of Book of Changes.

Chaung Tzu points out “The Book of Changes describes the yin and yang.” (CT 33)40

Yin and yang are used to explain the changes in the natural world. The yin and yang arrange in the relationship of opposition, communion, balance, transformation, motion, calmness…etc. The yin and yang give rise to all change and they interact with each other, they can be complementary in nature. Chinese understand that ‘yin embraces yang, yang embraces yin’. This is called the ‘unity of opposites’. This proves what is stated in

Chinese aesthetics ‘harmony’ which actually is the harmony of dynamic forces. It explains the chief concern of Chinese art is about the beauty of life and its abounding vitality rhythmic movements. From reading of Tai-ji Tu þȓÚ and application of

Tai-ji movement arts reveals the source of beauty in Chinese arts. I applied kai-he Н

(opening-closure) of tai-ji movement as an editing principle and visual grammar to establish the yin-yang relationship, the reciprocal process with rhythmic operation presents the harmony of dynamic force in animation. The function of yin-yang relationship and how it has been presented in Chinese art and Dancing Brush will be discussed in this chapter.

In Chinese painting and poetry the simultaneous presence of two objects is like the juxtaposition of two separate shots, two screens (projections) by changing perspectives.

It appears that the language of film montage exists in traditional Chinese painting and poetry. For a better understanding of the philosophical background of Chinese non-linear aesthetics and to investigate modern language of ‘multiple-montage’, I

40 Ǜ9ϷЧЪ ý

24 further expand the philosophical background on the development of Chinese mobile viewpoints and the methods of observation by analyzing perspectives appearing in ancient Chinese painting and poetry derived from Taoist perspectives.

Chapter Three: Formation of Imagery explores the spontaneous creation of symbolic language in Chinese calligraphy and painting, and their relationship with performing arts. It demonstrates how Dancing Brush applies the aesthetics, method and forms as media art practices.

The concept of the xiang λ: image/ symbol/ phenomena is of great importance in understanding the traditional Chinese attitude toward visual art. The development of symbolic language in Chinese arts is rooted in an attitude of Chinese mind represented by the ba-gua f the eight trigrams from Book of Changes. “In Changes there is the

Great Ultimate. This is what generates the two modes [the yin and yang]. The two basic modes generate the four basic images (xiang), and the four basic images generate the eight trigrams.”(Xici I)41 It reveals that Ba-gua manifests as the abstract concept of the natural world as the source of xiang.

Chinese realize that the Way of Universe is constituted by yin and yang. Xiang is the representation of the universe. It has influences on the Chinese perception of form as embedded in patterns of negative and positive (yin and yang) from nature, individual calligraphy strokes are seen by the writer to create positive and negative space in the ground. Chinese art historian Wen C. Fong (1930-) describes the physical act of applying brush to paper as compared to spontaneous creation as the way of the universe act. He states “the blank page is the undifferentiated oneness of the universe before creation; the first stroke, born of the union of brush and ink, establishes on the paper a primary relationship between yin and yang, and each additional stroke creates new

41 ǛǰþȓѴǠʡe[Ѵe[ʡÒλѴÒλʡf

25 yin-yang relationships, until the whole is reunited into the harmonious oneness that is

Tao.42 His statement explains the consideration of yin-yang relationship as formation of imagery in the Chinese mind. In Dancing Brush, it is through the interaction of black and white (shadow/light) that is movements of things and light animated by natural kinetic power that generates various forms and shifts space dimensions.

When Francois Cheng expatiates on the active function of emptiness, he reveals

Chinese painting as a philosophy in action. Based on semiotic perspective in Empty and

Full: the Language of Chinese Painting, Francois Cheng conceives of emptiness as a sign not a pure philosophical concept. He asserts that emptiness is not inert but

“pervaded by breaths that connect the visible world to an invisible one” which he describes as an ‘intermediary form’ between the two apparently opposites poles.43 He refers to the factors of yin and yang. Chinese term kong-bai ˣʸ (literally: emptiness) is the result of ‘subtraction aesthetics’ in visual form. “Kong-Bai” and “Mountain and

Water: Unity of Emptiness and Fullness” sections reveal how I applied kong-bai, the emptiness as the visual thinking in forming imagery, the ‘subtraction aesthetics’ principle in editing and experimenting animation technique as well as the design of gallery space in Dancing Brush installation.

Dancing Brush has transformed audiences’ visual experiences from normal impression and everyday experiences into transcended. What the audience sees is what

Si Kong-tu’s «ˣÚ (837-908)44 describes as “image beyond image” λø"λ and

“scenery beyond scenery” Ǥø"Ǥ. In “Jing: Image beyond Image” it explains the creative process of Chinese artists often starts with seeing things, but the mind

42 Wen C. Fong, “Chinese Calligraphy: Theory and History” in The Embodied Image: Chinese Calligraphy from the John B. Elliott Collection (Princeton, N.J.: Art Museum, Princeton University in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1999), p. 34. 43 Cheng Francois, p. 38. 44 The last four phrases of the first grade “Transcend beyond forms or the givens, attain that ring center.” ϊ9λøѴųlʝ in his Twenty-four Grades of Poetry ,ÒΞ¿ .

26 approaches things and enters into the world of imagination. Through the application of

‘unity of emptiness and full’ aesthetics, Chinese abstraction ‘image beyond image’ and yi-jing are disclosed.

As part of the process in creating the music, I interviewed Colin about the philosophy behind his work. His ideas were important in the realization of the installation and run parallel to my own philosophy and ideas about my art. “Music is like a house, which contains numerous sounds”. From every flow of breath that produces, they express the consonance of individual emotions. Colin applied this idea as a description of his philosophy of music. An interview with Colin is reported in

Appendix . For more background information about the inside story of creating

Dancing Brush a short history of Tsai Jui-Yueh (1921-2005) is included in Appendix I.

The translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching is adopted from Arthur Waley. Tao Te

Ching: Lao Tzu (UK: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1997). Chuang Tzu is adopted from Burton Waston’s translated The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (NY: Columbia

University Press, 1968). All translation of I Ching and the annotation by Wang Bai are adopted from texts included in Richard John Lynn’s transition The Classic of Changes: a New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi (NY: Columbia University

Press, 1994), and John Blofeld’s transition in I Ching: The Chinese Book of Changes

(London: Mandala Books, 1976). The original Chinese text will be included as footnotes.

27 Chapter One Dancing Brush Video Installation

1.1

The Creative Concepts

In Dancing Brush, I re-created the perspectives appearing in ancient Chinese paintings and poetry to observe the modern cityscapes through the apparatus of a video camera. Chinese perspectives such as “looking up and down-all embracing perception of existence”, “viewing the part from the angle of totality”; “comprehension of the distant through the near”, which discard the concept of level space and attempted to move distance into viewer; and “viewing things as things themselves” are derived from

Taoist philosophy to pursue the realm of wu-wo, no self. The viewing experience created in Dancing Brush is to represent the wandering perspectives of an ancient

Chinese artist in a landscape. What Chinese artists see from mountains, rivers, miniature trees, and rockery or ponds is presented as a microcosm. Through the journey, the artist is searching for his/her own identity in the universe.

Dancing Brush is inspired by the extraordinary life experiences of legendary dancer Tsai Jui-yue, pioneer of modern dance in Taiwan. The story evoked in Dancing

Brush wasn’t presented in a narrative format as tradition film production is. The digital video serves as an optical painting material to capture what’s happening spontaneously under the cameras lens. I seek to create animations in nature and kinetic environments using the camera not merely to observe and record, but to transcribe physical reality into animation. The method of creating ‘spontaneous animation’ is based on Taoist Lao

Tzu’s notion “by this very inactivity, everything can be activated.” With the assistance

28 of digital manipulation (re-animation), I call the process “processing reality”. This creative method is also an experiment in Chinese aesthetics xie-yi įƔ (literally: free sketch), spontaneous expression, which had evolved into an important feature of

Chinese painting and calligraphy. I will describe it as Chinese expressionism.

The concept about non-linear time and space has been in Chinese culture and arts since ancient times. Multiple simultaneous viewpoints presentation of media arts such as juxtaposition, split screen so call multiple-montage, temporal-montage or spatial-montage has disclosed in Chinese scroll paintings, poetry, and plays. The creative concepts of Dancing Brush is inspired by the Chinese scroll painting Han

Xi-zai’s Night Revel. In this painting, non-linear cinematic experiences of new media arts can be well-demonstrated. My goal is to reveal the true meaning of Chinese scroll paintings as an infinity of time and space and to propose new aesthetic possibilities for media art practice.

There are eight short movies in all. BLUE, ROSE and WATER & MOUNTAIN in triple projection programs are inspired by Tsai Jui-yue’s experience in a jail.

TRANSIENCE, LOTUS, CHANGE, and INK in double projection programs present the state of mind of what Tsai Jui-yue sees and feels while she wanders around cities.

In the layout of the KUDOS gallery, there are two sets of projections: double projections A+B and triple projections C+D+E, and a TV on a built-in stage. Screens

C+D+E are jointed seamlessly as panel painting format; screens A+B are set up as book match format but leave a small gap in between screens. This gap of emptiness is the extension of the ‘filmic space.’45 All images are projected onto the walls.

The mobile white wall (projection A) in the gallery is designed to break up the big

45 ‘Filmic space’ refers to both onscreen and off-screen space. Noel Burch has pointed out six zones of off-screen space: “the space beyond each of the four edges of the frame, the space behind the set and behind the camera”. David Borwell and Kristen Thompson, Film Art (Mc Graw Hill, U.S.A.,1993), p. 210.

29 single room to create empty spaces. It serves as a screen to create layers of time in the empty concrete architecture. It separates the triple projection and double projection areas. One side of the wall is part of the double projection; the other side is a white space which resembles emptiness in the Chinese scroll painting Han Xi-zai’s Night

Revel. It is not to separate reality but to suggest the elongation of time. Time has been made spatial. The design of the gallery space and projection displays is to represent the experience of viewing Chinese scroll painting. In the process of unrolling, time is overlapping repeatedly on the same axis, forming countless circles. There are no starting or finishing points in a circle. In other words, any point of a circle is a start and an end.

These eight movies are played on the two sets of projections and one TV. The movie lengths of DVD projections are of different durations. They play simultaneously and continuously. The music is based on a vocal melody written and sung by me. Colin

Offord has composed a multi-layered soundscape where the music from each individual projection collages in real time with the others. The result is a constantly shifting layering of story unrepeated variations re-edited by the viewers as they move throughout the space. The sounds and images create kong-bai suggesting the elongation of time as it transforms architectural space into temporal art. What viewers will see is based on ‘chance meeting’ which is drawn on from the notion of mobility and creative intuition as expounded in the Book of Changes. The ‘chance meeting’ principle has been applied to the re-animate and editing process also forms the language of ‘change montage’.

Figure 1-1: Method of viewing handscroll

Step 1 Hold scroll in both hands. Left hand unrolls the scroll to about 50-60cm wide while right hand remains still. View the displayed picture area. Step 2 After viewing, the right hand closes the scroll by rolling toward the left hand which remains still. Step 3 Both hands move the closed scroll from the left to the right. Step 4 Repeat step one. Step 5 While the left hand extends the scroll, the right hand starts to roll. Both hands move in the same time and same direction. Step 6 Both hands move together in opposite directions to adjust the width of the viewed picture area so as to view different contexts of continuous scenes. Step 7 Stop moving both hands to appreciate the details as you wish.

Step 5 and step 6 allow the viewer to change and view different scens together and to create a sense of moving images.46

46 The illustration is taken from Takahata Isao, Japanese Scroll Paintings in the 12 Century (Japan: Studio Ghibli Company, 1999), pp. 12-13.

Figure 1-2: Kudos Gallery Display

32 1.2

The Movies

Film of TV, TIME, 15”

In ancient China, incense was used to describe the unit of time. Time and space are relative and subject to change as chance meeting. The non-linear, time-space consciousness is revealed by burning incense. The stage represents the life journey to echo with the incense. The blank background is not a dead spot. It serves to extend the whole gallery space to an infinite imaginary world.

Films of Double Projections

In Double Projections set up, all images are shot from reflections of rain in street pavement puddles, lotus ponds and fish ponds. LOTUS and INK was animated by natural kinetic power with varied shutter speed. The results of Chinese water-and–ink brushstroke textures were painted by sunlight. The double projection movies were filmed by extremely close-up shots that enlarged both the space and time from reality.

The time and space become infinite presenting a microcosm vision. The video works are mesmeric and enigmatic. What at first appears to be special effects gradually reveal themselves to be subtly modified reflections, shadows, and collages of the beauty of the everyday world. The co-existence of both reflections and real world eliminate the boundary between subject and object. It demonstrates the Chinese “viewing things from things themselves.” to immerse with the environment.

1. TRANSIENCE, 7’25”

The procedure of changes from beginning to end is revolving. According to

Chuang Tzu’s point of view, the understanding of life is about the rule of change and

33 changeless. Changes occur anytime and everywhere, thus he says: “The life of things is a gallop, a headlong dash-with every movement they alter, with every moment they shift. What should you do and what should you not do? Everything will change of itself, that is certain!” (CT 17)47

TRANSIENCE also discloses the experience of interfusion of subject and object from Chuang Tzu:

Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of things. (CT 2)48

Either ‘Chuang Chou transforms into a butterfly’ or ‘a butterfly transforms into Chuang

Chou’ indicates that human beings could break through the restrictions of appearances to get freedom by blending with nature, interfusing subject and object.

2. LOTUS, 2’39”

LOTUS was filmed by varied shutter speed to generate the Chinese painting water-and-ink texture. I applied kai-he (opening-closure) as an editing principle to establish the yin-yang relationship in visual forms. Kai-he is to achieve the state of free flow, the rhythmic vitality. The notion is derived from Book of Changes, “One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustibility of their alteration is called their free flow.” (Xici I)

The movement of lotus leaves open and close as transitions to bring out the sense

47 ʉ"ʡ'Ѵ͝ќ͝ї ɺ̲ζѴɺǡ̲˞ @ɸ#Ѵ@ɸ#ѷÿÖı͋ ˜ȸ 48 ǜǕ͠·ûɸ́ͽѴȉȉɻͼ˕'Ѵ͋Êϻž͒ѱˎ·' Hɻ΍Ѵ|͵͵ɻ·' ˎ· "ûɸͼ˕͒Ѵͼͽ"ûɸ·͒ѷ·͒ͼͽѴ|żǰvˍ ȧ"άʉ Ѯʉ

34 of space and time, the reciprocal process with rhythmic operation presents the harmony of dynamic force.

3. CHANCE, 4’20”

Time and space are revolving and endless. They are relative and subject to change as unpredictable ‘chance meeting’ of unknown. CHANCE reflects life of the secular world. It was filmed in Taipei city Xin-Yi District from reflections of city building pavement during the rain. The images are reflected both from distance and real people walking past the camera. The co-existence of both reflections and real world eliminate the boundary between subject and object.

In CHANCE, chance meeting happens at the point of time when each individual action line overlaps. CHANCE is the collection of these points of time. There are no starting or finishing points on a circle. In other words, any point on a circle is a start and an end. Through these circles, there are many combinations of meetings. The viewing experience is like unfolding a scroll painting in one single frame. The space has been compressed but the time is extended.

4. INK, 8’28”

Chinese calligrapher extends the imagery of things in Nature to form inspirations of creation. The hard yang and the soft yin push themselves each other are the rules and causes of changes. However, from the variations of lines movement, the regular pattern of change is “The end of the thing is the beginning of others things.”

The images ware created from a tree shadow reflection on a fish pond. The still water is like a blank paper surface representing the universe, which in the beginning existed in undifferentiated oneness. It reveals the idea of ‘one stroke’ which is the first

35 stroke, born of the union of brush and ink, established on paper the primary relationship between yin and yang. This concept roots in “Tao gave birth to the One; the One gave birth successively to two things, three things, up to ten thousand. These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade without having the sun on their bellies, and it is on this blending of the breaths that their harmony depends.”49 from Lao Tzu’s

Tao Te Ching Chapter 42.

Figure 1-3 : TIME (TV on stage)

49 ϷʡѴʡ,Ѵ,ʡѴʡͤʉ ͤʉξЧ̲ƭЪѴɂȷ9ɸ»

Figure 1-4 : TRANSIENCE

Figure 1-5 : LOTUS

Figure 1-6 : CHANCE

Figure 1-7 : INK

38 Films of Triple Projections

In BLUE and ROSE, the branch images are symbols of window, web and fence representing a restrained space in which Tsai Jui-yue struggled for freedom. These three screens backgrounds are joined by chance meeting that create interesting patterns.

Chinese see depiction (shi Į ) as the painted elements (fullness); void or suggestive (xu ͹) is the surrounding space (the emptiness) in paintings. Through the movement of kai-he (opening-closure) or contrasting organization of space, it creates the experience of distance merged to temporal events in Chinese artists’ mind. It discloses the use of emptiness as an interval between shifting perspectives.

1. BLUE, 12’50”

The fabrics brush animation sequence in the second part of BLUE attempts to foreground the connection between music, dancing, and Chinese calligraphy. Frozen movement simulates the spirit of the calligraphic brushstroke; the optical light and shadow mirror the grayscale range of ink from pure black to faint washes of tone, to present the Chinese theory of colour, “five colours are incorporated in the ink and one can paint whatever one wishes to”50.

In this experiment of fabric brush animation technique, what viewers see is like

‘dynamic marks’ left behind by the brushstrokes and the tracings of ink. The camera captures the ‘marks’ spontaneously. I call it “spontaneous animation”.

2. ROSE, 6’30”

This movie was inspired by Tsai Jui-yue’s choreography in The Jail Bird on a Rose

The restrained camera framing is applied to show that Tsai Jui-yue is in a

50 ǠǄϴï̲0͘m From Zhang Yan-yuan šŧϺ, The Famous Paintings of All Dynasties ȩ7¯ ʬΖ .

39 jail and yearns for dancing. Her dance is reserved and yet unyielding. Through the shifting in positive and negative space, she dances inside the jail and an imaginary outside world.

3. MOUNTAIN & WATER, 8’15”

This movie is to present Tsai Jui-yue’s yearning for a husband and son, and her passion for love. The silhouettes are created according to the real dancer’s spontaneous performance which refers to the distance to screen paper and light. The images appear like a baby in the womb, interaction of male (the empty space) and female swimming, as well as mountain and water. Again, the image of water and swimming symbolize freedom.

The Chinese term ‘mountain and water’ means ‘landscape’. It suggests solid and fluid, emptiness and fullness. Mountain and water, as opposites need one another for completion. A dynamic conception of unity relates the synthesis of opposites (yin-yang) as both cyclical (night and day) and interactive (union of male and female). In

MOUNTAIN & WATER, the silhouette presents a monochrome painting in which the principles of emptiness and fullness are established. Through that which is empty, the fullness is moved and that which is fullness becomes vacant. When white is changed to black, the high cast down and the low made high. Thus the entire picture will be full of the life rhythm. The image of MOUNTAIN & WATER evokes a sense of a dynamic landscape moved by vital breaths.

Figure 1-8: BLUE

Figure 1-9: ROSE

Figure 1-10: MOUNTAIN & WATER

41 1.3

The Music

Australian visual artist, musician and instrument inventor Colin Offord composed and performed the music for Dancing Brush. Colin is known for his unique creations of musical instruments as well as his explorations in the characters of sound itself.

The musical structure is based around a vocal, timbral melody51 that I wrote, i.e.: a tune composed of different notes and sound colours. I sang this theme for Colin and he based all of his ideas on this lineal concept. To me, this musical concept parallels the movement of the brush as found in calligraphy. Rather than employ a professional singer, I chose to sing it myself as I knew the feeling and expression that was vital to the work. Colin coached me during this process because he also teaches voice as part of his work as a professional musician.

Colin created a multi-layered soundscape where the music from each individual projection collages in real time with any other projection that is playing simultaneously.

The DVDs, of different durations, play continuously, resulting in constantly shifting, unrepeatable variations. There are eight pieces in all. At any one time three pieces can be heard. Creating space for each piece such as the first minute and fifteen seconds of silence in MOUNTAIN & WATER, allows the music to be recreated from the space itself.

51 David Reck explained a common synonym “timbre” in the English language is tone color; and in German the word is Klangfarbe (literally ‘sound-color’). It is the term twentieth century Amold Schoenberg developed to describe the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie through which melodies were created by a succession of different tone colors (rather than through a succession of different pitches and rhythms). For analysis this, he compared “Orchestration was (and still is) like painting a picture, using instruments and combinations of instruments instead of colors”. Music of the Whole Earth (Da Capo Press, New York: 1997), p. 254.

42 Three films, based on the triple screen projections, were played on a sound system in the largest space. Four other films of double screen projections were played on a second sound system in the smaller space. These were in rotation, the mix shifting in time throughout the day. The eighth piece played as a fifteen minute loop on the TV.

The music for the film showed on TV was composed and recorded to utilize the compressed and limited nature of TV sound playback giving a distinct character to that music.

The whole is re-mixed by the viewer as they move throughout the space.

Although the music is microtonal in nature, it is centred around the ‘warm’ keys of

B flat major & F major.

The music is performed on original instruments invented by Colin such as the

Great Island Mouthbow and the Australasian Belly Bow These are plucked, bowed and struck string instruments whose harmonics are modified by the throat cavity to produce two or three sounds at once. Rhythms are based on the breath resulting in very slow tempos of around 20-30 beats per minute. Other original instruments Colin used are: percussion such as gongs, Moonbells, and waterbells (bells modified by water), harmonic flute, conch shell, and Chinese flute ti-tze ˰Č, as well as the Philipino jaws harp. All of these repeatedly echo my voice.

The result whilst very modern is quite reminiscent of the ancient Chinese er-hu

,́ and gu-chin ¥ʘ, ancient stringed instrumental music, which Colin is very familiar with. Colin’s work carries many Asian influences so he was very empathetic to my artistic sense.

As part of the process in creating the music, I interviewed Colin about the philosophy behind his work. We had numerous discussions between August 2004 and

March 2006 when the score was recorded. His ideas were important in the realization of

43 the installation and run parallel to my own philosophy and ideas about my art. An interview with Colin is reported in Appendix II.

Colin Offord’s works are like a journey of self-searching, responding to the very nature and existence of this world. Having been influenced by the avant-garde musician,

John Cage (1912-1992)52, Colin Offord developed his distinctive perspective of sound in terms of its aesthetic and richness derived from Australian’s unique natural landscapes, its evolution of geographical cultures, as well as reflections and adaptations from the access of multi-cultural experiences.

Being influenced by the avant-garde musician, John Cage, his unique philosophy in ‘sound itself’, once said “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. . . . We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects but as musical instruments.”53 Colin explained that “John Cage is interested in the aspects of sound itself, how sound communicates and how it could be felt. In regards to his perception and experimentation in composing, John Cage definitely has mastery in this field. Most of the composers have found no interest in sound itself, but dwell in the composition of sounds, merely presenting a style, skill, or rhythm etc.” In Colin’s point of view, as the most interesting aspect still lies within the sound itself, he enjoys amplifying sounds that are of delicate nature.

When we discussed the musical composition for Dancing Brush, Colin talked a lot about the importance of the sounds. He said:

52 John Cage was a productive and influential composer at the heart of the 20th-century avant-garde. He was a pioneer of chance music, non-standard use of musical instruments, and electronic music. He is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4’33”. It is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence, divided into three performed movements without a single note being played. 53 In 1997, John Cage gave a talk to a Seattle arts society entitled “The Future of Music: Credo”. John Cage considered virtually every kind of sound potentially musical. Quote from Jacquelynn Baas, Mary Jane Jacob, ed. Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western art from Monet to Today (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), p. 168.

44 Our initial response to music is a visceral one, an emotional response to the sound itself. How the vibrations, the harmonic structure, the sound colour makes us feel. From feeling we move to thought. Our cultural, social, religious, personal interests and prejudices enter. Like different food it can take time and effort to understand and appreciate a new sound. Sound occupies physical space. Every sound we make changes the molecular structure of our universe. Every sound goes on forever. We feel the vibe long after the sound has faded.

“Music is like a house which contains numerous sounds”. From every flow of breath that it produces, it expresses the consonance of individual emotions. Colin applied this idea as a description of his philosophy of music. What he likes about music is its ‘transience’. For him, music is the most organic of all art forms. Every architectural space or environment transforms the music to its own shape. Transience’ is a defining characteristic of music. He expounded that “A single sound is an idea, a musical phrase is a collection of ideas. The idea can be inherent in the form itself and in some cases its expression may be possible only in that form.”

Colin’s works also include drawings and sculptures, and the creative process has greatly influenced him when he composes music. For him, the concept of the “material” is important. For both music and visual arts, artists need to define their own uniqueness in the methods of expression. Colin adopted the same concept when composing music, by exploring the sound itself. He compared music to drawing. The medium is the air, sound traveling through the air. “If you were to be interested in sound, you would be curious by the effects it could produce.” His true interest is to make the sounds of small musical instrument feel “big”’, however not simply by increasing the sound volume.

This idea is more comparable to close-up shots in photography. He described that “I use microphones in a similar way to close-up photography. The subtlest sound is amplified to reveal all its complexity on a huge scale, the universe in a whisper. The audience can

45 be immersed in a room full of vibrations that changes with the smallest movement of tongue or hand. The limits are our imaginations.” Colin’s idea of “the universe in a whisper” could be seen to be echoed with Chinese ideas about sound. In Chaung Tzu we read:

Tzu-chi said, “The Great Clod belches out breath and its name is wind. So long as it doesn't come forth, nothing happens. But when it does, then ten thousand hollows begin crying wildly. Can't you hear them, long drawn out? In the mountain forests that lash and sway, there are huge trees a hundred spans around with hollows and openings like noses, like mouths, like ears, like jugs, like cups, like mortars, like rifts, like ruts. They roar like waves, whistle like arrows, screech, gasp, cry, wail, moan, and howl, those in the lead calling out yeee!, those behind calling out yuuu! In a gentle breeze they answer faintly, but in a full gale the chorus is gigantic. And when the fierce wind has passed on, then all the hollows are empty again. Have you never seen the tossing and trembling that goes on?” Tzu-yu said, “By the piping of earth, then, you mean simply [the sound of] these hollows, and by the piping of man [the sound of] flutes and whistles. But may I ask about the piping of Heaven?” Tzu-chi said, “Blowing on the ten thousand things in a different way, so that each can be itself-all take what they want for themselves, but who does the sounding?” (CT 2)54

In the above text, Chuang Tzu described how the sound of earth is produced. The sound of these ‘hollows’ is reflected in the Chinese instrument gu-chin. For Dancing

Brush Colin drew on nan-guan55 ˺ and the Chinese er-hu and gu-chin music which has influenced Colin’s music such as the music for TRANSIENCE and MOUNTAIN &

54 Č̔ǫѵÿüêÎȷѴl¯ɸю ǠÃɺAѴA|ͤ˪Ɓ¹ ̲ʐ̶"ĭĭ#ѷĿȃ"ʩбѴ üǶʹÙ"˪ˢѴ=ѭѴ=¤Ѵ=̳Ѵ=ȁѴ=×Ѵ=͑Ѵ=ɑ̱Ѵ=Ⱦ̱Ѷɰ̱Ѵή̱Ѵª̱Ѵ ´̱Ѵ¨̱Ѵδ̱Ѵę̱Ѵ½̱Ѵ}̱Ä-̲Я̱ÄÇ Ɋю|Ķ»Ѵяю|ü»Ѵю ɳ|ˉ ˪ɸ͹ ̲ʐΊ"ΨΨѴ"uu#ѷ ČɟǫѵÝ̂|ˉ˪ǠŋѴ5̂|Ȳ˯Ǡŋ ǉÆý̂ Č̔ǫѵÿµͤ®Ѵ̲Bl͋Ŋ'Ѵ¾l ͋¢ѴƁ̱lΦЀѱ ѮʉΪ 55 There are many types of ancient music popular in Taiwan--including bei-guan ˺, a fast-tempo music that commonly accompanies operas and traditional puppet shows, and nan-guan, which has a more delicate and soothing sound. Nan-quan is a kind of folk music which originated in the late Yuan dynasty or approximately in the 14th century it coincided with a cultural flowering in the country to the south of the Yangzi river, the traditional dividing line between northern and southern China. The people of Taiwan commonly refer to the folk music of Ching Cho of Pu kin province as nan-quan music because many of the Chinese people who came to Taiwan in the early period of immigration were from Chin Cho.

46 WATER. He explained that “My original instruments suit themselves to responding to these sounds so I am able to move in that direction without imitation.”

Gu-chin simplifies and prolongs sound by applying silence to the ears. As a result, an unbelievable dynamic is created between ‘music’ and ‘non-music’, ‘sound’ and

‘silence’. The following quote from Empty and Full: the Language of Chinese Painting by Francois Cheng based on the form of musical interpretations clarifies the function of

‘emptiness’ in terms of silence.

Emptiness is rendered not only by certain syncopated rhythms but above all silence. This silence is not a mechanically calculated quantity. Breaking up continuous development, it creates a space that enables the sounds to transcend themselves and accede to a kind of resonance beyond the resonances.56

The aforementioned Chuang Tzu’s description about hollows, whispers, and breath

(in Chinese term chi) will help us to understand the idea of sound colour. However, if nature possesses power and feeling, it must also possess musical qualities. Hence the ancient Chinese correlated the five notes with five colours and twelve tones of music with the twelve months of the year. Wei Ying-wu уƜʉ (733-793), the Tang poet, refers to music in nature in two remarkable lines:

All things bear voices from themselves. But the great void rests in eternal silence.57

In Music of the Whole Earth, David Reck quoted Korean taekeum flute musician

Cho Chae-son’s idea on attempting to verbalize the musical differences between the

East and the Wes “Every sound is a Buddha.” What Cho Chae-son meant was that

“there is an infinity in each sound, and an infinite number of ways of playing it. If you

56 Cheng Francois, p. 36. 57 ͤʉ͋ʡ̹Ѵüˣƅħĭ

47 meditate on it and concentrate, you can touch it.” This notion reflects the philosophical thinking from gu-qin - that is each separate note is thought of as complete in itself, a tiny universe. A special mood or atmosphere evoking a reaction in the lettered musician-scholar or listener can be created by subtle nuances, by the many ways of

‘colouring’ a single note58. Cho Chae-son suggested to his pupils that they practice by putting down their instruments and going outside to ‘notice how one tree has a different shape from another, and to hear how the wind blows.’ can touch it.”59 Colin’s idea of

“the universe in a whisper” is obviously in tune with the concepts of “Every sound is a

Buddha.”

From sound itself to the digital arena, the implication of avant-garde is not about technology, but of an attitude or concept that is about the inclination to contemplate that discharge between composer and audiences. For Colin Offord, music is no longer an art activity belonging to that idealized realm that makes reference only with the distinguished, or restricts to a single audial approach, but rather a mindscape’s field of view, about touching lives.

58 David Reck, p. 252. 59 Ibid.

48 1.4

Visualized Music: Motion Graphics and Animation

The concept of ‘visualized music’ has had great influences on me and was the starting point of creating Dancing Brush. It leads the works towards the abstract ‘video painting’. In this section I will discuss motion graphics from the artistic aspect by looking back to its forerunner, the Experimental Animation. I also will examine the pioneer animators experimental spirit and method that influenced the plastic arts and the art of digitalized visuals. I will then examine the connection between the animation’s aesthetic value and the visual arts from the angle of the visual form and the performing arts by examining the characteristics of animation –movement and time. The application of Taoist subtraction aesthetics in creating animation in Dancing Brush provides a new perspective.

Motion Graphics rises from the movement of experimental images in the 1920’s.

Influenced by the modern art thoughts of Dada, and Surrealism, it sparked the participation of artists in making animated films. They paid attention to reconstructing the artistic form of movies, introducing new aesthetic concepts, and developing new technologies. The development of synchronization of images and sound became one of the important experimental concepts of the animators. They explored the relation of music and sound. The early artists, Viking Eggeling (1880-1925), Hans Richter

(1886-1976), Oscar Fischinger (1900-1967), and later ones, Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) and Harry Smith (1923-1991) all made contributions in this domain. Influenced by the pioneers of abstract animation, Oscar Fischinger and the master of experimental animation, Norman McLaren (1914-1987) also made a series of experimental productions bring out the concept and technique of motion graphics in the period of

49 National Film Board of Canada. Considered by many to be the “father of Computer

Graphics”, American John Whitney Sr. (1917-1995) explored a “digital harmony” “a special relationship between musical and visual design.” Whitney made the earliest abstract computer animation created with a “mechanical analog computer for specialized animation with typography and concrete design”60 that he himself invented.

Experimental Animation could be said to be the forerunner of the modern digitalized

Computer Graphics.

After World War II, Jules Engel (1909-2003) who came from the fine arts field, became the Art Director of Disney. He joined others to produce the classic, Fantasia

(1940), an animated film combining the technique of Character Animation, the aesthetic concept of Experimental Animation, and the style of avant-garde of the ‘20’s. Then he left Disney to be a member of the UPA (United Productions of America). Instead of overexquisite, UPA adopts simple lines and bright colors to experiment with new creative ideas. It has developed a brand new style and course of animation. Some good examples are Madeline (1952), Gerald McBoing Boings Show (1951) and the serials of

Mr. Magoo (1953-1959). Totally different from the commercial oriented animation of

Disney and Hollywood, UPA started a new field of making animation and influences the development of art animation all over the world.

During the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, the booming Hollywood film industry also encouraged the application of motion graphics. American Saul Bass (1920-1996) and Maurice

Binder (1925-1991) are the representative artists. The former was a designer of film’s titles, whose productions included Around the World in 80 Days (1956), The Man with a

Golden Arm (1955), and Vertigo (1958). The latter is British whose famous productions are a series of popular movies—James Bond. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the animators

60 Youngblood, p. 208.

50 also made great presentations by combining motion graphics and animation. For example, George Duning’s (1908-2000) masterpiece, Yellow Submarine (1968), a film carried plot, could be called the first animated feature length film in the form of motion graphics. After the 1980’s, MTV’s productions combined cinema, music, and special

Visual Effect CGI to present plentiful images.

I apply Disney’s classical animation feature film, Fantasia, as an example to discuss the three basic genres of motion graphics.

(1) The narrative genre: It makes storytelling a focal point, but brings out the function

of visual language in the artistic design of the characters and the background. The

style of UPA is classified in this genre. Examples are the BLUE, ROSE, and

WATER & MOUNTAIN.

(2) A series of distinct pictures without a narrative plot: It emphasizes the psychological

images that the visual language expresses. In the section of ‘Nutcracker suite’ of

Fantasia, the author utilizes the natural motion of the concrete objects to express the

rhythm and melody of the music. Such as TRANSIENCE, LOTUS and CHANCE.

(3) Pure music: It is a picture existing just for music, an abstract image which would be

shown and associated in the audience’s brains while listening to the music. The

early experimental animation focused on this kind of abstract animation, stressing

the ‘pure visual experience.’ Moving visual symbols fully explains the nature of

animation’s language. The fabric brush animation sequence in BLUE and INK are

the examples.

Figure 1-11: In BLUE the web of bare branches works as a metaphor for the jail of Tsai Jui-Yue.

Figure 1-12: In ROSE, red is a symbolic language of passion.

Figure 1-13: LOTUS is series of distinct pictures but without a narrative plot.

Figure 1-14: Circular motions of INK act rhythmically evoking a sense of music.

Figure 1-15: In TRANSIENCE, the reflections reveal a musical quality of real life.

Figure 1-16: Raindrops and people walking create the visual rhythms of CHANCE.

56 Early experimental animation was essentially non-narrative, questing after forms of purely visual experience, or what animator Oscar Fischinger referred to as ‘visualized music’. Perhaps one could say that animation then becomes a sort of semiotic ‘sign in motion’. Motion graphics possesses the characteristics of ‘visualized music’, that is to analyze and simplify the concrete images of the objects. It could make up the visual elements of point, line, color, light, and texture by the formula of visual beauty- repetition, balance, action, coordination, and contrast. Then it would show an order, the structure, the rhythm, and the cadence, to contrast the tone, the rhythm, and the melody in the music. As John Whitney composed he conceive ideas both musically and visually.

He once said “Whether quick or slow, action, as well as harmony, determines much of the shape of my own audio-visual work today. Action itself has an impact on emotions.

Fluid, orderly action generates or resolves tensions much in the manner that orderly sequences of resonant tonal harmony have an impact on emotion and feeling...”61

Cadence is the inner order of artistic creation, which integrates various constitutive elements. Painting is made up by movement and contrast; music by tone, melody, and rhythm; dance by rhythm and kinetics; montage by film editing. They aim for making the psychological cadence of the audience. Involving the element of time, the music, dance, cinema, and animation have great connection and quality in common. Motion graphics is evidently unique in the domain of animated creation from the angle of form and content. Performing Arts also plays an important role in this domain.

In Performing Arts, play and dance could be called kinetic, visual plastic arts.

Especially dance, a presentation of visual experiences through the combination of body, space, rhythm, kinetics, action with music, stage lighting, and stage designing. In words, dance is a ‘motion graphics performance’. Alwin Nikolais (1912-1993), the modern

61 John Whitney, 1991. On line source: http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/whitney

57 American choreographer takes the same viewpoint. He said: “Dance is not only a kinetic art; it is also a visual one.”62 He often used different media to shape his productions. The dancers presented the visual art like a kinetic abstract painting or moving sculptures using life images of bodies. Dance produces the beauty of figure and expresses the idea in motion. Gesture is one of the basic abstract elements that create and organize dance. Music is another important constitutive element of dance. In the aesthetics of dance, a widely acknowledged viewpoint is that the nature of dance is music. What the dancers present with gesture is just what they feel in the music. In the beginning of the 20th century, Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), the moving visual symbols dancer regarded that dance is the visualized incarnation of music. Therefore, dance is the visual art of time and movement, which combines music. It meets the aesthetics of animation, the visuals in motion.

Norman McLaren’s representative production, Pas De Deux (1967), has been performed in live action. In order to show the images of moving body, he takes slow motion, multiple exposures, and the images of high contrast. He applies the rotoscoping63 technique to divide and reconstruct the action creating a new visual impact of movement. The British animator Erica Russell’s film Triangle (1994) expresses the passion of two young lovers and a third woman in paint and dance. It makes powerful use of African and Brazilian music and artwork styles ranging from classical drawing to pure abstraction64. The two films are successful examples that

62 Kranz, Stewart. Science & Technology in the Arts: A Tour Through Realm of Science/Art (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1974), pp. 36 and 49. 63 Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by computers in recent years. In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background. On line souce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscope 64 Erica Russell, “Dance Animation and the Post-Modern: New Juxtapositions and Outrageous Couplings Guest” edited by Paul Wells, Art & Design Magazine Profile, No.53, Art & Animation (London:

58 combine the gestures of dance and the cadence of music with the technique of animation.

They both present the characteristics of time, kinetics, and music.

The abstract filmmaker Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Man Ray

(1890-1976), and Len Lye (1901-1980) all tend towards inquiry into the semiotic meaning of the moving in their later work. Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren, the founder of the animation department at the National Film Board of Canada, has sometimes been credited with conceptually liberating animation from the ‘classical’ aesthetic model by focusing less upon the implications of implied movement ‘between’ two frame images. Contemporary Dutch animator Gerrit Van Dijk considers that the camera is not a passive observer watching an object in motion, but an active instrument in the creation of animated movement. He applied ‘rotoscoping’ techniques to create animation by taking out movements from life-action footage then re-animate by hand drawing style.

In Dancing Brush, I created animations in nature and kinetic environment using the camera not merely to observe and record, but to transcribe physical reality into animation, with the assistance of digital manipulation (re-animation). I describe it

‘processing reality’. This ‘processing reality’ is based on ‘spontaneous animation’ technique that I coined. The method is to let the camera record images spontaneously from real world phenomenon (both natural and optical) with varied shutter speed. In this way, images were created depending upon the amount of light coming through the camera lens. It captured ‘unpredictable’ images which couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. Thus the movements of the object itself caused by phenomenon are other factors and for me the most exciting part. I then subtracted in-between frames to bring the

‘unknown’ to life. The ‘spontaneous animation’ and ‘subtracting process’ that I

Academy Group Ltd. 1997), pp.35-36.

59 experimented with in Dancing Brush explores the concept of traditional ‘rotoscoping’ technique as ‘re-animate’ process in digital manipulation.

The fabrics brush animation sequence in the second part of BLUE attempt to put the connection between music, dancing, and Chinese calligraphy in the foreground.

Frozen movement simulates the spirit of the calligraphic brushstroke, and optical light and shadow mirror the grayscale range of ink from pure black to faint washes of tone, to present the Chinese theory of colour that is “five colours are incorporated in the ink and one can paint whatever one wishes to”

The live fabric brush acts rhythmically, stretching to the left, drawing away to the right, and turning. Brushstrokes are malleable, rhythmic, flexible, and alive through my body movement delivering energy. From the dancing lines, the unique characters

(resemble radical sign), and emotion are gradually explored which characterize the meaning of fabric brush. The tension and lines that extend in between each brushstroke become part of the beauty of calligraphy. The form of rhythm and cadence are produced by the conjunction of space and time. These fabric trails of motion in space have also written/drawn the dancing traces of time and the process of fluid motion.

In this experiment of fabric brush animation technique, what viewers see is like

‘dynamic marks’ left behind by the brushstrokes and the tracings of ink. The camera captures the moving ‘marks’ spontaneously. I described it as ‘spontaneous animation’.

The re-animating process is like conducting a piece of music by leaving kinetic ‘marks’ that create the visual rhythm.

The ‘subtracting process’ I applied is different from the traditional animation production process that the ‘illusion of life’ was created by adding movement in between two poses (key frame). This method of creating animation seems to oppose

Charles Solomon’s definition in his essay, “Animation: Notes on a Definition”. He

60 stated a “two factor workable definition of animation: (1) the imagery is recorded frame-by-frame and (2) the illusion of motion is created, rather than recorded”.65 The famous definition of animation by Norman McLaren said:

Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn; what happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame; Animation is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible interstices that lie between the frames.

Both Solomon and McLaren suggest the result of movement created by an artist’s rendering of intuitive manner. According to McLaren, “what happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame” and “animation is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible interstices that lie between the frames”, the ‘spontaneous animation’ and ‘subtracting process’ techniques that I experiment with are proved to be true animation.

Figure 1-17: Len Lye’s Free Radicals are painted directly onto film, circa 1958.

65 Charles Solomon, p. 10.

Figure 1-18: The fabric brush animation in BLUE.

Figure 1-19 : (left) Norman McLaren, Pas De Deux, 1967. Figure 1-20 : (right) Film strips from Stan Brakhage’s Existence is Song (the last of four sections of The Dante Quartet), 1987.

Figure 1-21: (right) John Whitney, Permutations, 16mm/8 min, 1967. Figure 1-22: (left) A selection of images from John Whitney’s triple-projection computer film, 16mm/17 min,1967.

Figure 1-23: A sequence from Erica Russell’s Triangle,1994 (read left to right). The interaction of positive and negative space reveals the concept of Chinese yin-yang movement as kai-he (open-closure). This creates an illusion of 3D space on a 2D surface.

64 1.5

Chinese Scroll Painting and New Media Language

In The Language of New Media Lev Manovich asserts that “editing, or montage, is the key twentieth-century technology for creating fake realities.”66 Lev Manovich distinguish two basic digital compositing techniques. The first one ‘Temporal montage’ is to “separate realities from consecutive moments in time what we usually mean by

‘montage’ in film.” The other is ‘montage within shot’. It is opposite of the temporal montage, “separate realities from contingent parts of a single image.” Examples include the superimposition of images and multiple screens by avant-garde filmmakers in the

1920’s.67 Manovich also expounds that ‘spatial montage’ as “an alternative to replace traditional cinematic temporal montage sequential mode in Twentieth-century film practice has not been explored as systematically.” 68 Dancing Brush explores the meaning of ‘spatial montage’ of simultaneously coexisting images from a Chinese point of view to bring out a possibility of time-based art practice. Visual presentation in

Chinese painting is to achieve ‘perspective of all perspectives’ resulting from Chinese consciousness of time. It appears that visual elements in Chinese scroll paintings often coexist in spatial relationships in which the viewer may move and be directly present.

Yep Wai-lim uses ‘revolving perspectives’ to describe how one views totality from different angles simultaneously. This happens also in Chinese poetry. The viewer/reader is made to move into the total environment to experience the visual events from different spatial angles. It is an environment in which viewers move about rather than viewing it from a fixed distant angle. Unlike the Western form of picture frame based

66 Manovich, p.148. 67 Ibid. 68 Manovich, pp.322-323.

65 on “focus perspective”, Chinese develops its unique forms of horizontal scroll and vertical scroll painting.69 The Chinese scroll, can be rolled and unrolled section by section. In the process of rolling and unrolling, the pictorial space changes accordingly, which is something that does not exist in Western framed paintings. It is known that the design of the scroll is convenient for storage. As a matter of fact, the design to a certain extent also reflects the Chinese concept of time and space, which is perceived to be continuous, unbounded, and flowing.70

In the space that unfolds from right to left, painters naturally need to take the speed and direction of unrolling the scroll into consideration. Long horizontal scroll painting is never on display at full length, that is to say, viewers do not see the whole content at the same time. In the process of unrolling, viewers unroll scrolls with their left hands while rolling the viewed part with their right hands. The past, referring to the part that is already viewed, is rolled aside with the right hand when the future, referring to the part waiting to be viewed, is unrolled with the left hand. An approximate one-meter length

69 The Western pictorial form established in the Renaissance is founded on the objective visual foundation, requiring a fixed distance between the viewer’s eyes and the object, a fixed view point, and visual limits are created in four directions of top, bottom, left and right. Chinese aesthetician Zong Bai-hua ěʸ͢ (1879-1986) says in his article entitled Colloquial on Chinese and Western Painting History and Foundation “ΪΈʬɉ"ɛɢ͒ç˖”: “Chinese painting adopts a bird’s view of a scenery from a distance, with the same distance from the looking up and looking over; therefore, Chinese painters prefer to use a rectangular vertical scroll to present a panorama from top to bottom. Multi-layers of brightness, darkness, transparency and solidness constitute the atmosphere and rhythm in the painting. On the contrary, Western painting adopts parallel perspective; therefore, western painters frequently use near-square banner to duplicate the illusion of the scenery from the near end to the far end. The relation between light and shades makes up the atmosphere, rhythm and flow in Western painting.” This is one of the earliest views on the forms of Chinese painting and Western painting. Western painting here refers to the Renaissance perspective system. Jiang Xun, pp. 138-139. 70 Laurence Binyon wrote on Chinese painting: “In European art, the spectator is imagined to be on level ground; the mid-distance is cut across by the horizon-line; and to break this, and unite sky and earth, masses of trees, broken ground, distant hills, supply lines of vertical or diagonal direction. The Chinese convention lifts the spectator above the earth: the high horizon is nearly always filled with mountain-forms, often towering over mist. There is no teasing of detail in the foreground. The eye is led to the grander shapes, the liberating spaces. The mood is loftier than we are wont to feel in landscape art. These characteristics are specially the mark of the later Song painting, when so many spirits, oppressed by the material misfortunes of the empire, turned inward to reverie and solaced themselves with the delights of solitude.” Edited by Roger Fry, Chinese Art: an Introductory Handbook to Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Textiles, Bronzes & Minor Art (London Batsford 1935), p. 8. Binyon understood that it is not that Chinese do not understand “focus perspective”, but they intend to create more possibilities in visual art; therefore, Chinese develop perspective with “movable viewpoints.”

66 of section is shown in front of the viewer’s eyes. There are tens of thousands of variations during the visual contact because the painting is moving and the part we see is different from this second to next second. Sometimes, the one-meter length of section is fixed on the table as an individual painting. The question is: who decides where the section ends and starts? The one-meter length can be a transition to a past, or arouse viewers’ curiosity to wait for it to unroll. The process of viewing a handscroll closely duplicates the process of painting the handscroll. In terms of both painting and viewing, a handscroll is literally a moving picture, with shifting moments and location. A hanging scroll or mural does not move; what moves is the viewer or his gaze.71

Only when we return to the original way to appreciate Chinese long horizontal scroll painting, can we realize how the process of unrolling a long horizontal scroll painting is consistent with how Chinese perceive time and space as an eternal process of regretting the passing of time. From a reading of the Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels, it suggested a sequential experience in time and a movement beyond the limits of the painting into the boundless infinity of the universe.

71 In Chinese Painting Style: Media, Methods, and Principles of Form, Jerome Silbergeld explains that “Handscroll paintings range from less than three feet to more than thirty feet in length; the majority are between nine and fourteen inches high. Paintings are mounted on a stiff paper backing; those of greater length are often painted on several sections of silk or paper joined together. At the left is attached a round wooden roller, about which the scroll is wound when not in use and which is occasionally decorated with a knob of ivory or jade. At the right is a semi-circular wooden stave which keeps the scroll properly stretched from top to bottom. The painting is viewed from right to left, as one reads in Chinese, unrolling a bit at a time from the roller and transferring the excess to a loose roll temporarily maintained around the stretcher on the right. About one arm's length is exposed at a time for viewing.” Quote from Wu Hung, The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese painting (London: Reaction Books, 1996), pp. 57-58.

67 Interpretation of the Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels

Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels (Five Dynasties, 907-960), Southern Song of an original by Gu Hong-zhong эО of the Southern Tang, the Five Dynasties, is a masterpiece of horizontal scroll or handscroll. This horizontal scroll, measuring 335.5cm long and

28.7cm high, is divided into five sections. Each section is about 60 cm long.72

(Fig.1-25).

Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels, as Chinese taste goes, is a wild party. The scroll is supposed to have been painted by Gu Hong-zhong at the demand of an emperor of the

Southern Tang dynasty so that he might vicariously experience one of the reportedly licentious parties given by one of his ministers, Han Xi-zai. As emperor he couldn’t possibly attend and so he requested the painter to bring the party back to life. It is a masterpiece of logical organization, of space-setting in the Chinese system of perspective, of a rational representation of a group of men and women drinking, conversing, and listening to music on the lute. Only the most subtle hints of impropriety are to be found-rumpled bedclothes, in discreet glances.73

There are varied sections; here I adopt Taiwanese painter and art historian Jiang

Xun’s ͭ (1947-) interpretation from A Contemplation on Chinese Art. He divided the painting into five sections.74

The first section begins with the bed. Only part of the bed with a crumpled quilt and a pi-pa ʙʚ (string instrument) is shown in the upper right area of the handscroll to reveal the beginning of the night revels. The corner of the bed can be considered an independent section in its own right, and it signifies this specific night is just a fraction

72 Gu Hongzhong lived during the 10th century. He was a member of Imperial Art Academy of the Southern Tang Kingdom (916-961) during the Five Dynasties era and was good at painting human figure. 73 Linda C. Ehrlich, David Esser, ed. Cinematic Landscape: Observation on the Visual Arts and Cinematic of China and Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 31-32. 74 Jiang Xun, pp. 156-158.

68 of the endless time.

As the handscroll unrolls, Han Xi-zai, the host and respected minister, Lang Can

Ё̇, a laureate in the national exam, and the maid beside the bed all stare in the same direction to give the impression that the handscroll is waiting to be unrolled. Beside the table with refreshments, other visitors stare in the same direction as the three characters to emphasize the direction of the movement, from right to left. However, Li Jia-ming

ǼĤǙ, a government official, turns himself facing forward, resulting in a change in the speed of the progression. After this pause, a group of another five characters appear.

The five characters form two lines nearly parallel to each other, and their bodies face right to respond to Han Xi-zai and Lang Can sitting on the couch. Nevertheless, the faces of the five characters turn to the left and cast their glances in unison on the woman playing pi-pa, who is the focus of attention in this section. Behind the woman playing pi-pa is a huge screen, and a woman behind the screen is looking around the audience.

The first section ends with the girl looking around the audience.

The first section, spanning from the bed to the screen, is divided by two large objects. This section can be appreciated as an independent painting, and at the same time it contributes to the development of the handscroll. From the perspective of the

Western painting, Li Jia-ming is the visual center, while the visual focus is on the woman playing pi-pa located in the lower left corner. Analyzed with the composition of the Chinese handscroll, there are hints suggesting that time is flowing forward in the stillness of the painting.

The second section of Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels is unveiled along with the screen, which opens another setting. Han Xi-zai, casually dressed, is playing a red huge drum with sticks, accompanied by Wan Wu-shan ʓĻĿ, a popular prostitute, performing

Liu-yao Dance h!͖ at his left. The eight characters in this section center on the

69 drum-beating and dancing. The direction in which they turn their bodies and cast their glances suggests the direction in which the internal time moves. The only exception is

Monk De Ming. He turns his back against Wang Wu-shan, who is dancing, and pays no attention to Han Xi-zai, who is beating the drum. Apparently, he is isolated from all the sounds and pleasure, but engages in his own meditation. He obstructs the tempo of the handscroll’s progression, which leads to a deeper meditation of life, isolated from the time and space.

Jiang Xun pointed out the empty space between the second and third sections It appears that the second section ends with the girl, who is facing right and clapping her hands, that is to say, the direction in which she turns her body serves as a partition.

Then, the maid carrying a set of wine bottles and cups leads the audience into the third section. He revealed the empty space to become one of the spectacular features in the

Chinese handscroll painting. The empty space does not mean ‘nothing,’ but the

‘usefulness of the useless,’ which originated from the philosophy of Lao Tzu and

Chuang Tzu.75 When the second section progresses onto the third section, no concrete object is used as a divider. The application of empty space reminds us that time is inseparable in realty. Dividers such as the bed and the screen do not really divide time, while the second, minute, hour, day, month, year, and century are nothing but superficial measurements of time. Time, itself, is an endless process.

The maid carrying a set of wine bottles and cups signifies the beginning of the third section. Next to the maid, the girl playing the pi-pa is strolling from right to left.

The woman playing the pipa serves as the visual focus in the first section, yet in the third section the party is over and the crowd melts. Skipping the second section to the first section, it seems that time is misplaced. The symbolic bed, still untidy, makes its

75 Jiang Xun, p. 157.

70 second appearance, and it seems that the woman is walking slowly to the bed and is ready to place the pi-pa on it. The scene reminds us of the bed with a crumpled quilt and a pi-pa in the first section. When the same scene appears the second time, a symbolic meaning is created.

To the audience’s surprise, the linear direction of time from right to left is nothing but a presumption. Han Xi-zai is seated on the bed, getting dressed. He appears to have just finished playing the drum and is surrounded by five maids. He faces the upper right direction and appears to look at himself in the second section face to face. It seems he sees another Han Xi-zai all of a sudden. The temporal and spatial limitations no longer exist here; therefore, human beings can enter any time and space freely. The technique of switching time and space evolves increasingly intricately in the landscape painting simultaneously is influenced by Chinese derived from the Book of Changes and Taoist philosophy. What the handscroll attempts to achieve in time and space is to paint an inseparable time and space in its entirety, trying to save us from the superficial, divided time and space, in the hope of entering a free and infinite universe.

In this painting, the bed is used as a partition to separate the third section from the fourth section, in which Han Xi-zai takes off his outfit, with his belly exposed, waving a fan with one hand. In the center of the section are five women playing the flute and xiao

˿, accompanied by Li Jia-ming, who is playing the tan-ban ȡȀ. Three of the five women face right while the other two face left. They are positioned to form the shape of a spread fan, the visual focus on the front, on which every eye of the audience was fixed.

Completed with Li Jia-ming on the left and Han Xi-zai on the right, the composition constitutes an independent section.

There stands another screen behind Li Jia-ming. The man standing in front of the screen, with his body turning to the right, seems to be a character belonging to the

71 fourth section, while his face turns to the right to signal the opening of fifth section.

This is a method applied in the handscroll to switch the time and space. He is like time itself, trying to clean up the mess and rearrange the setting for the next scene.

The fifth section is the end. Six of the seven characters face right, walking in the opposite direction against the direction of how the handscroll is unrolled from right to left. It seems the man beside the screen declares that they are making an exit. The woman standing beside the screen summons them with a hand gesture. Han Xi-zai walks out with a drumstick in his hand, followed by Wang Wu-shan, the prostitute, who covers part of her face with her sleeve timidly and makes her appearance at the people’s invitation.

The night revels culminate in the end; however, they seem to end reluctantly. The way people turn seems to turn the end into another beginning. In terms of image, this section seems to occur before Han Xi-zai’s playing the drum and Wang Wu-shan’s dancing. In the process of unrolling, time is overlapping repeatedly on the same axis, forming countless circles. There are no starting or finishing points on a circle. In other words, whatever point on a circle is a start and an end.

The Double Screen as Space/Time Metaphor

In his book entitled The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese

Painting Wu Hung remarks on an important feature of creating space and time in

Chinese art ‘screen’ from reading Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels. By analyzing double screen as ‘picture in picture’ it reveals what Lev Manovich described as ‘montage within shot’. He divides the painting into four sections by the position of screens and demonstrates how screen images help construct a spatial/temporal program and regulate perception in a handscroll painting.

A free-standing screen in Chinese terms are ping ļ and zhang ő, both meaning ‘shields’ or ‘to shield’, are used to distinguish space. A screen has a ‘face’ and a ‘back’. So when it is set up, it not only divides an undifferentiated space into two juxtaposed areas-that in front of it and that behind it-but also qualifies these two areas. To the person backed or surrounded by a screen, the area behind the screen has become hidden from sight; it has suddenly disappeared, at least temporarily.76

A ‘free-standing’ screen only creates an internal division. It can be crossed and removed. The screen motif becomes a symbol of both discontinuity and continuity in a sequential reading.77 Wu Hung suggests that the screen motif in this painting serves at least three different structural roles: help to define an individual pictorial unit, ends the previous section, and initiates the following scene according to the position of screens.

Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels has a built-in narrative consisting of three consecutive ‘stage’.

“We see that in the opening scene a maid is emerging from behind a screen to peep at the party in front, and that each of the three screens separating the four sections delicately overlaps with a figure belonging to the next section. Even more telling, between the last two scenes a woman is speaking around a screen to a man; she points in the opposite direction and seems to be beckoning him into the back quarter.” These details create dynamic linking isolated scenes into a continuous pictorial plane, just as in a musical composition ties cross bar lines, connecting separated notes into a continuous melody.78 Roman Jakobson distinguishes the metonymic and metaphoric as two different devices or operations in language. The metonymic is based on the principles of continuity and sequence; the metaphoric is involved with the principles of similarity and substitution.79

76 Wu Hung, pp. 56-57. 77 Wu Hung divided Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels to four sections based on the position of screens. 78 Wu Hung, pp. 10-11. 79 Roman Jakobson and Morris Halle, “Two Aspects of Language and Two Type of Aphasic Disturbance” in Fundamental of Language (The Hague, 1956), pp. 109-114. Quoted from Wu Hung, pp. 10-11.

73 Wu Hung summed up three different senses of the screen picture in Chinese scroll painting: the screen as “a three-dimensional object that differentiates an architectural space”, “a two-dimensional surface for painting”, and as “a painted image that helps construct a pictorial space and supply visual metaphors.”80 Similar to media arts practices, the word ‘painting’ refers to an object or ‘item’, a representational ‘window’ or ‘screen’, or a pictorial illusion or ‘stage’. This realization of screen as space metaphor support a study of new media language based on multiple usages of screen (projection) or object, either as an architectural form, a moving picture medium, or a pictorial sign.

Wu Hung concluded that a screen image may serve either role: while continuity and sequence are necessary features of a composite pictorial space it helps create, its surface decoration is often metaphoric, providing an unspoken message with a concrete pictorial form. But we also find that a screen image rarely combines these two functions in equal measure; as a rule it always emphasizes either the metonymic or metaphoric role. He suggests Jakobson’s theory allows us to relate the two possible roles of a screen image to its two primary formal aspects. This image realizes its metonymic function of constructing a pictorial space through its architectural form; it performs its metaphoric function of characterizing human figures through its surface decoration, which appears as a ‘painting within a painting’.

80 Wu Hung, p. 25.

75 Chance Meeting as Montage Principle

CHANCE represents the concepts explored from the Han Xi-zai’s Night Revel.

Time and space are revolving and endless. They are relative and subject to change as unpredictable ‘chance meeting’ of unknown. CHANCE echoes with TIME on the TV revealing the Chinese non-linear, time-space consciousness by burning incense. The gallery space design is for each individual projection to collage in real time with the others. It creates the viewing experience as chance meeting as well.

CHANCE reflects life of the secular world. It was filmed from reflections of city

building pavement during the rain in Taipei city Xin-Yi District. The images are both

reflected from distance and real persons walking by the camera. The co-existence of

both reflections and real world eliminate the boundary between subject and object. It

reveals Lev Manovich’s ‘montage within shot’ and ‘spatial montage’ of

simultaneously coexisting images in a new perspective. However, CHANCE is not for

creating “fake realities” but disclosed realities.

The method of creating CHANCE is based on ‘chance meeting’. The editing process is to break the linear, get-there concepts of an event. By applying jump-cut and re-joint the footage at any point of time and space at random, the meaning of chance is disclosed. ‘Chance meeting’ created by cutting into the middle of one person’s movement cycle to the middle of another person’s movement cycle creates the realm that people walk into the other space in the same point of time or walk into the place simultaneously. The space has been compressed but the time is extended. Each of the cuts (edited points) is not to take out time from a linear timeline but to bring out overlapped space in the same time. Finally the whole space is constructed by separated layers of time-images. The viewing experience is like unfolding a scroll painting in one

76 single frame. By repeating exactly the same short sequence (clip) twice or re-join it with a different sequence, the end of the film mirrors its beginning in reverse order. The same images appear the second time, the symbolic meaning of revolving and chance of life occurred. There are no starting or finishing points on a circle.

Based on both philosophical content of chance: (ever-change or impermanence in

Buddhism term) as chance of life and the production technique of chance meeting

(random). I call the language developed from CHANCE, “chance montage”. Chance montage provokes the thinking of co-existence. In his The Language of New Media,

Manovich suggests “ontological montage” 81 of the coexistence of ontologically incompatible elements within the same time and space. This term is developed from

Zbigniew Rybczynski’s film Tango (1980)82. I will also apply this film to illustrate

‘chance montage’.

“Tango begins with a ball being thrown through a window into an empty room. A boy climbs into the room, picks up the ball, and jumps out the window. Then a ball is thrown into the room again and the cycle recommences. More characters enter and exit, going through their routines as if unaware of the actions of the others…Each movement is precisely choreographed and exposed separately on to the film.”83

Tango applies live-action footage to the logic of animation through optical printing and superimposing techniques. With ‘ontological montage’, a single on-screen space filled with crowded people movements. The characters of Tango keep moving through the same points in space; they never run into one another. “In this film, each person

81 Manovich, pp.158-159. He based on Zbigniew Rybczynski's film Tango which subject live-action footage to the logic of animation. Each movement is precisely choreographed and exposed separately on to the film. 82 Zbigniew Rybczyski is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards internationally. Tango is the winner of the an Oscar Award for the Best Short Animated Film in 1983. 83 Roger Noake, Animation: a Guide to Animated Film Technique (London: Macdonald Orbis, 1988), p. 64.

77 moving through the room can be said to form a separate world.”84 Manovich brings out the new aesthetic possibilities of digital compositing opposing traditional realism in

Tango where “borders between different worlds do not have to be erased; different spaces do not have to be matched in perspective, scale, and lighting; individual layers can retain their separate identities rather than being merged into a single space; different worlds can clash semantically rather than form a single universe.”85 However, his idea seems to focus on dimension of space. In CHANCE, chance meeting happens at the point of time when each individual action line overlaps. CHANCE is the collection of these points of time. There are no starting or finishing points on a circle. In other words, whatever point on a circle is a start and an end. Through these circles, there are many combinations of meetings. In terms of ‘chance montage’ co-existence appears in a form of time. In CHANCE time is spatialized and enlarged.

In Animation: a Guide to Animated Film Technique Roger Noake indicates the use of off-screen space in Tango challenge our perceptions of screen space. 86 The off-screen space is the imaginary area beyond the edge of the screen, and in front of or behind the camera. In CHANCE, off-screen space is built up through each cut. In viewing scroll painting, off-screen is created in between fold and unfold.

Contemporary Chinese artist Wang Qing-song’s (1966-) ʓƛǿ photography simulated and borrowed from Chinese tradition handscroll painting, applies the multi-linear concept and composition of Han Xi-zai’s Night Revels to create two works

Lao Li’s Night Revels (2003) ̰ȈúģÚ (Fig. 1-28) and China Mansion (2003) Ø

"Ĥ (Fig. 1-29). Lao Li’s Night Revels “presents an analysis of contemporary life, mocking the extravagant and corrupt lifestyles of some people in some elements of

84 Ibid. 85 Manovich, pp. 158-159. 86 Roger Noake, p. 65. Regarding ‘Filmic space’ also see footnote 45.

78 contemporary Chinese society.”87 Disregarding the political and social issues both images may imply, the infinite time-space consciousness is revealed clearly.

Figure 1-25: Clips from Rybczynski’s film Tango, 35mm/color/8’10”, 1980. Thirty-six characters from different stages of life - representations of different times - interact in one room, moving in loops, observed by a static camera. Source: http://www.zbigvision.com/Tango.html

87 Binghui Huangfu and Stephanie Britton, cur. & ed. Artlink: the Chinese Phenomenon, Vol. 23, No 4, p. 56, 2003.

Figure 1-26: By editing time and place CHANCE meetings are created.

82 1.6

Subtraction Aesthetics and Creative Method

The most profound philosophy of ancient China has been crystallized in Book of

Changes. It is based on the observation of nature and human life, the interaction of universal rules and individual behavior, of free will and destiny. Two important creativity ideas inherited from Book of Changes are a symbolic language and the method of creative intuition.

Chinese creative intuition was in the ancient times evoked through observation of natural human life. In “Xici Zhuan” (appended phrase) ̢ϞV in Commentary on

Book of Changes we read:

The Changes is without consciousness and is without deliberate action. Being utterly still it does not initiate movement, but when stimulated it is commensurate with all the causes for everything that happens in the world. (Xici I)88

Taoism as the art of living in the world inherits notions from Book of Changes. In

Tao Te Ching we read:

Learning consists in adding to one's stock day by day; The practice of Tao consists in 'subtracting day by day, Subtracting and yet again subtracting till one has reached inactivity. But by this very inactivity everything can be activated. (TTC 48)

Chuang Tzu teaches us that we must keep simplicity of mind then we can wander free and easy in the service of non-action.

A man of true brightness and purity who can enter into simplicity, who can return to the primitive through non-action, give body to his inborn nature,

88 ǛѴɺƂ'Ѵɺɸ'ѶħɻƖ̲ϱϪý"Ǆ

83 and embrace his spirit, and in this way wander through the everyday world. (CT 12)89

“By this very inactivity everything can be activated”, “return to the primitive through non-action” Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu have told Chinese these creative methods.

Intuition Contemplation

In Tao Te Ching chapter 10, Lao Tzu raises the question: “Can you wipe and cleanse your vision of the Mystery till all is without blur?”90 It reminds us that the way to achieve the Tao is to perceive things directly through senses by saying: “Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences; he that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes.” (TTC 1)91 In Wang Bi’s annotation notes “if we are always to be without desire and empty, we may see the subtlety of these beginnings.”92 Lao Tzu teaches people to eliminate subjective desire and preconceived ideas, keep the heart in a state of quietness. “Push far enough towards the Void, hold fast enough to Quietness, and of the ten thousand things none but can be worked on by you” (TTC 16)93 is an extended meaning of “wipe and cleanse your vision”. It reveals the “perceiving-receiving” activity of Tao requiring emptying out intellectual trace. Lao

Tzu describes the spirit state of “wipe and clean vision” which is simplicity “like a child that has not yet given a sign” (TTC 20)94. This idea is further confirmed from Chapter twenty-eight in which he says:

He who knows the male, yet cleaves to what is female becomes like a ravine,

89 ÿǙʸc̋ѴɺɸŶǻѴўƃƭ˘Ѵ9ϳI"П̱ѴȻıÖћЀѱ ýÝ 90 ɧЦʒЙѴ͂ćʱ# 91 ŒɺѴȣ9ΎlĈѴŒǰȣ9Ύlź 92 Œɺȣ͹ˣѴ©9Ύlĉʉ"Ĉ 93 ͎͹ȓѴėс˼ ͤʉAѴ¶9ΎŶ 94 ƟʐɈilǷ^Ѵćċa"Ƿē

84 receiving all things under haven. And being such a ravine, he knows all the time a power that he never calls upon in vain. This is returning to the state of infancy. (TTC 28)95

For returning to the state of infancy, our mind must be emptied out like a ravine; then things will grow from it. Chuang Tzu clarifies “Let your mind wandering in simplicity, blend your spirit and make the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.” (CT

96 7)

Chuang Tzu brings up two specific methods “fasting the mind” Żѯ and “sitting down and forgetting everything”. Þſ Both are extended from Lao Tzu’s “wipe and cleanse vision”. He consequently established a kind of ‘aesthetic bosom’ theory adopted by Chinese artists.

“Fasting the mind” is a state of doing away with the attractions of the sensual world.

Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind. No, don’t listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit. Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit (qi) is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.97

In Chuang Tzu, “Don’t listen with your ears” means don’t persist in the sense of hearing. The following text “Listening stops with the ears” as ears stop with listening which means the sense of hearing merely provides material through direct experiences.

98 What “cast aside ears and eyes” (CT 6) means refers to “Don’t listen with your ears”, and “Use the eye to look at the eye, the ear to listen to the ear, and the mind to restore

95 ˎlвѴėlеѴɸýθ ɸýθѴŒŹйѴŶȪǓċa 96 ȻϳŻǓɗѴȷǓɬѴшʉ͋ɻ̲ɺĥ˛ɹѴ̲ýɄˍ Ɯŏʓ 97 ɺ̹"9̳̲̹"9ŻѴɺ̹"9Ż̲̹"9ȷ ̹ȦǓ̳ѴŻȦǓ˲ ȷ'̱Ѵ͹̲Ůʉ̱ ' ÃϷд͹ ͹̱ѴŻѯ' 5П 98 Ͻl̳˂ üěŐ

85 99 the mind.” (CT 24) The meaning refers to “listening stops with the ears.”

“Don’t listen with your mind” means to not persist the mind to judge things through sensual experiences caused by the external world. In the following text “the mind stops with recognition”, the mind only directly reflects the external sensual impression like a mirror reflects objects. This is what Chuang Tzu says: “The Perfect

Man uses his mind like a mirror - going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but no storing. Therefore he can win out over things and not hurt himself.” (CT 7)100

Neither listen with ears nor mind, “listening stops with the ears and the mind stops with recognition”. Then could you achieve the pure intuition contemplation realm of “listen with your spirit” and “wait on all things”

For Chuang Tzu, to be self-cultivated to achieve freedom is not to grasp positive standard common value (such as benevolence and honesty), but the negative value (such as desire and prejudice). Chuang Tzu declares these methods are “becoming emptiness.”

He proposes “Embody to the fullest what has no end and wander where there is no trail.

Hold on to all that you have received from Heaven but do not think you have gotten anything. Be empty that is all. (CT 7)101 It is the result of dismissing from intellectual knowledge. Chuang Tzu says: “Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.”

In Chuang Tzu, the principal part of the cultivated spirit is said to rely on removing subject artifice sentiment, then the soul will regress to its original condition, not subjective pretense. It’s to see for seeing sake, but seen not seeing naturalness. Know by not knowing that is “to use the mind like a mirror”. Let “spirit is empty and waits on all things” therefore it won’t make judgment on specific reference direction. All things reveal their reality as acts themselves in the heart of Tao.

99 9˂΋˂Ѵ9̳̹̳Ѵ9ŻŶŻ Űɺѡ 100 ͍5"ʢŻ͝ЗѴıϢѴƜ̲ͱѴǄ͂ʉ̲W Ɯŏʓ 101 ўʿɺ˧Ѵ̲ϳɺǳ ʿlƤ£#ý̲ɺΊųѴ2͹̲ŋ Ɯŏʓ

86 The Taoists emphasized pure experience that is experience in which we have no interference of intellectual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge, often involving linguistic means of rationalization, tends to force the materials at hand into an abstraction or abstractions rather than to yield to the concreteness of things. As Yip

Wai-Lim pointed out “Taoist ‘pure’ experience means to receive the immediate presentation of things.”102

Method of No-Method: The Spontaneity of Mind

Taoist world view is to receive, perceive, and disclose Nature the way Nature comes or discloses itself to us, undistorted. This has been the highest aesthetic ideal in

Chinese art and literature, zi-ran or self-so-ness, the naturalness and spontaneity of things. It cannot be reached by intellect.

In Tao Te Ching, Chapter 25, Lao Tzu says “The ways of men are conditioned by those of earth. The ways of earth by those of heaven. The ways of heaven by those of

Tao, and the ways of Tao by the Self-so.” (TTC 25)103 Zi-ran is the central value of Tao.

104 In other chapters Lao Tzu also states “It happened of its own accord” (TTC 17)

105 without affect on the outside world as well as “it was always and itself so” (TTC 51) to put emphasis on the state of existence and lasting.

Wu-wei is the essential principle of Lao Tzu’s teaching. Wu-wei literally means ‘in the absence of/without doing exertion,’ and is often translated as ‘doing nothing’ or

‘non-action’. It is important to realize, however, that wu-wei not only refers to what is actually happening (or not happening) in the realm of observable action but also to the

102 Yip Wai-lim, Hiding the Universe, pp. viii-ix. 103 ɉÝѴÝɉýѴýɉϷѴϷɉ͋ɻ 104 ʹĊʻάƟ͋ɻ 105 ÿ͡"º̲Œ͋ɻ

87 state of mind of the actor. Zi-ran and wu-wei are both sides of one. When Lao Tzu talks about zi-ran it already involves the method of non-action.

Lao Tzu says: “Tao never does; yet through it all things are done. If the barons and kings would but possess themselves of it, the ten thousand creatures would at once be transformed. (All things create themselves) ” (TTC 37)106 Lao Tzu uses the following text to explain the principle.

What is most perfect seems to have something missing; yet its use is unimpaired. What is most full seems empty; yet its use will never fail. What is most straight seems crooked; the greatest skill seems like clumsiness, the greatest eloquence like stuttering. (TTC 45)107

Changes take place by themselves, without movement; things reveal themselves, without display. Lao Tzu highly praises the image and symbolic meaning of water which is in tune with the idea of wu-wei, non-action. The purpose and active effect of non-action are clear and definite in Tao Te Ching Chapter 43:

What is of all things most yielding (water)? Can overwhelm that which is of all things most hard (rock). Being substanceless it can enter even where there is no space; That is how I know the value of action that is non-action. But that there can be teaching without words, value in action that is non-action, Few indeed can understand.108

Thus, “soft /weak triumph hard/strong” can be used to explain the rationality, purpose and outcome. The Tao of non-action and soft is not to fall back neither to collapse. Lao Tzu believes that “soft/weak triumph hard/strong” is like the dripping

106 ϷŒɺɸѴ̲ɺɸ Fʓ͂͝ė"Ѵͤʉı͋ 107 üƞ̤͝ѴlʢǈѴüʼ͝ɂѴlʢ˧ ü˄͝ĺѴüň͝ƯѴüϟ͝Θ 108 ý"͍ȆѴїјý"͍éѴɺǰcɺП ¶Ǡ9ˎɺɸ"ǰʽ Β"ǇѴɺɸ"ʽѴý Ŏ"

88 water which could break through stone.

Chinese scholar Chang Chung-Yuan šЖ] emphasizes the creativity of Tao painting as the spontaneous reflection from one’s inner reality, In this spontaneous reflection one’s potentialities are set free and great creativity is achieved without artificial effort. This method of no-method in painting is the application of Taoist philosophy. It is an intuitive reflection of things. From the Taoist point of view, actual creativity requires no intellectual explanation in terms of process. Chang Chung-Yuan suggests it is a mere intuitive reflection of things. Since the following Chinese verse of the eighth century quoted in Creativity and Taoism: A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art and Poetry is very close to the process I filmed TRANSIENCE, LOTUS, and INK, I adopt Chang Chung-Yuan’s interpretation here to help the reader understand how I refer intuitive and spontaneous process to ‘optical unconscious’ of the camera lens. In the poem we read:

The wild geese fly across the long shy above. Their image is reflected upon the chilly water below. The geese do not mean to cart their image on the water; Nor does the water mean to hold the image of the geese.

Chang Chung-Yuan used this poem as a metaphor for the idea of reflection as creativity. He interprets “When the geese fly above the water, they are free of any intention of casting their image upon it, even as the water has no intention of reflecting their flight. But it is at this moment that their beauty is most purely reflected.” From the

Taoist point of view, Chang Chung-Yuan explains the process of creation says “In this instant of reflection time is space and space is time. They merge at one absolute point, the point from which all beauty, all that is created, arises. Our minds are simply God’s mirror, reflecting the ‘here-now’ of creation.” He then emphasizes “this creative

89 reflection can only be understood through private intuition.”109

The wild geese cast their images upon the water completely without intention.

Such spontaneous reflection is the creativity of Tao. But always Tao itself remains invisible and unfathomable. What we grasp, what we see, is simply its manifestation through reflection.110 The process of filming TRANSIENCE, CHANCE, LOTUS, and

INK all reveal some forms of ‘optical unconscious’ through spontaneous reflection created by natural light and kinetic power such as wind and water. These seem to open up ‘reality’. ‘Enlarge’ our vision.

The term “optical unconscious” was first used in Walter Benjamin’s essay “Small

History of Photography” in 1931 when he referred to the photographs of French

Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) 111 and English Eadweard Muybridges’

(1830-1904)112 motion studies. Benjamin speaks of how the naked eye cannot penetrate movements of even the most ordinary kind. Benjamin comments “It is through photography that we first discover the existence of this ‘optical unconscious’, just as we discover the instinctual unconscious through psychoanalysis.” 113 In Rosalind E.

Krauss’s book The Optical Unconscious he echoes with “…[for] mass movements are usually discerned more clearly by a camera than by the naked eye,’ that we encounter some form of ‘unconscious’ that the camera could intercept.”

The central figure in the history of independent film, Stan Brakhage’s

109 Chang Chung-Yuan, Creativity and Taoism: A Study of Chinese Philosophy, Art and Poetry (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), pp. 56-57. 110 Chang Chung-Yuan, p. 67. 111 He started by studying how blood moves in the body. Then he shifted to analyzing heart beats, respiration, muscles (myography), and movement of the body. To aid his studies, he developed many instruments for precise measurements. On line source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne-Jules_Marey 112 Known primarily for his early use of multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the celluloid film strip that is still used today. On line source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge 113 Rosalind E. Krauss, The Optical Unconscious (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993), pp. 178-179.

90 (1933-2003)114 works could be describe as a form of ‘optical unconscious’. In his 1963 writing Metaphors on Vision, he announced a visionary cinema that is “Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure in perception.”115 Brakhage’s idea is to use camera as an instrument to create a purely visual cinema which extended the eye and body of the artist. Inspired by Brakhage’s “unruled eye”, Dancing Brush experimented with forms of “optical unconscious” according to chance happenings.

From the Taoist point of view ‘unconscious’ is the spontaneity reflection. “Without action and the ten thousand things were transformed.”(CT 12)116 Tao do not oppose zi-ran and therefore it attains its nature. To follow Nature as its standard is to model after the square while within square and the circle while within the circle, and not to oppose Nature in any way. For Chinese artists, it was through the creation of the self that the artist captured the Tao and through the expression of the Tao that the self was created. The Song painter Su Shih’s ʹϖ (1037-1101)117 interest in Taoist philosophy and Chan (Zen) Buddhism led him to celebrate naturalness and spontaneity in art. He described that his writing is like water gushing out from an ample, deep spring “It can move on a thousand miles a day without effort and turns with mountains and rocks and shapes itself according to the objects it encounters. This is something the artist is not conscious of. What he is conscious of is this: that it moves on when it has to move on and it stops when it has to stop.”118 The suggestion is that expression can be as natural

114 Brakhage’s films are usually silent and lack a story, being more analogous to visual poetry than to prose story-telling. He often referred to them as “visual music” or “moving visual thinking.” 115 John G. Hanhardt, “The Medium Viewed: The American Avant-Garde Film,” in A History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema, pp. 19-47. 116 ɺɸ̲ͤʉ ýÝ 117 Su Shih is also a writer, poet, and calligrapher. He is often referred to as Su Dongpo ʹǾß. 118 ¶ǎćͤǏɇɢ ƿÝ̲s зǕЋɺк l͒ĿːǬƬѴЯʉσŦ ̲©ˎ' Ƥ©ˎ̱ Œ΁ǓƤʮ΁ ŒȦǓƤʮȦ

91 as water, an object of Nature. Tao can be made to come, but cannot be sought.

I Ching teaches the method of creative intuition. Intuition contemplation, spontaneity and non-action are the key principles. The creative process of Dancing

Brush is based on the ‘chance meeting’ principle of I Ching. In Dancing Brush, chance happens in three ways: the intuitive reflection of things, the decision making process of creation as well as the meeting point of audience and images from individual projection.

The pioneer of chance music, non-standard use of musical instruments, John Cage, is the best modern example of applying chance operation in arts. Cage immersed himself in Zen Buddhism and use of chance operation in his music. He is known for breaking ground of conventional Western music in incorporated chance happenings from “real” life as well as “letting go” of creative responsibility by incorporating his audience into his performances. He emphasized the process of creation over its product.119 By using chance as a creative device, Cage worked in accord with nature instead of operating according to his likes and dislikes. Chance operations enabled him to give up his need to “capture and control” in art. In his conversation with Kostelanetz,

Cage said:

To me, the essential meaning of silence is the giving up of intention. As we might expect, few film follow silence in renouncing intention: when one looks at films (and I here limp together art films and Hollywood films) one sees that intention is almost never renounced.120

Cage has revealed what should be done to meet the requirements of the moment is the matter. Chuang Tzu emphasizes that wu-wei is the way to approach the state of Tao by saying “Only when there is no pondering and no cogitation will you get to know the

119 Jacquelynn Baas, Mary Jane Jacob. ed. Smile of Buddha (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 159. 120 Howard Skempton, ‘John Cage: Landscape, Spaces and Silence’, PIX 2, ed. Ilona Halberstadt, (London: PIX, 1997), Originally from Cinema Now, University of Cincinnati, 1968, quote from “Conversations with Cage”, Cage and Kostelanetz, 1987.

92 Way. Only when you have no surroundings and follow no practices will you find rest in the Way. Only when there is no path and no procedure can you get to the Way.” (CT

22)121

The creative process of Dancing Brush is to learn to give up intention by letting the camera capture what happens in accord with nature of optical effects.

121 ɺ˛ɺƙĉˎϷѴɺ͸ɺǲĉĘϷѴɺŵɺϷĉųϷ ˎϳ

93 Chapter Two Chinese Culture of Time and Space

In Chinese culture ‘unity of Man with Nature’ has had great influences on traditional Chinese art, particularly landscape painting and poetry. When Chinese confront the Heaven, Earth, and Man, they adopt multiple directions to view situations as a whole presented as ‘perspective of all perspectives’. Zong Bai-hua ěʸ͢

(1897-1986), the well-known contemporary aesthetician, recognizes the “looking up and down all-embracing perception of existence” claiming it conveys an idea of the type of space-consciousness that is indigenous to Chinese art.122 In Book of Changes it reveals the idea:

In ancient times Lord Bao Xi ruled the world as sovereign, he looked upward and observed the images (phenomena) in heaven, and looked downward and observed the models that the earth provided. He observed the patterns on birds and beasts and what things were suitable for the land. Nearby, adopting them from his own person, and afar, adopting them from other things, he thereupon made the eight trigrams in order to become thoroughly conversant with the virtues inherent in the numinous and the bright and to classify the myriad things in terms of their true, innate natures. (Xici II)123

The philosophy of observing things presented through the mobile viewpoints in

Chinese arts relate to the notion of ‘unity of Man with Nature’. Its purpose is to pursue the infinite spiritual world. By exploring the nature of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics that disclose the non-linear aesthetics in Chinese culture and arts, it defines the philosophic background of Dancing Brush.

122 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness in Chinese Poem and Landscape Painting’ in Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), p. 36. 123 ¥̱ʌȵ"ʓý'Ѵ:|ΎλǓýѴK|ΎɉǓÝѴΎѤʑ"ǎѴ͒Ý"ĞѴϣ¢ΫϓѴ Ϻ¢ΫʉѴǓǠĉAfѴ9Ϫ˘Ǚ"ŹѴ9ьͤʉ"ƌ

94 2.1

The Universe: Yu-Zhou

Man and universe, as conceived by Chinese philosophers, constitute together a system of comprehensive harmony. This harmonious relation of ‘unity of Man with

Nature’ reveals how Chinese perceives the Universe. For Chinese the idea of ‘way of heaven’ a rhythmical living entity is inseparability of time and space.

To understand the theory of unity of Man with Nature, we must know about how

Chinese perceive the Universe: Yu-Zhou Ėĝ. Chuang Tzu proposes Space and Time as an integral system. His statement says:

In a commentary on the Chuang Tzu, Guo Xiang Ѕλ (312 C.E.) annotates:

‘Extension’ is the four directions, above and below, and the four directions, above and below, is without limit. ‘Duration’ is what perdures from the past to the present and neither in past nor present does it have a limit.125

Although heaven and earth are limited, the concept ‘extension-duration’ is without limit. The above definition reveals two qualities of time: ‘continuing’ and ‘revolving’.

This idea echoed Chuang Tzu’s idea about time and space. He said:

124 ǰĮ̲ɺ#͸ѴǰЛ̲ɺ#ǹѴǰƤs̲ɺ˪̱ǰĮ ǰĮ̲ɺ#͸̱ѴĖ' ǰЛ̲ɺ# ṉ̀Ѵĝ' řȍȒ 125 Translation quoted from Zhang Dai-nian šŀŔ, Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2002), p.147. ЅλΛѵĖ̱ǰÒǒѴ̲Òǒɸǰ˧͸ ĝ̱ǰ¥6"ЛѴ̲¥6"Лɺ˧ Huai-nan-zi əČ states: “Going back to the past and coming to the present is called ‘duration’; the four directions, above and below-are called ‘extension’.” ¥ŭ6Cɸ"ĝѴÒǒɸ"Ė which is the same definition. ’Leveling Customs’, Huai-nan-zi II əČѮIΕ

There is no end to the weighing of things, no stop to time, no constancy to the division of lots, no fixed rule to beginning and end. (CT 17)126

Contemporary Chinese scholar Thome H. Fang ǒǾ̧ (1899-1977) sums up the concept of ‘Universe’ or ‘Cosmos’ expressed in Chinese as yu-zhou designating Space and Time. What Chinese call ‘yu’ Ė is the collection of three dimensional spaces; what Chinese call ‘zhou’ ĝ is constituted by the one dimensional series of changes in succession the past continuing itself into the present and the present, into future. Yu and zhou represent the primordial unity of the system of Space with the system of Time.

Chinese philosophers have conceived yuzhou as the unified field of all existence to embrace within itself a physical world as well as a spiritual world, so interpenetrated with each other as to form an inseparable whole.127 The following text from Chaung Tzu also implies that time and space are relative and subject to change. There is always time-space outside the time-space. Time-space exist simultaneously.

There is a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is being. There is nonbeing. There is not yet beginning to be nonbeing. There is a not beginning to be a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. Suddenly there is nonbeing. But I do not know, when it comes to nonbeing, which is really being and which is nonbeing. Now I have just said something. But I don’t know whether what I have said has really said something or whether it hasn’t said something. (CT 6)128

Thus, Chuang Tzu teaches us to observe things from the opposite point of view. He states:

126 ÿʉѴЎɺ˧ѴǡɺȦѴvɺŒѴ̎ĉɺǄ ˜ȸ 127 Thome H. Fang, “Essential of Cosmology” in The Chinese View of Life: Essential of Cosmology (Hong Kong: Union Press, 1957), p. 29. 128 ǰĉ'̱ѴǰǷĉǰĉ'̱ѴǰǷĉǰÿǷĉǰĉ'̱Ѷǰǰ'̱Ѵǰɺ'̱ѴǰǷĉǰɺ' ̱ѴǰǷĉǰÿǷĉǰɺ'̱ H̲ǰɺˍѴ̲Ƿˎǰɺ"ȄĔǰĔɺ' 6Ɵ|ŋǰάˍѴ̲Ƿ ˎ¶Ƥά"lȄǰά#ѷ ѮʉΪ

Therefore great wisdom observes both far and near, and for that reason recognizes small without considering it paltry, recognizes large without considering it unwieldy, for it knows that there is no end to the weighing of things. It has a clear understanding of past and present, and for that reason it spends a long time without finding it tedious, a short time without fretting at its shortness, for it knows that time has no stop. (CT 17)129

The fundamental concept of Chinese thought is the inseparability of time and space which is the idea of the ‘way of heaven’ a rhythmical living entity immeasurably far from concepts of physics.130

In ancient China, incense was used to describe the unit of time. The TIME in

Dancing Brush installation is to reveal that time is ‘continuing’ and ‘revolving’. The

Chinese non-linear, time-space consciousness is revealed by burning incense. Time and space are relative and subject to change as chance meeting in real life. TIME implies that the viewing experiences of the Dancing Brush installation are different and unique for each individual audience through playing the varied length of movies simultaneously and continuously. The stage represents the life journey to echo with the incense.

129 ǠǄüˎΎǓϺϣѴǄĶ̲ĬѴü̲ùѵˎЎɺ˧ αǩ6ǄѴǄϹ̲ƋѴƵ̲ύѴ ˎǡɺȦ ˜ȸ 130 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness in Chinese Poem and Landscape Painting’, p. 44.

97 2.2

Manifestation of Tao

Changes: Production of Reproduction

Tao is the process of reality itself, the way things come together, while still transforming. Chinese believe that change is the most basic character of things. I Ching accepts changes as the natural order of things, the true nature of life. It states:

The Changes is a paradigm of Heaven and Earth, and so it shows how one can fill in and pull together the Tao of Heaven and Earth. Look up we use it [the Changes] to observe the configurations of Heaven, and, look down, we use it to examine the patterns of Earth. Thus we understand the reasons underlying what is hidden and what is clear. We trace things back to their origins then turn back to their ends. Thus we understand the axiom of life and death. (Xici I)131

According to Chinese tradition interpretation, the character yi Ǜ (literally: change) in I Ching has three meanings: the easy and simple principle, jian-yi ˾Ǜ, the change principle, bian-yi ζǛ and the never change principle, bu-yi Ǜ. 132 As a manifestation of the Tao, Book of Changes involve frequent shifts. In the book it states:

Change and action never stand still but keep flowing all through the six vacancies. [the six lines positions] Rising and falling with any consistency, the hard and soft lines change one into the other. Something for which it is impossible to make definitive laws, since they are doing nothing but keeping pace with change. (Xici II)133

131 Ǜ͒ýÝɣѴǄ͂Ť̙ýÝ"Ϸ :9ΎǓýǎѴK9īǓÝʖѴǠǄˎŕǙ"ǄѶĉ¡̎Ѵ Ǆˎȫʡ"Υ 132 Ǜ¯̲²̩ѵǛ˾'ѶζǛ,'ѶǛ' Commented on by Zheng Xuan Їʒ in his writings Critique of I Ching (yi zan) Ǜφ and Commentary on I Ching (yi lun) ǛΪ of Eastern Han Dynasty. 133 ɸϷ'ĽϼѴζĹѴ·ɒh͹ѴɺŒѴ~Ȇ˅ǛѴ©ɸnΉѴÃζƤϻ

98 The patterns of this change are symbolized by figures standing for 64 relations of correlative forces and known as the hexagrams. Tao is the alteration of these forces, most often simply stated as yin and yang. In Book of Changes, it reveals how the Way of

Universe is constituted by yin and yang.

Changes and the transformations involve images of advance and withdrawal. The strong and the weak provide images of day and night. The movement of the six hexagram lines embodies the Tao of the three ultimates. [The three ultimates are three powers: Heaven, Earth and Man.] (Xici I)134

Wang Bi annotates: “Going forth prompts a coming back and vice versa; this means advance and withdrawal in turn.” There are norms for action and repose, which are determined by whether hardness or softness is involved. (Xici I)135 Hardness means action, and softness means repose. It reveals how the change and movement occurred.

In Changes there is the Great Ultimate. This is what generates the two modes [the yin and yang]. The two basic modes generate the four basic images, and the four basic images generate the eight trigrams.”(Xici I)

“The hard and soft lines displace each other so that change and transformation could appear.” (Xici I)136 The result of change is reproduction. The essence is change which lies in “production of reproduction” It is what in “Xici Zhuan” says “In its [Tao] capacity to produce and reproduce we call it ‘change’.” (Xici I)137 It is through the trigrams that change is provided with images.

134 ζ̱ѴϯϦ"λ' ~Ȇ̱ѴǢú"λ' hʁ"Ѵȓ"Ϸ' 135 сǰŒѴ~ȆǑˍ 136 ~Ȇ˅Ʒ̲ʡζ 137 ʡʡ"άǛ

' Tai Chi (tai ji) Great Ultimate "

Qian is heaven

* two elementary forms , Dui is lake & #

Yang Yin / Li is fire

+( Four basic symbols % Zhen is thunder

& # & # $ old yang young yin young yang old yin Xun is wind

eight hexagrams Kan is water

" / + $

Qian Dui Li Zhen Xun Kan Gen Kun Gen is mountain

Kun is earth 64 hexagrams

Figure 2-1: (left) The two basic modes (the yin and yang) generate the four basic images (xiang), the four basic images generate the eight trigrams. Figure 2-2: (right) Eight hexagrams: all things and matters induct eight figures. The eight hexagrams compose them.

Book of Changes also teaches us that it is through change to achieve the never change. The process of transformation has been summarized as a cycle from growing to decline or from rising to falling. We read:

100 When the sun has reached the midday, it begins to decline. When the moon has become full, it begins to wane. The heaven and earth is now vigorous and abundant, now dull and scanty, growing and diminishing according to the time. (Hexagrams Fong κ: abundance)138

Hence, the way of heaven and earth is to continue in their operation without stopping.

The procedure of changes from beginning to the end is revolving. In Chuang Tzu’s point of view, the understanding of life is about the rule of change and changelessness.

Changes happened anytime and everywhere, he says:

The Way is without beginning or end, but things have their life and death-you cannot rely upon their fulfillment. One moment empty, the next moment full-you cannot depend upon their form. The years cannot be held off; time cannot be stopped. Decay, growth, fullness, and emptiness end and then begin again. It is thus that we must describe the plan of the Great Meaning and discuss the principles of the ten thousand things. The life of things is a gallop, a headlong dash-with every movement they alter, with every moment they shift. What should you do and what should you not do? Everything will change of itself, that is certain! (CT 18)139

Changes happen everywhere and never stop. It’s like “The spring and summer precede, autumn and winter follow such is the four seasons. The ten thousand things change and grow, their roots and buds, each with its distinctive form, flourishing and decaying by degree, a constant flow of change and transformation.” (CT 13)140 So to speak, “The sun at noon is the sun setting. The thing born is the thing dying.” (CT 30)141

The hard yang and the soft yin push themselves so each other are the rules and causes of changes. However, from the variations of lines movement, the regular pattern of change present “The end of the things is the beginning of others things.” and “returning whence they came” as further statement of things. “The end of the things is the beginning of

138 Ǖ|ǗѴǯʼ|ёѴýÝʼ͹Ѵ͒ǡɕƇ κťV 139 Ϸɺ̎ĉѴʉǰȫʡѴƄl ͹ɪѴ>#lŦ Ŕ©͔Ѵǡ©Ȧ ɕƇʼ͹Ѵ ̎|ǰĉ ǠƤ9Τü̩"ǒѴΪͤʉ"ʖ' ʉ"ʡ'Ѵ͝ќ͝ї ɺ̲ζѴɺǡ̲˞ @ɸ#Ѵ@ɸ#ѷÿÖı͋ ˜ȸ 140 Ǟö_˜qůѴÒǡ"ŗ'ѶͤʉAѴͣǰʍѴʾ΄"ȰѴζ"ɒ' ýϷ 141 ǕǒǒˊѴʉǒʡǒȫ ý

101 others things. Such is the procedure of heaven.” (Hexagrams Gu Ϳ: decay manage)142

In his Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu echoes the same idea by saying:

Tao gave birth to the One; the One gave birth successively to two things, three things, up to ten thousand things. These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade without having the sun on their bellies, and it is on this blending of the breaths that their harmony depends. (TTC 42)143

INK is a modern illustration of the concept exploring from the Book of Changes. It says the entire universe has been in a constant state of change from its beginning, and that each change can be interpreted from the conditions and situations of the individual lines forming any one hexagram. Yet all sixty-four hexagrams originated from a single straight line and its division into two; and that first one single line is the origin of everything. In other words, the original single line produces all things and all things are sprung from one. ‘One’ is the beginning of everything; the word ‘one’ represents the

‘beginning’ and means ‘oneness’ as well. The aesthetics of Chinese art are also centered on this very ‘oneness’, and on the very first line or stroke; for this first line or stroke, set down by a well-disciplined hand, is the seed of any artistic creation. Lao Tzu understands the true meaning of change is production reproduction.

Returning

Taoist world view is constantly changing and in a perpetual circular flowing motion. In text of hexagram Fu Ŷ: Return, the concept of returning has been stated precisely.

142 ̎|ǰĉѴý΁' ͿťV 143 ϷʡѴʡ,Ѵ,ʡѴʡͤʉ ͤʉξЧ̲ƭЪѴɂȷ9ɸ»

102 Return. Success! All going forth and coming in is free from harm. Friends arrive and no error is involved. They return whence they came, spending seven days in all upon their coming and returning. It is favorable to have in view some goal (or destination)”144 The Commentary on the text of hexagram Fu explains the function of return. “It is in the return cycles that the very heart of the working of heaven and earth becomes apparent.”145

The concept of return also appears in hexagram Tai ɍ: Peace 93 Xiang “There is no departure so that there shall not be a return”146 Chinese perceive time as revolution.

Lao Tzu confirms this concept in Tao Te Ching:

There was something formless yet complete, that existed before heaven and earth; without sound, without substance, dependent on nothing, unchanging, all pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven. Its true name we do not know; 'Way' is the by-name that we give it. Were I forced to say to what class of things it belongs I should call it Great. Now da also means passing on, and passing on means going Far Away, and going far away means returning. (TTC 25)

For Lao Tzu, returning is the matter of Tao, so to speak “in Tao the only motion is returning.” It covers the meanings of revolution and transformation.

Above all the discussions, Thome H. Fang’s answer has given the most clear and definite interpretation on the notion of time expounded from Book of Changes. I quote his words in length as the summary. It will help us to understand the Tao of change, so to speak “when one process of it reaches its limit, a change from one state to another occurs. As such, change achieves free flow, and with this free flow, it lasts forever.”

(Xici II)147 Thome H. Fang asks what is time? He said:

The essence of time consists in change; the order of time processed with concatenation; the efficacy of time abides by durance. The rhythmic process of epochal change is wheeling around into infinitude and perpetually dovetailing the old and the new so as to issue into

144 Ŷ3ѴscɺʲѴǱCɺ¼Ѵ¡ŶlϷѴǕCŶѴyǰǂŭ 145 ŶΊlýÝ"Ż 146 ɺŭŶѴýÝЮ' 147 ˧|ζѴζ|ϪѴϪ|

103 interpenetration which is continuant duration in creative advance. This is the way in which time generates itself by its systematic entry into a pervasive unity which constitutes the rational order of creative creativity. The dynamic sequence of time, ridding itself the perished past and coming by the new in the present existence, really gains something over a loss. So, the change in time is a step to approaching eternity, which is perennial durance whereby, before the bygone is ended, the forefront of the succeeding has come into presence. And, there is here a linkage of Being projecting itself into the prospect of eternity.148

Chinese scroll paintings reflect the Chinese concept of time and space as infinite.

It is perceived to be continuous, unbounded, and flowing. The process of unrolling a long scroll painting is consistent with how Chinese perceive time and space as an eternal process of regretting the passing of time. Dancing Brush reflected Chinese concept of time and space. The design of the Kudos gallery space and projections displays is to represent the experience of viewing the Chinese scroll painting. In the process of unrolling, time is overlapping repeatedly on the same axis, forming countless circles. There are no starting or finishing points on a circle. In other words, whatever point on a circle is a start and an end.

The eight movies are played on two sets of projections and one TV. The movie lengths of the DVD projections are of different durations. They play simultaneously and continuously. Each individual projection collages in real time with the others. The result is a constantly shifting layering of story unrepeatable variations re-edited by the viewers as they move throughout the space. What viewers will see is based on ‘chance meeting’ which is drawn on from the notion of mobility as expounded in the Book of Changes.

148 Thome H. Fang, “The World and the Individual in Chinese Metaphysics” in Creativity in Man and Nature (Hong Kong: Union Press, 1957), p. 35.

104 Emptiness/Nothingness

Emptiness or nothingness is a central element of Taoist philosophy. In the first chapter of Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu states,

The Way that can be told of is not an Unvarying Way; the names that can be named are not unvarying names. It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; the named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind. Truly, ‘Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the Secret Essences’; he that has never rid himself of desire can see only the Outcomes. These two things issued from the same mould, but nevertheless are different in name. (TTC 1)149

Wang Bi reveals that: if we are always without desire and empty, we may see the subtlety of these beginnings. 150 Lao Tzu attempts to “describe” the Tao as a manifestation of nothingness in following texts.

There was something formless yet complete, that existed before heaven and earth. Without sound, without substance, dependent on nothing, unchanging, all pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven. Its true name we do not know; ‘Tao’ is the by-name that we give it. (TTC 25)151

Because the eye gazes but can catch no glimpse of it, it is called elusive. Because the ear listens but cannot hear it, it is called the rarefied. Because the hand feels for it but cannot find it, it is called the infinitesimal. These three, because they cannot be further scrutinized, blend into one. Its rising brings no light; its sinking, no darkness. Endless the series of things without name on the way back to where there is nothing. They are called shapeless shapes; forms without form; are called vague semblances. (TTC 14)152

149 Ϸ©ϷѴтŒϷѶ¯©¯ѴтŒ¯ ɺ¯ýÝ"ĉѶǰ¯ͤʉ"ȱ ǄŒɺѴȣ9ΎlĈѶ ŒǰѴȣ9Ύlź ȧe̱Ѵ®s̲ʭ¯ 150 Œɺȣ͹ˣѴ©9Ύlĉʉ"ĈѲ˴ˬɌѳ 151 ǰʉɜƞѴ_ýÝʡ ħiĭiѱʐ˫ǃѴ·΁̲Ȭ ©9ɸýȱ ¶ˎl¯Ѵč" ǫϷ 152 ΋"ΊѴ¯ǫĂ ̹"̶Ѵ¯ǫŎ ǀ"ųѴ¯ǫŷ ȧ̱©͎ΡѴǄɜ̲ɸ lÏѴlǟ ̡̡©¯ѴŶȪǓɺʉ Ǡάɺʍ"ʍѴɺʉ"λѴǠάƎƆ

105 For the Way is a thing impalpable, incommensurable. Incommensurable, impalpable yet latent in it are forms (Thought-image); Impalpable, incommensurable yet within it are entities. Shadowy it is and dim; yet within it there is a force. (TTC 21)153

These things the eye gazes but can catch no glimpse of it; the ear listens but cannot hear it, and the hand feels for it but cannot find it are Tao itself. Thus, Lao Tzu expounds “Great music has the faintest notes, the Great Form is without shape.” (TTC

41)154 These formless and nameless as Wang Bi points out, is the ancestor of the myriad things.155 Chuang Tzu also teaches that the Tao cannot be conceived in other than its relation with emptiness. He says:

In the Great Beginning, there was nonbeing; there was no being, no name. Out of it arose One; there was One, but it had no form. (CT12)156

The Tao cannot be heard; heard, it is not the Way. The Way cannot be seen; seen, it is not the Way. The Tao cannot be described; described, it is not the Way. That which gives form to the formed is itself formless. Can you understand that? There is no name that fits the Way. (CT 22)157

Being and Nonbeing Grow Out of One Another

“The Way is like an empty vessel that yet may be drawn from without ever needing to be filled.” (TTC 4)158 Lao Tzu reveals that the substance of Tao is emptiness.

In Chinese wu ɺ and xu ͹ are recommended for the idea of emptiness or

153 Ϸ"ɸʉѴƏƆƏƎ ƆiƎiѴlǰλѶƎiƆiѴlǰʉ ˥ipiѴlǰ̉ 154 üхŎ̸ѴüλɺŦ 155 ʓţΥѵɺŦɺ¯̱Ѵͤʉ"ě' ÒˬɌ 156 ɍxɺǰѴɺǰɺ¯Ѵ"ƤωѴǰ̲ǷŦ ýÝ 157 Ϸ©̶Ѵ̶̲т'ѶϷ©ΊѴΊ̲т'ѶϷ©ΒѴΒ̲т' ˎŦŦ"Ŧ#ѱϷʮ ¯ ˎϳ 158 Ϸɂ̲ʢ"Ơʼ

106 nothingness (nonbeing)159. Each of these two terms can be defined as you ǰ (being) and shi Į (fullness) in terms of the opposite. According to Zhang Dai-nan’s analysis, the character xu is the drawing of the gap between two mountains. In English it is often rendered as ‘the void,’ but the term ‘empty space’ retains the original sense of ‘gap’ as well as the philosophical meaning of the void.160 Gap implies ‘valley’ which is a gap between mountains. Francois Cheng reinforces the concept of emptiness represented concretely by the valley. “The valley is hollow, and one might say empty, but it makes things grow and nourishes them. Bearing all things within its bosom, the valley contains

161 them without exceeding its capacities or being worn out.” To the Taoist, water is the source of life. Kuan Tzu ˺Č (350-250 BCE) says, “It is by absorbing the water spirit, that vegetation lives, that the root gets its girth, the flower its symmetries, the fruit its

162 measure.”

Kasoff in Thought of Chang Tsai refers to the same intangible, ‘above-form’ state as the Great Harmony, in the work of Zhang Zai šϘ163 (1020-1077): “Great Void

[ultimate space]. But, in contrast to the term Great Harmony, which emphasizes the coexistence of the two polar forces in harmonious unity, Great Void emphasizes the invisibility of this state.”164

The concept of valley as empty space appears frequently in both Lao Tzu and

Chuang Tzu’s words. A great importance in this valley concept is the notion that the valley is female as opposed to the mountain, which is male.

159 Song Zhang Zai established the expression tai-xu þ͹ (supreme emptiness). Xu became the established term for emptiness. Francois Cheng, p. 43. 160 Zhang Dai-nian, p. 77. 161 Cheng Francois, p. 46. 162 Kuan Tzu Chapter 39 163 Zhang Zai is one of the three major Chinese philosophers who, in the eleventh century, revitalized Confucian thought after centuries of stagnation and formed the foundation for the neo-Confucian thinking that was predominant till the nineteenth century. 164 Ira E. Kasoff, The Thought of Chang Tsai (Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 37.

107 The Valley Spirit never dies. It is named the Mysterious Female. And the Doorway of the Mysterious Female is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry. (TTC 6)165

He who knows the male, yet cleaves to the female, Becomes like a ravine, receiving all things under Heaven. (TTC 28)166

Chuang Tzu confirms Lao Tzu’s words by saying “the Great Valley is the sort of thing you can pour into and it never gets full, dip from and it never runs dry.”(CT 12)167

Consequently, “valley kept full throughout their void.”(TTC 39)168 The function of fullness is activated through emptiness. Lao Tzu further explains the process in Tao Te

Ching: “In Tao the only motion is returning; the only useful quality, weakness. For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Nonbeing.” (TTC 40)169 Wang Bi annotates: “All things in the world came from being, and the origin of being is based on nonbeing. To have being in total, it is necessary to return to nonbeing.”170 Lao Tzu uses “returning” to describe the state of

Tao. The above responds to the principle of two things opposite and complementary to each other in what Books of Changes evoked. In Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu expounded this principle repeatedly.

For truly Being and Nonbeing grow out of one another; difficult and easy complete one another. Long and short test one another; high and low determine one another. Pitch and mode give harmony to one another. Front and back give sequence to one another.

165 η˘ȫѴǠάʒʇ ʒʇ"МѴǠάýÝȊ ͝ĎѴʢ" 166 ˎlвѴėlеѴɸýθ 167 ÿüò"ɸʉ'ѴɌɹ̲ɪѴЈɹ̲˭ ýÝ 168 ηų9ʼ 169 ¡̱Ϸ"ѶŠ̱Ϸ"ʢ ýͤʉʡǓǰѴǰʡǓɺ 170 ý"ʉѴʻ9ǰɸʡ ǰ"ƤĉѴ9ɺɸǹ ıȣdǰѴż¡Ǔɺ ÒˬɌ

108 (TTC 2)171

The power of nothingness spreads out through production of reproduction which is the power of Tao. Nothingness is not nonexistence but the unfailing supply of life. Thus

Lao Tzu states “For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being, Being itself is the product of Nonbeing.” He states being from nonbeing. Through this relationship to understand Tao, Lao Tzu’s world view is “just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.”

The universe, as conceived by the Chinese, is a kind of well-balanced and harmonious system which is materially vacuous but spiritually opulent and unobstructed.

Its physical form may be limited in extent, but its ideal function is infinite in essence which have characterized the Chinese cosmology as a conception of finite substance which is, withal, a conception of infinite function. The infinite function is revealed in the Book of Changes, Da You üǰ [abundant] Xing: “A large wagon for leading’ means: accumulating in the perfect middle virtue, no loss.”172

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends. We pierce doors and windows to make a house; and it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not. (TTC 11)173

A wheel can unite the thirty spokes because of its void. From its void, it is able to receive all things. Therefore it can unite them. “wood,” “clay”, and “wall” constitute the three [example] by utilizing nothingness. To say nothingness means that which exists is

171 Ǆǰɺ˅ʡѴкǛ˅ƞѴЛˏ˅ϗѴџ˅XѴх̸˅»Ѵ}ů˅Я 172 Ǜ̒üǰλVѵüϔ9ϘѴˡǆ 173 ϛѴjϜѴʮlɺѴǰϔ"ʢ åæ9ɸÍѴʮlɺѴǰÍ"ʢ Кƣʄ9ɸĠѴʮl ɺѴǰĠ"ʢ Ǆǰ"9ɸyѴɺ"9ɸʢ

109 beneficial only by the use of that which is absent.

Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu constantly use concrete examples to demonstrate the usefulness of emptiness.

Heaven and Earth and all that lies between is like a bellows. In that it is empty, but gives a supply that never fails. Work it, and more comes out. (TTC 15)174

The bellow is a series of ranked bags; the stick is like a flute. A bellows hold emptiness, no passion, and inaction. Therefore, its emptiness is interminable. When moved, it is never exhausted. Between heaven and earth, everything abides by nature.

So, like a bellow, it will never be exhausted.

According to the teachings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu:

What is most perfect seems to have something missing; yet its use is unimpaired. What is most full seems empty; yet its use will never fail. What is most straight seems crooked; the greatest skill seems like clumsiness, The greatest eloquence like stuttering. (TTC 45)175

He sees in darkest dark, hears where there is no sound. In the midst of darkness, He alone sees the dawn; in the midst of the soundless, he alone hears harmony. (CT 12)176

How different the words that Tao gives forth! So thin so flavourless! If one look for Tao, there is nothing solid to see; If one listen for it, there is nothing loud enough to hear. Yet if one use it, it is inexhaustible. (TTC 35)177

“Great music has the faintest notes.” “The ear listens but cannot hear it, it is called the rarefied.” “If one listens for it (Tao), there is nothing loud enough to hear.” What we

174 ýÝ"ПѴlʏȞ̃#ѱ͹̲ĺѴ̲Ɠs 175 üƞ̤͝ѴlʢǈѴüʼ͝ɂѴlʢ˧ 176 ΋#ppѴ̹#ɺ̸ pp"ѴʐΊǨɹѶɺ̸"Ѵʐ̶»ɹ ýÝ 177 Ϸ"s¤Ѵɗilɺ¸ ΋"όΊѴ̹"ό̶Ѵʢ"όǔ

110 hear in our ears are already remains of the hearing, so we need to go further to a faraway place, where we can push our senses to the limit and explore new possibilities.

In Chinese instrument gu-qin or ancient stringed musical instrument, simplifies and prolongs sound by applying silence to the ears. As a result, an unbelievable dynamic is created between “music” and “non-music”, “sound” and “silence.”

John Cage’s involvement with percussion instruments had drawn his attention to the importance of silence. According to Calvin Tomkins, “he used it not simply as a gap in the continuity or a pause to lend emphasis to sounds, but in much the same way that contemporary sculptors were using open space, or ‘negative volume’ - as an element of composition in itself.”178 However, Chinese realize that the function of many things in

179 the mundane world lies not in the material substance, but in the ideal vacuity.

What is substantially finite can be made to show signs of infinite functions. Thome

H. Fang explains “Taoist idea of conquering space in order to give security to the triumph of life.” The transmutation of physical space into ideal realms of spiritual function according to the principle of vacuity is the magic of Chinese though as is best testified by the great works of Chinese art.180

178 Howard Skempton, p. 138. Originally from Calvin Tomkins, The Bride and The Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant-garde (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965). 179 Thome H. Fang, “Essential of Cosmology”, pp. 35-37. 180 Thome H. Fang, “Essential of Cosmology”, p. 50.

111 2.3

Yin and Yang: Unity of Opposites

The concepts of yin and yang are essential to the commentaries of Book of Changes.

Yin and yang are used to explain the changes in the natural world. Chaung Tzu points out “The Book of Changes describes the yin and yang.” (CT 33)181

“Xici Zhuan” in Commentary on Book of Changes is the description on Qian (: the creative principle, and Kun à: the passive principle. It appears that Qian and Kun symbolizes yin and yang.

The master said: “Qian and Kun may be regarded as the gate of Changes, Qian represents what is of the yang matters; Kun what is of yin matters. These two unite according to their qualities, and there comes the embodiment of the result by the strong and soft. In this way we have the phenomena of heaven and earth visibly exhibited, and can comprehend the operation of the god’s intelligence. (Xici II)182

In Changes “Xici Zhuan” consider that Qian and Kun provide relativity functions.

The Tao of Qian [Heaven] forms the male; the Tao of Kun [Earth] forms the female. Qian has mastery over the great beginning of things and Kun acts to bring things to completion.183

We already realized that the Tao’s capacity to produce and reproduce is called

‘change’. “When it forms images, we call it Qian. When it duplicates patterns, we call it

Kun.”(Xici)184 Qian means: strength, strong, vigorous. Kun means: soft, submissive, weakness. (kun wen-yan )185 There are ventilating hexagrams. The Qian is the strongest

181 Ǜ9ϷЧЪ ý 182 Čǫѵ(àѵlǛ"МЀѱ(ѵЪʉ'ѶàѵЧʉ'ѶЧЪŹѴ̲~Ȇǰў 9ўýÝ" ƾѴ9Ϫ˘Ǚ"Ź 183 (ϷƞʦѴàϷƞąѴ(ˎüĉѴàAƞʉ 184 ƞλ"ά(Ѵǅɉ"ɸà 185 иV(Ѵ~ѶàѴȆ àǎΒ “Kun Promiscuous hexagrams we-yen” in Commentary on Book of Changes further states distinguishing characteristics of Qian and Kun by “The Kun hexagram

112 of all under the heaven. The Kun is the most soft of all under the heaven. Changes (Xici

)186 “Qian and Kun, do they not constitute the arcane source for change! When Qian and Kun form ranks, change stands in their midst.”(Xici)187

By extension of meaning, the two terms came to stand for an infinite duality of existent and nonexistent, light and dark, and so on-each pole seen not in opposition to the other, but as manifestations of an undifferentiated whole, interacting in perfect equilibrium, and owing their origin to the power of qi, the breath of the universe.188

Yin and yang are opposite elements, not only yin or yang alone could set in function. This is why the Book of Changes says: “The reciprocal process of yin and yang is called the Tao.” (Xici I)189 This is understood as two things opposite and complementary to each other. Yin and yang change from one to another, in doing so, bring about life as transformation. In “Xici Zhuan I” states:

This is why closing the gate is called Kun, and opening the gate is called Qian. One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustiblity of their alteration is called their free flow. What one sees of this is called the images. As these take physical shapes, we may say that they are concrete things.

Wang Bi annotates that “The Tao of Kun [pure yin] enfolds things. The Tao of

Qian stirs things into life.” The strong yang and the soft yin displace one another, produce the changes and transformations. This reciprocal process requires the rhythmic operation and successful movement of ying and yang. He explains the embodiment of

the earth, the lady, minister, and the vassal is most gentle, soft, mild docile, but put in motion, he is strong and hard. He is most still, but in his virtue is square, by following. He obtains his leader, and pursue his regular….The way of kun…..He received the influence of heaven, leader, king, and husband, and acts on time.” à͍Ȇ̲'~Ѵ͍с̲ŹǒѴůų̲ǰŒѴ²ͤʉ̲`ѴàϷlш#Ѵƨý̲ǡ΁ 186 ÿ(Ѵý"͍Q' …ÿàѴý"͍ш' 187 (àlǛ"̜Ѐѷ(àƞwѴ̲Ǜ˫#lˍ 188 Michael Sullivan, The Birth of Landscape Painting in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962), p. 7. 189 ЧЪ"άϷ

113 Tao constantly push and transpose movements. “The strong yang and the soft yin push themselves each other, therefore the change take place.”(Xici II)190 The yin and yang arrange in the relationship of opposition, communion, balance, transformation, motion, calm…etc. The yin and yang give rise to all change and they interact with each other, they can be complementary in nature, this is called the unity of opposites. Yin embraces yang, yang embraces yin. This proves what is stated in Chinese aesthetics ‘harmony’ which actually is the harmony of dynamic forces.

Chi (qi) : Breath

Chi or breath integrates with yin and yang as essence of life in the Universe.

Chuang Tzu points out its importance for life, “Man’s life is a coming-together of breath. If it comes together, there is life; if it scatters, there is death.” (CT 22)191 He considers that yin and yang are two fundamental forms of chi that together constitute thing. Thus, he says: “Heaven and earth are forms which are large, the yin and yang are breaths which are large, and the Way is the generality that embraces them.” (CT 25)192

Chi is considered the primary of life which has generated itself spontaneously.

When Chuang Tzu’s wife died, he described the transformation between chi and body says:

I looked back to her beginning and the time before she was born. Not only the time before she was born, but the time before she had a body. Not only the time before she had a body, but the time before she had a spirit (chi). In the midst of the jumble of wonder and mystery a change took place and she had a spirit. Another change and she had a body. Another

190 ~Ȇ˅ƷѴζÜlˍ ̢Ϟɹ̲º"ѴÜlˍ 191 5"ʡѴȷ"̵'Ѷ̵|ɸʡѴǊ|ɸȫ ˎϳ 192 ýÝ̱ѴŦ"ü̱'ѶЧЪ̱Ѵȷ"ü̱'ѴϷ̱ɸ"g |Ъ

114 change and she was born. Now there's been another change and she's dead. It's just like the progression of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter. (CT 18)193

The creativity in the natural world is the result of mutual stimulation through yin and yang:

Attraction involves stimulation. The yielding is above, the firm below. Through they are opposite in character, a mutually responsive feeling enables them to be together….The myriad objects owe their existence to the mutual stimulation subsisting between heaven and earth….The inner nature of everything in heaven and earth can be gauged by observing what it is that stimulates each of them.( hexagrams Xian ¾: attraction)194

Here is an intercommunication of seed between male and female, and transformation in its all living types proceeds. (Xici II)195 “When there were heaven and earth (Qian Kun) ten thousand things were produced.” (Hexagrams Xu ŗ: order)196 “Chi consists of yin and yang” which means Chi embraces both life capacities opposite and complementary to each other. Qi is inside two utmost of chi (yin and yang), and through the unity of opposites to appear endless life vitality.

Zhang Zai states explicitly that yin and yang are aspects of chi: “Chi has yin-yang, its pushing movement brings about a decrease, which leads to transformation.”197

The essence of yin and yang conceals the dwelling-place of the other, yet each has its resting place; thus the form of sun and moon has not changed from of old. As for the chi of yin and yang, it turns around, decreases and reaches a peak, gathering and scattering, mingling together, rising and falling, depending one on the other, weaving in and out, mixing together, now side by side, now one dominant over the other. If one wanted to unite them one could not do so. This is why its chi contracts and expands without limit, revolves round and moves without ceasing with nothing impelling it to be so. If this is not the principle of life and nature, what is it?198

193 īlĉ̲ǹɺʡѴтŲɺʡ'̲ǹɺŦѴтŲɺŦ'̲ǹɺȷ и#͙͜"ПѴζ̲ǰȷѴȷ ζ̲ǰŦѴŦζ̲ǰʡѴ6ζ̲"ȫѴǠ˅͒ɸǞ˜qöÒǡ΁' ͍ȗ 194 ¾ѴƖ' Ȇ̲~Ѵ,ȷƖƜ9˅͒…ýÝƖѴ̲ͤʉʡ …ΎlƤƖѴ̲ýÝͤʉ" ƌ©Ίˍѱ ¾ťV 195 ʦąȖ̉Ѵͤʉʡ 196 ǰýÝѴɻůͤʉʡɹ ŗV 197 Zhang Dai-nian, p. 147. 198 Zhang Dai-nian, p. 105.

115 He refers to yin and yang as two forms of chi and states the essence of yin and yang, the two aspects in their pure form, that is, the sun and moon, and contrasts this with their chi. Zhang Zai understood the relationship of yin and yang both as cyclical (night and day) and as interactive (union of male and female)

The chief concern of Chinese art is about the beauty of life and its abounding vitality rhythmic movements. Xie He έψ (479-502)199 coined the first principle of

Chinese painting as defined by the fifth-century critic is “breath-resonance-life-motion”

(qi-yun-sheng-dong) ȷцʡ. Zhang Zai’s above statement implies the principles of kai-he Н (opening-closure) or contrasting organization of space, and qi-fu ω<

(rising-falling), or rhythmic sequence of landscape: ‘gathering and scattering, mingling together, rising and falling, depending one on the other, weaving in and out, mixing together’, ‘revolves round and moves’ in Chinese painting to create the

“breath-resonance-life-motion”. Francois Cheng describes the principles as long-mai

Ѱ̈́ (dragon arteries). He explains that “the image of dragon arteries once again evokes the sense of a dynamic landscape moved by vital breaths whose rhythmic undulation reveals more than what is manifest, the hidden and the virtual. A painting is not alive if the painter has failed to master its kai-ho and its chi-fu.”200

Tang Shun-zhi Âш" (1507-1560) used a musical metaphor to describe Chi; he said that the average flute player will play a piece in straight sequence, so that “the close helps the beginning” and “the end follows from the start.” But the expert player will introduce subtle variations:

199 Xie He was the first one who brought up the proposition of “breath-resonance-life-motion” in the history of Chinese aesthetics. “Breath-resonance-life-motion” was the first one of Xie He’s six principles (liu fa hɉ) as found in the preface to Classified Paintings of the Past or Gu Huapin Lu ¥ʬ¿Д . This theory of six principles was applied only to figure paintings at first but then extended gradually to all kinds of subjects. The term was even employed to describe the supreme state of art forms other than painting. Chinese perceive the natural movement of life as rhythmical. 200 Cheng Francois, p. 87.

116 Chi [in the throat] changes course before its passage is blocked, so there are a hundred changes between blocked and open passage but the chi is always the same chi. Sound [in the flute] turns away before it dies, so there are ten thousand variations between dying away and expanding, yet the sound is always the same sound.201

Li De-yu ǼŹΆ (787-850) wrote on the subject of ‘variability’ (bian ζ):

In summoning up chi, beauty lies in its impetus being strong. But its impetus cannot but subside. If it does not subside, then it swirls on and forgets to return. Similarly, when string and wood-wind play a noisy tune there must be wispy notes to add faintness and distance; then it will please the ears of the listener. Likewise, in the turbulent current of a river there must be eddies and vortexes for one not to tire of watching it.202

Both statements disclose the way Chinese appreciate painting is like to listen to the music. The “breath-resonance-life-motion” principle refers to create rhythm in painting that viewers can breathe and be touched.

The Source of Beauty: Tai-ji '

The great nature of Chinese art as the express of abundant vitality which roots in

Chinese artists intend to convey by the implements of arts is the beauty of cosmic feeling in respect of the universal flux of energy which transmutes all that it magically touches into wondrous vibrations of vitality. The Supreme Ultimate as the matrix of

Change.203 It is the source of production of reproduction. The Book of Changes has provided the philosophical definition for Chinese aesthetics. What Book of Changes points out “There is no departure so that there shall not be a return” is the Chinese

201 ȷϝǓȷ"Ƿɡ Ǡ9ɡǧʹζ̲Œ͝ȷ ̸ϝǓ̸"ǷȤ Ǡ9Ȥğͤȭ̲Œ̸͝ 202Ѭȷ 9ôɸ̧ ©9Ƈ Ƈ|ɒĚ̲ſϤ 2ʏ̑˯̟Ą ̹"̱ƈ̶ ćŇɒ ϡɰ żǰɆɏϰϥ Ύ"̱ 203 Thome H. Fang, Chinese Philosophy: Its Spirit and Its Development (Hong Kong: Union Press, 1957), p. 91.

117 space-consciousness. Chinese philosophers describe the life in the universe as “The action of Heaven is strong and dynamic. In the same manner, the superior man never ceases to strengthen himself”. (Hexagrams Qian ()204 These notions are in tune with the spirit of Chinese arts.

Neo-Confucianists205 explain the process of creativity in the universe with full realization that concrescence and transition are one. This idea can be illustrated by the

Tai-ji Tu þȓÚ or The Diagram of The Supreme Ultimate, of Zhou Dun-yi ·ǋщ

(1017-73) and his interpretation of it is called the Tai-ji Tu-shuo þȓÚΥ or

Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate. The texts read as follows:

The Ultimateless [wu-ji ɺȓ]! And yet the Supreme Ultimate [Tai-ji þȓ] The Supreme Ultimate through Movement produces the yang. This Movement, having reached its limit, is followed by Quiescence, and by this Quiescence, it produces the yin. When Quiescence has reached its limit, there is a return to Movement. Thus Movement and Quiescence, in alternation, become each the source of the other. The distinction between the yin and yang is determined and the Two Forms [i.e., the Yin and Yang] stand revealed. "By the transformations of the yang and the union therewith of the yin, Water, fire wood, metal and soil are produced. These Five Ethers [qi, i.e., Elements] become diffused in harmonious order, and the four seasons proceed in their course. The Five Elements are the one yin and yang; the yin and yang are the one Supreme Ultimate; and the Supreme Ultimate is fundamentally the Ultimateless. The Five Elements come into being each having its own particular nature. The true substance of the Ultimateless and the essence of the Two [Forms] and Five [Elements] unite in mysterious union, so that consolidation ensues. The principle of Qian [the trigram symbolizing the yang] becomes the male element, and the principle of Kun [the trigram symbolizing the yin] becomes the female element. The Two Ethers [the yin and yang] by their interaction operate to produce all things, and these in their turn produce and reproduce, so that transformation and change continue without end.206

204 ý΁QѴ±Č9͋ŢƇ ( 205 Neo-Confucianism (lix-ue ʖĕ) is a form of Confucianism that was primarily developed during the Song dynasty. It formed the basis of Confucian orthodoxy in the Qing dynasty of China. It was a philosophy that attempted to merge certain basic elements of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought. On line source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Neo-Confucianism 206 Translation quoted from Fung Yu-Lan і Ͷ, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (New York: Free Press, 1966), pp. 269-270.

118

Figure 2-3: Tai-ji Tu

In the centre of the Tai-ji symbol yang is light and yin is dark. These five elements from Tai-ji has influenced Chinese attitude to form a harmonious system of life in the universe through a corresponding source. The traditional Chinese musical theorists also characterize each of the five notes of the scale with a complex of colours, elements, and directions. Each basic note has its own unique personality. Some basic correspondence elements are listed below:

Elements: wood fire earth metal water Colour: cyan red yellow white black Direction: East South center West North Season: spring summer late summer autumn winter Organ: liver heart spleen lung kidney Note: jue Ώ zi Ÿ gong ġ shang Å yu ̫ Taste: sour bitter sweet pungent salty

͋ɺȓ̲þȓ þȓ̲ʡЪѴȓ̲сѶс̲ʡЧѴсȓŶ сѴ/ɸlȊ vЧv ЪѴe[˫ɹ ЪζЧѴ̲ʡȸɵǶЏÛ 0ȷшōѴÒǡ΁ɹ 0΁ѴЧЪ'ѶЧ ЪѴþȓ'ѶþȓѴǹɺȓ' 0΁"ʡ'Ѵ¬lƃ ɺȓ"ˇѴ,0"̉ѴĈ̲rѴ(Ϸ ƞʦѴàϷƞą ,ȷ1ƖѴʡͤʉѴͤʉʡʡ̲ζɺ ˧ɹ

119 The Taoist doctrine of wu-wei, no-action, is the spontaneity of mind. It doesn’t mean to literally do nothing, but to discern and follow the natural forces. It can be understood as a way of mastering circumstances by shaping ones actions in accordance with the nature principal. Yin embraces yang, yang embraces yin, the symbol of tai-ji has disclosed the “decreative-creative process”. This understanding has also infused the approach to movement as it is developed in Tai-ji Chuan þȓƱ, an exercise system as soft boxing207. Tai-ji Chuan is a series of slow, controlled movements or postures usually practised outdoors to take advantage of the surrounding energy of nature. It reflects the movement of the micro cosmos, a principle of nature, and it emulates the greater cosmos of the universe. Central to tai-ji is the belief in the life essence, or Chi that flows through invisible channels or meridians in the body. Chinese consider Tai-ji

Chuan a physical expression and manifestation of the principles and philosophy of

Taoism. The premier characteristic of tai-ji is the use of the weak to overcome the strong. In Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu has stated many times.

In Tao the only motion is returning. The only useful quality, weakness. (TTC 40)

To remain whole, be twisted! To become straight, let yourself be bent. (TTC 22)

He who stands on his tip-toe, does not stand firm; he who takes the longest strides, does not walk the fastest. (TTC 24)208

When he is born, man is soft and weak; in death he becomes stiff and hard. The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees while they are alive are supple and soft, but when they are dead they become brittle and dry. Truly, what is stiff and hard is a ‘companion of death’; what is soft and weak is a ‘‘companion of life’. Therefore ‘the weapon

207 Later in the fifteenth century A.D. the purported founder of Tai-ji Chuan, monk Chang San-feng, was honoured by the Emperor Ying-tsung with the title of chen-jen, or ‘spiritual man who has attained the Tao and is no longer ruled by what he sees, hears or feels.’ This indicates that already at this time there was a close association between the philosophy of Taoism and the practice of tai-ji. 208 ;̱˫Ѵώ̱΁

120 that is too hard will be broken, the tree that has the hardest wood will be cut down’. Truly, the hard and mighty are cast down; the soft and weak set on high. (TTC 76)209

The prominent Taiwanese artist Ju Ming’s ǺГ (1938-)210 wooden sculptures

Tai-ji series have been successfully reviving Chinese concepts of Tai-ji. There are common traits between the Tai-ji Chuan and the spirit embedded in Ju Ming works. He describes his creative process and said “I am both sculpting Tai-ji Chuan and practicing it at the same time just proves my desire to achieve the perfect expression of

‘communion between human and nature’.” 211 Tai-ji Chuan imitates the mutual relationship in nature Ju Ming once expressed in his understanding toward Tai-ji Chuan.

For him Tai-ji Chuan is the best example of “union between Man with Nature” and “ It requires the person to use his own body to touch and simulate the natural phenomena of the universe.212

In Ju Ming’s own interpretation on Tai-ji principles, he points out one most notable quality of Tai-ji is ‘Counter None and Lose None’ ч. He explains that “A force

209 5"ʡ'ȆŠѴlȫ'éŢ ͤʉ͟Ƕ"ʡ'Ȇ̓Ѵlȫ'ȅȕ ǄéŢ̱ȫ"ŲѴȆŠ̱ʡ "Ų Ǡ9kŢ|ѴǶŢ|kѴŢü͸ѴȆŠ͸ 210 Ju Ming is a Taiwanese sculptor, who attained fame in Taiwan in the 1970s. Ju Ming was trained as a woodcarver, apprenticed Lee Chin-chuan, as a teenager. He developed his skill, and applied it to a range of media, including brone, styrofoam, and stainless stell. 211 Chong-Ray Hsiao ͮʞʜ, Split Tai-ji: Ju Ming and His Modern Sculpture “þȓѵǺГʺʕ7 жë” International Conference on Ju Ming-Ju Ming in Contemporary Vision of Culture 2005 ǺГØЮ ĕ΂˒ΔǮ-ʮ7ǎ΋ЍʺǺГ, held by the Council for Cultural Affairs Taiwan and Juming Museum. [online] available from: http://www.juming.org.tw 212 Liu Tsang-Jhi ͚ͪ recorded Ju Ming’s comments on tai-ji in his first exhibit in Japan at the Tokyo Central Museum of Art in January 1977. “Tai-ji movement relies on the simulation of the natural elements to help people return to their natural state (or original position).” Ju Ming described: “there is a movement called ‘Cloud Hands’ which imitates the shapes and changes of the clouds in the sky, or the airflow and its changes. There is another movement called ‘Golden Rooster Standing on One Leg’, which imitates the posture of a rooster on one leg. This makes for a delightful training in balance. There is also a ‘Spinning Lotus Leg’ to imitate a lotus about to blossom. Have you ever observed a lotus that sways in the wind? The transcending flower is perched high on the stem, free from restraint and fear. Living between heaven and earth, it has kept its modest and polite form. Yet it blends in harmoniously with the forces of the nature: sun, moon, stars, winds, and water, and exchanges with them infinite praises. It is neither asking for nor promising the return of anything; there is just the quiet stillness. Yet it is all these that epitomize ‘beauty’. It ‘releases’ the ‘natural’ emotions. There are other tai-ji movements that imitate monkey, white crane, tiger, and others. Liu Tsang-Jhi, ‘Knife Stroke Away!’, Special Collection of Ju Ming’s Wooden Sculptures (1), (Taipei: Yun-Shway Publishing Company, 1977) ϩt ǺГǶж Ĳд (1) , p. 5. Quote from Chong-Ray Hsiao, Split Tai-ji.

121 is coming toward me from the opponent, but I make no special effort to counter it, and the force is naturally dispelled away from me. If the opponent tries to run, I make him unable to get away. That is what lose none means.” He further explains on

‘Turn-Stomp-Lean’ that it is “the embodiment of a quality described as ‘solid like a rock and fluid like cloud’. In it, Tai-ji has gone from a pure simulation of the ‘form’, and entered into a more advanced phase where its ‘meaning’ is expressed.” 213 Ju

Ming’s later Tai-ji: Arch series214 grew out of the image of the hands of two people pushing against each other in Tai-ji Chuan. The two people first become a single form then gradually evolve into the abstract symbol of the arch distilled from the melding of these two individuals. Yang Meng-yu’s ȑĐʛ comments on Ju Ming’s evolutionary process from Tai-ji to Tai-ji: Arch is goes “from exterior aspects to idea-based, from form (objective) to formlessness (non-objective).215

There are a few short sequences in INK and fabric animation sections in BLUE which resemble Ju Ming’s tai-ji sculptures. The images are sometimes concrete, and sometimes abstract. The taste is that of an Expressionist, but the approach of an

Impressionist, conceived in the freedom from detail of free-stroked Chinese painting.

Tai-ji Chuan’s moves and forms are demonstrated through the perpetual circular flowing motion of yin and yang. The concepts like “form moves as the mind moves” occur while viewing the movies. Viewers experience of form moves to formlessness.

213 Chong-Ray Hsiao, Split Tai-ji. 214 Tai-ji: Arch series developed following the Tai-ji series created around the year 2000. 215 According Yang Meng-yu’s ȑĐʛ observation on Ju Ming. She also comments on Ju Ming’s evolutionary process from Tai-ji to Tai-ji: Arch is “goes from exterior aspects to idea-based, from form (objective) to formlessness (non-objective). Yang Meng-yu, Carving for Humanity-the Biography of Ju Ming {ʬ5ʡ——Ͳ΂üŐǺГV ѲTaipei: Commonwealth Publishing Co., Ltd., 1997). Quote from Pan Yaochang ɭ̯ǘ, Reach the Acme and Perfection Because of Lofty Morality: Reading Ju Ming. “˧˘ˎ, Ź"'-СεǺГ” [online] available from: http://www.juming.org.tw

122

Figure 2-4 & 2-5: Ju Ming’s Tai-ji Series sculptures, Bronze, 1998. Figure 2-6: (left) Ju Ming’s Tai-ji Series - Single Whip sculpture, Bronze 467188267cm, 1986. Figure 2-7: (right) Ju Ming’s Tai-ji: Arch series sculpture, Bronze 1520620590cm, 2001.

Figure 2-8: The fabric animation in BLUE resembles Ju Ming’s tai-ji sculptures.

123

Figure 2-9: The ‘brush strokes’ in INK are animated by nature (wind & water) and presented as tai-ji movements.

124 2.4

Non-linear Aesthetics in Chinese Arts

Synthesis of Opposites

Lao Tzu shows his interest in the immense universe and Chuang Tzu is even more interested in this subject matter. Chuang Tzu’s fables plant the abstract concept of time and space into Chinese attitudes towards life, and consequently they produce a critical impact on the development of Chinese art form.

In the first chapter entitled “Free and Easy Wandering” ϨϹϳ Chuang Tzu basically talks about the limits imposed by time and space. The insurmountable catastrophe is actually time and space. Unavoidably, human beings are limited to a certain time and space. All the efforts human beings make are meant to break through the limits caused by time and space. Sometimes, a seemingly ‘great’ breakthrough seems nothing as long as human beings still need to face the immense, unbounded time and space. Humans are shackled in a finite time and space, without freedom. Chuang

Tzu’s philosophy is to guide people in entering an absolutely free land by throwing off all the shackles.

Chuang Tzu reveals the infinite time and space and that only by living in the infinite, lives can be set free. He also comes to an understanding that ‘small, huge’,

‘long and short’ in real life can mean the opposite in the infinite world because our minds are set free. Therefore, in the second chapter entitled “Discussion on Making All

Things Equal” ѮʉΪ, he concludes, “There is nothing in the world bigger than the tip of an autumn hair [new born animal’s hair] , and Mount Tai is tiny. No one has lived longer than a dead child, and Peng-zu died young. Heaven and earth were born at the

125 same time I was, and the ten thousand things are one with me.”216 He sees the greatest in the world in the tip of an animal’s hair, while Tai Mountain is small in his eyes. He sees eternity in a child cut off in infancy, while Peng-zu, a legendary figure in Chinese mythology who lives up to 800 years old, is deemed a child who dies prematurely.

In the following dialectical texts, Chuang Tzu states his ideas about distance and size are relative and subject to change.

If from the standpoint of the minute we look at what is large, we cannot see to the end. If from the standpoint of what is large we look at what is minute, we cannot distinguish it clearly. The minute is the smallest of the small, the gigantic is the largest of the large, and it is therefore convenient to distinguish between them. (CT 17)217

Names (abstract concepts) are inadequate either to encompass the entirety or to penetrate into the invisible smallest parts. In the same chapter, he claims:

From the point of view of the Tao, things have no nobility or meanness. From the point of view of things themselves, each regards itself as noble and other things as mean. From the point of view of common opinion, nobility and meanness are not determined by the individual himself. From the point of view of differences, if we regard a thing as big because there is a certain bigness to it, then among all the ten thousand things there are none that are not big. If we regard a thing as small because there is a certain smallness to it, then among the ten thousand things there are none that are not small. If we know that heaven and earth are tiny grains and the tip of a hair is a range of mountains, then we have perceived the law of difference. (CT 17)218

In Taoism and Creativity, Chang Chung-yuan points out the Taoist attains a synthesis of opposites. In the words of Chuang Tzu: “His being one was one and his not

216 ý͡üǓ˜ȴ"ǸѴ̲þĿɸĶѶ͡õ#ȮČѴ̲Ū˗ɸĀ ýÝ͒ƟʡѴͤʉ͒Ɵɸ ѮʉΪ 217 ÿ͋̍΋ü̱ʿѴ͋ü΋̱̍Ǚ ÿ̉ѴĶ"ŷ'ѶЂѴü"ȯ'ѵǄʭG 218 9ϷΎ"ѴʉɺπςѶ9ʉΎ"Ѵ͋π̲˅ςѶ9IΎ"ѴπςÜŊ 9ŉΎ"ѶÔlƤü ̲ü"Ѵ|ͤʉ͡üѶÔlƤĶ̲Ķ"Ѵ|ͤʉ͡ĶѶˎýÝ"ɸ˟̅'ѴˎμǸ"ɸĿ'Ѵ |ŉǍˋˍ ˜ȸ

126 219 being one was one”. (CT 6) What we see is that each entity possesses qualities not merely different or diverse, but actually opposite.

In his book, Chang Chung-Yuan uses a story of Chinese Buddhist Fa-tsang to demonstrate the Chuang Tzu’s words “His being one was one and his not being one was one” as the inner reality of multiplicity. The story tells that “Fa-tsang arranged ten mirrors one at each of the eight points of the compass, and placed the other two mirrors above and below, all facing one another. In the center he put a small figure of Buddha and illuminated it so that the reflection was cast into each mirror.”220 Each mirror reflected the image of every other mirror as well, each multiplying and redoubling each other's images endlessly. The one mirror takes in the other nine mirrors, and all nine others at the same time take in one. Chang Chung-Yuan annotated the one is in all, and all is in one. “As soon as one absorbs all, one penetrates into all. As soon as all absorbs one, all penetrate into one.” And he concludes that this refers to “not only all is in all, and one in one, but all is one and one is all in which the inner reality of multiplicity is interfused and identified.”221

An example of multiple simultaneous viewpoints in media art practices was showed in the pioneer video artist Nam June Paik’s ʸɣ (1932-2006) works.

Inspired by John Cage, Paik had studied up on Zen Buddhism. His conception of the transcendence of dualism most successful expressed in TV Buddha, which he created in a number of formats, beginning in 1974. His way of thinking about transcendence is as

‘simultaneous self-absorption and connection.’222

In TV Buddha, Paik uses two Buddhas-the one made of stone, the other of light.

The two Buddhas seem to carry on a dialogue. An historian of Asian art Walter Smith

219 l'Ѵl' üěŐ 220 Chang Chung-yuan, pp 69-70. 221 Ibid. 222 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 185.

127 compared Paik’s two Buddha images facing each other to the tradition in Asian art of pairing the historical Buddha. He has analyzed the version of TV Buddha created for

Paik’s 1982 Whitney Museum retrospective within a traditional Buddhist context. This dual-Buddha image comes from the Lotus Sutra of Gautama’s teaching223. There have been others in the past and will be others in the future. Paik raised the thinking on synthesis of opposites that challenged the activity of viewing TV.

Figure 2-10: In TV Buddha, a stone Buddha sits facing its own image on a television monitor.

Chuang Tzu’s discussion on synthesis of opposites refers to eliminating distinctions between subject and object. He states:

223 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 186. 224 ʉɺтŬѴʉɺтǠ ͋Ŭ|ΊѴ͋ˎ|ˎ" ǄǕŬsǓǠѴǠ2ÔŬ ѮʉΪ

128 ‘this’ too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a ‘this’ and ‘that’? Or does he in fact no longer have a ‘this’ and ‘that’? (CT 2)225

Chuang Tzu actually reminds of us of the risk of abstract concepts while he says

“The Way has never known boundaries; speech has no constancy. But because of [the recognition of a] ‘this’ there came to be boundaries.” (CT 2)226 In Yip Wai-lim’s comparative literature study of Western and Chinese poetry, he defined the Taoist idea as “to preclude (exclude) the demand for categorization and commentary, and the affirmation of things as they are”227.

View Things as Things View Themselves

In Yip Wai-lim’s analysis, the Taoist mental horizon begins by rejecting the premise that the structure of natural phenomenon is the same as we conceive it. All conscious efforts in ordering it will result in superficial structures imposed upon undifferentiated existence and hence distort it. Taoism asks us to view things as things view themselves, to lose ourselves into the world, into the flux of events, the million changes constantly happening before us. He summarizes the difference of the linear and non-linear thought systems in Western and Chinese poetry and painting to the

“perceiving-receiving process”.

Whereas in one, as the ego attempts to explain the non-ego, the perceiver constantly imposes ideas or concepts on or matches them with, images or objects in concrete Phenomenon, in the other, as the ego loses itself into the undifferentiated mode of existence, into the totalizing flux of events and changes constantly happening before us, to ‘think’ is to respond to the appeal of the presenting of things in their original state of freedom. Whereas

225 Ǡ2Ŭ'ѴŬ2Ǡ' Ŭ2ǠтѴȧ2Ǡт ȄǰŬǠ#ÀѷȄ ɺŬǠ#Àѷ 226 ÿϷǷĉǰİѴΒǷĉǰŒѴɸǠ̲ǰʪ' ѮʉΪ 227 Yip Wei-lim, ‘Taoist Aesthetics’, pp. 22-23.

129 the former tends toward the use of analytical, discursive and even syllogistic progression coupled with linear and temporal perspective, resulting in a sort of determinate, get-there orientation, the latter tends toward a dramatic, simultaneous presenting of the multi-dimensional, multi-relational objects instead of their being coerced into some preconceived orders or structures.”228

So to speak ‘viewing things as things view themselves’, is to eliminate the distinctions and view things from both ‘this’ and ‘that’. According Yip Wai-lim’s interpretation, to eliminate distance and point of view, we need to change point of view constantly. It recommends ‘simultaneity’ that we view things from both ‘this’ and

‘that’.229 The process relies on the state of non-self mind which leads to the state of wu-wo ɺƟ. Only when we empty out subjective position, the pure spirit can express inexhaustibility. This response to Chuang Tzu’s statement “the state in which ‘this’ and

‘that’ no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Way. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly.”(CT 2)230 Guo Xiang annotates “the

‘socket’ as ‘emptiness’” 231 . The evidences of ‘viewing things as things view themselves’ appear in Chinese landscape paintings as seen in the front, back side of mountain simultaneously. In viewing things from both ‘this’ and ‘that’, there is no actual distinction between this and that, between viewers and objects. Viewers can view things from different angles, view things from ‘now-here’ and view things from

‘then-there’ at the same time. Viewers can walk toward objects as well as walk away from objects. This viewing activity doesn’t require rational linear beginning to the end.

In the free moving space, distance, direction and time are relative and subject to change.

228 Ibid. 229 Yip Wei-lim, Chinese Poetry: Major Mode and Genres (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), p. 141. 230 ŬǠ͡ųlSѴά"Ϸș șĉųlʝ 9Ɯɺ˧ ѮʉΪ 231 ʝѴˣˍ

130 Interfusion of Subject and Object

‘Viewing things as things view themselves’ is an inner experience in which each individual event in the world of events mutually and simultaneously enters. Chang

Chung-Yuan asserts that it is an intuitive, immediate awareness rather than a mediated, inferential, or intellectual process in which all distinctions between self and non-self have disappeared.232 The state of non-self mind evolves into the artistic realm of wu-wo.

Chung Tzu teaches us how to achieve this state by ‘fasting of the mind’ and ‘sitting down and forgetting everything’.

The ‘fasting of the mind’ is a state of doing away with the distractions of the sensual world. He says: “Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind. No, don’t listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit. Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit (chi) is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.”(CT 4)233

‘Sitting down and forgetting everything’ is to eliminate the distinctions of self and non-self by intellect. In the text of Chuang Tzu it states: “I smash up my limbs and body, drive out perception and intellect, cast off form, do away with understanding, and make myself identical with the Great Thoroughfare. This is what I mean by sitting down and forgetting everything.”(CT 6)234

Chang Chun-Yuan clarifies ‘fasting of the mind’ is to be in ‘sympathy with things’, and ‘sitting down and forgetting everything’ is ‘for being as one as things’. Both states are where man and nature merge in Taoism. Chuang Tzu defines it as “transformation of things” ʉ which is illustrated by a famous story from the works of Chuang Tzu:

232 Chang Chung-Yuan, p. 19. 233 ɺ̹"9̳̲̹"9ŻѴɺ̹"9Ż̲̹"9ɸ ̹ȦǓ̳ѴŻȦǓ˲ ȷ'̱Ѵ͹̲Ůʉ̱ ' ÃϷд͹ ͹̱ѴŻѯ' 5П 234 ð̼ўѴѪ̷ǙѴйŦˎѴ®ǓüϪѴȧάÞſ üěŐ

131 Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of things. (CT 2)235

Either ‘Chuang Chou transforms into a butterfly’ or ‘a butterfly transforms into

Chuang Chou’ indicates that human being could break through the restrictions of appearances to get freedom by blending with nature, interfusing subject and object. The realm of ‘Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly’ specifies what Chuang Tzu states

“the Tao makes them all into one”236. For achieving real freedom in the infinite Tao

(nature), man’s consciousness must go through the qualitative change. It is like the transformation from water to sky between Kun and Peng in a story from “Free and Easy

Wandering”237; both the external world and one’s self has been forgotten.

In Tang historian Chang Yen-yuan’s šŧϺ (618-907) commentary on historical

Chinese paintings, he confirmed that ‘transformation of things’ is important in the creative process, and it obviously was invoked by Chuang Tzu’s ideas. He states:

Gather one’s spirit, think freely-there is miraculous understanding of Nature. With both the external world and one's self forgotten, with form cut off, knowledge done away with, even if one’s body becomes dry wood, one's mind, dead ashes, there will be no hindrance to the miraculous principle of Nature. This is the Tao of painting.238

235 ǜ̱͠·ûɸͼͽѴȉȉɻͼ˕'Ѵ͋Êϻž͒ѱˎ·' Hɻ΍Ѵ|͵͵ɻ·' ˎ· "ûɸͼ˕͒Ѵͼͽ"ûɸ·͒ѷ·͒ͼͽѴ|żǰvˍ ȧ"άʉ ѮʉΪ 236 ϷϪɸ ѮʉΪ 237 In the northern darkness there is a fish and his name is Kun (Leviathan). The Kun is so huge I don't know how many thousand li he measures. He changes and becomes a bird whose name is Peng (Rukh). The back of the Peng measures I don't know how many thousand li across and, when he rises up and flies off, his wings are like clouds all over the sky. When the sea begins to move, this bird sets off for the southern darkness, which is the Lake of Heaven. pǰѢѴl¯ɸѣ ѣ"üѴˎlŖЋ' ̲ɸѤѴl¯ɸѨ Ѩ"̀ѴˎlŖЋ 'ѶƁ̲ѐѴl̮͝ãý"м ǠѤ'Ѵɔϴ|ıŴǓp p̱ѴýȽ' ϨϹϳ 238 Li-Tai Ming-Hua Chi ȩ7¯ʬΖ , annot. Yu Chien-hua J͢ (Hong Kong: Nan-tung, 1973), pp. 35-36, 40-1. r˘϶Ƒ ĈƊ͋ɻ ʉƟeſ йŦǦ ϓÖ©BćȕǶ ŻÖ©Bćȫɶ

132 The spirit realm of unity of man and nature is the realm of transforming things. It is the realm of interfusion of subject and object. This journey is an aesthetic experience, what Chuang Tzu states as “to wander in the Beginning of things.”(CT 21)239 namely wandering with Tao. “To wander in the Beginning of things” is to contemplate things with Tao. The method for wandering in Tao is to forget self, without self, without name.

The process of perceiving activities in Chinese art is through ‘identify objects’, ‘view things as things view themselves’ and then approach ‘the unity of self and things’. The aesthetic point of view from ‘viewing things as things view themselves’ achieves the realm of no-self (wu-wo) in Chinese art.

The Idea of Distance

In Tao Te Ching chapter 25, Lao Tzu uses terms such as ‘passing on’, ‘going far away’ and ‘returning to original’ to describe the invisible and intangible and immeasurable time and space. The concepts of permeating, extending and returning gradually take root in the lives of Chinese people and present in Chinese painting.

In Chinese paintings, objects coexist in the world. Artists view the world from points on many levels and results in a concept of ‘rhythmic’ pace. This is laid down in a more concrete manner in the so-called doctrine of the ‘three distances’ or ‘three perspectives’. It is in his essay, Shan Shui Xun ĿŇΕ or Advice on Landscape

Painting, the master Song painter, Guo Xi Ѕɽ (1023-1085), who creates the following three terms ping-yuan œϺ, level perspective; gao-yuan џϺ, high perspective; and shen-yuan ɚϺ, deep perspective, expatiates on the three perspectives

2͐ǓĈʖ# Ƥάʬ"Ϸ' 239 ϳŻǓʉ"x ʤČǒ

133 Ϻ:

These are the three perspectives of mountains: looking up from below is called the ‘high perspective’; looking from the rim at the interior of mountains is called ‘deep perspective’; looking towards the distance is called ‘level perspective’. The objects appear bright and clear from a high perspective, dark and heavy from a deep perspective and with shadings of light and shadow from a level perspective. The first shows the great height, the second the complex layers, and the third a remote, gentle view dissolving in the distance. In the first, the human figures appear clearly, in the second, they appear broken up, and in the third, softened. The bright and clear should not be short, the broken up should not be tall, and the softened figures should not be big. These are the three perspectives.240

Western painting since the Renaissance insists on the use of perspective, geometrical exactitude and focus; the eyes of the Chinese painter indulge in a multitude of possibilities to view space. The world of ‘three distances’ is utterly different from the mind of the scientist. It is pervaded by the creative spirit of poetry and tends toward the realm of music. Music, however, was in ancient Chinese inseparably connected with dancing, which compels us to also study this element in Chinese painting. The manifestations of nature can be rhythmically expressed in the Chinese art of calligraphy.

There is a profound affinity with music and dancing. Nature in Chinese painting belongs also somehow to the sphere of music.

Zong Bai-hua asserts that “looking up and down: all-embracing perception of existence” conveys an idea of the type of space-consciousness that is indigenous to

Chinese art. The ‘imbibing of the universe’ purports it to be a creation of macrocosm as the artist beholds it. Francois Cheng asserts that cosmology is important because a

240 Lin Yutang, ȃΤè The Chinese Theory of Art: Translation from the Master of Chinese Art (London: Panther, 1969), p. 91. ĿǰϺѵ͋Ŀ̲:ĿņѴά"џϺ ͋Ŀ}̲˨ĿůѴά"ɚϺ ͋ϣĿ̲ǵϺĿѴά"œϺ џϺ"͘ɝǙѴɚϺ"͘ЌǣѴœϺ"͘ǰǙǰǣ џϺ"ˤ\ѴɚϺ"ƔЌʯѴœϺ"Ɣɂ; ̛̛̲̞̞ l5ʉ"ÜϺ'ѴџϺ̱ǙˌѴɚϺ̱̍˔ѴœϺ̱ɂɯ Ǚˌ̱ˏѴ̍˔̱ ЛѴɂɯ̱ü ȧϺ'

134 painting does not aim merely at being an aesthetic object, but rather seeks to become a microcosm that is itself creative in the manner of the microcosm, an open space in which real life is possible.241 A monk of the Sung dynasty, Dao Can Ϸɿ, describes this feeling in two remarkable lines: “Heaven and earth are but my eastern hedge, and all the ages but a single day.”242 The well-known Chinese poet, Tao Yuan-ming Шɛ

Ǚ (365-427): “One glance above, below, unveils the universe. If that's not happiness, what is it then?”243 Zong Bai-hua confirms this “one glance above, below” of the eyes of the soul in order to take in all manifestations in space is the central element of

Chinese space-consciousness.244 The universe is to be apprehended by “one glance, above, below,” a musical, rhythmical universe.

In Wang Wei's (701-761) Wang Chuan Poems ϚŇΞ (named after Wang Wei's mountain dwelling) we find the following lines.

The north hut stands north of the lake, The tree clumps shine on the red balustrade, Meandering, the southern current runs, High on the treetops spreading light and shade.245

The depiction of tall trees in Western landscape painting invariably compels the painter to move human beings, mountains, or rivers towards the horizon to decrease the size of objects to meet the requirements of perspective. Zong Bai-hua describes the different view adopted in Wang Wei’s poem as “The current spreads light and shade between the tree tops; its direction is not downward but upward; tends not toward distance, but toward nearness; it somehow integrates the vermilion balustrade and the

241 Cheng Francois, p. 62. 242 ýÝǾ̄Ѵͤ¥Ќ& 243 K:̎ĖĝѴȗŶ@ćѷ 244 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness’, p.42. 245 áɠȸѴиȜǝǺȢ ϰϥŇȸѴǙɦрȃˮ

135 green trees all on one level permeates not only Chinese poetry but also of the use of perspective.”246 When a poet conceives of the distant sky suspended from the boughs of pine trees, he obviously has discarded the concept of level space and attempted to move distance into himself ˞Ϻĸϣ; he has dispensed with the search for infinite within himself.” The Chinese type of space-consciousness, the comprehension of the distant through the near ʥϣˎϺ, has found its earliest expression in the writing of philosophers. Lao Tzu said:247

Not having left the door, all below the sky is known; Without looking through the window, the way of heaven can be perceived. (TTC)248

The Chinese thinker immerses himself in the rhythm of nature. In Chinese philosophy, painting and poetry infinity is conceived as in Chuang Tzu’s words “To sense exhaustively the infinite, and wander in unfathomable realms.” (CT 7)249 It is not an object that has to be conquered, but an endless rhythm that permits the individual's immersion in it. The ‘sensing exhaustively’ of Chuang Tzu becomes rhythmic movement, colour-music, in Chinese painting; his “unfathomable realms” the uncoloured, white part of the painting that purports to convey an idea of the metaphysical Tao-the Way of Heaven.

246 Ibid. 247 Ibid. 248 sƣѴˎýѴУʄѴˎýϷ 249 ўʿɺ˧̲ϳɺǳ Ɯŏʓ

136

Figure 2-11: (left) The ‘high perspective’ looking up from below. Travelers amid Mountains and Streams Ý¯n by Fan Kuan E (circa 950-1032). Figure 2-12: (right) The ‘level perspective’ looking towards the distance. The Fishman H by Wu Zhen ê1280-1354).

137 Perspective of All Perspectives

In Laurence Binyon’s comparative study of Western and Eastern art, he attributed the reason for the different developments in Western and Eastern painting to the rise of science.

I have sometimes thought that if our modern painting had developed continuously from the art of the Middle Ages, without the invasion of scientific conceptions which the Renaissance brought about, its course would appear to have run very similar lines to that of the painting of the East, where the early religious art, so like in aim to that of the early Italian frescoes, flowered gradually into naturalism, always pervaded by a perfume of religious idealism.250

According to Binyon, the presence or absence of the scientific mind was the basic factor which determined the difference of modern Western painting from Chinese painting. However, the Chinese artist was not completely lacking in a sense of three dimensional perspectives. In Chinese Landscape Painting, Michael Sullivan raises the question “Why did the Chinese not use the single vanishing-point?” and reveals examples of employing techniques similar to the Western perspective technique in the

Dunhuang ǋɼ murals. He points out “there is no single vanishing-point, but a different vanishing-point for each pair of lines.”251 The example is in Meng Xi Bi Tan

ûɤ˵Ω, songwriter Shen Gua Ɂư (1031-1095) against the great tenth-century landscape painter Li Cheng Ǽƞ (919-967) for “painting his eaves from below” and thereby preventing himself from seeing his building whole. Shen Gua wrote:

When Li Cheng paints mountains, pavilions and building, he paints the eaves from below. He

250 Laurence Binyon, ‘The Art of the East and the Art of the West’ in Painting in the Far East (New York: Dover, 1959). 251 Quote from Michael Sullivan, Chinese Landscape Painting, vol. 2. The Sui and T’ang Dynasties. (Berkeley: London: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 91-92.

138 believes that looking up one perceives the eaves of a pagoda as a person on the level ground and is able to see the beams and rafters of its structure. This is absurd. All landscapes have to be viewed from the angle of totality to behold the part, much in the manner in which we look at an artificial rockery in our gardens. If we apply Li’s method to the painting of real mountains, we are unable to see more than one layer of the mountain at a time. Could that be called art? Li Cheng surely does not understand the principle of viewing the part from the angle of totality. His measurement of height and distance certainly is a fine thing. But should one attach paramount importance to the angles and corners of buildings?252

According Shen Gua’s criticism, Sullivan suggested that Li Cheng in fact had gone towards a truly scientific perspective. ‘Correct’ perspective253 was not achieved in ancient China because it was not desired. He gives the reason why Chinese painters insisted on truth to natural appearance and have been so ignorant of European perspective as Chinese painters deliberately avoided it, he recognizes for the same

254 reason that Chinese painters avoided the use of shadows.

Zong Bai-hua annotates that “viewing the part from the angle of totality” of Shen

Gua is to elucidate the fact that the painter of landscape, unlike the ordinary observer standing on a fixed ground level and viewing mountains from below, should with the eyes of the heart cover the scene in its totality and conceive the part as bound to the whole.” Thus Chinese artists use perspective and prefer to base their artistic creations on

‘viewing the part from the angle of totality.’ They do not use perspective as a scientific principle, but agree that “the measurement of height and distance is a fine thing.” The total rhythm of the scenery decides the structural arrangement of the part.255 Zong

252 ǼƞʬĿ4ѓȘР"ьѴʻ:ʬѐ̀ lΥ9ɸ͋ǵć5œÝǵì̶̀ѴΊlȐȏ ȧΪт' üІĿȸ"ɉѴͫ9üΎĶѴć5ΎPĿ̳ ͝®ˇĿ"ɉѴ9ǵѴ§ΊЌĿѴ ι©ЌЌƉΊѷoƜΊlθηП+ ͝5ÜǾ˫Ѵ|ĿΈGǠϺí 5ÜΈ˫Ѵ|ĿǾǠ Ϻí =ȧć@ƞʬѷǼ±ͫˎ9üΎĶ"ɉѴlПƬџƬϺѴ͋ǰĈʖ ιÜƴĻΏ'ѷ 253 The ‘correct’ perspective here means the one point perspective developed since Renaissance period. Michael Sullivan, Chinese Landscape Painting, pp. 93-94. 254 Michael Sullivan, The Art of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), p. 166. 255 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness’, p. 33.

139 Bai-hua confirms that the decisive expression of Chinese artists’ space-consciousness in the totality of each painting is natural rhythm and harmony. He once quoted a poem of the greatest Chinese poet Du Fu ǽʣ (712-774) “my eyes take in a thousand miles of space, a hundred years of time my heart beholds”256 as an example to illustrate how he describes “the eyes of the artist do not behold the scene from a fixed angle converging towards the focus of his perspective view, but the scene in all directions, ‘embracing with the eye a distance of a thousand miles’ and ‘the natural changes’ of the scene.”

Above discussions prove not that Chinese do not understand ‘focus perspective’, but that they intend to create more possibilities in visual art; therefore, Chinese develop perspectives with ‘mobile point of view’ and suggest a space through which one might wander and a space which implied more space beyond the picture frame.

The pictorial space created by Renaissance linear perspective, where a fixed vanishing point dictated a singular position for the viewer, Doesschate described it this way:

It is the art of depicting three-dimensional objects upon a plane surface in such a manner that the picture may affect the eye of an observer in the same way as the natural objects themselves…A perfectly deceptive illusion can be obtained only on two conditions: (a) the spectator shall use only one eye, (b) this eye has to be placed in the central point of perspective (or, at least, quite near to this point).257

According to this, Stephen Heath annotates that the component elements “the possible exact match for the eye of picture and object, the deceptive illusion; the centre of the illusion, the eye in place.” The fundamental of the system is the idea of the spectator at a door or window that gives a view on the world-framed, centered and

256 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness’, p. 34. (àͤЋˈѴǡŗʹŔŻ 257 Ten G. Doesschate, Perspective: Fundamental, Controversials, History (Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1964), pp. 6-7.

140 258 harmonious.” On the contrary, Chinese suggested the unlimited space of nature as though they had stepped through that open door and had known the sudden breath-taking experience of space extending in every direction and infinitely into the sky. George Rowley asserted: “In the rendering of landscape the use of one-point perspective violates Chinese experience of nature; out-of-doors, our eyes are compelled to turn in every direction to encompass the scene.” 259 Chinese seek to give an impression of the boundless and infinite space beyond the picture.

Sculpturing Time: Montage in Chinese Poetry/Painting

The Chinese poetry and painting since Tang dynasty have shared the same traditional images suggesting a similarity in the creative process of both. The simultaneous perspective in Chinese painting is also applied to poetry.

Yip Wai-lim expounds Chuang Tzu ideas as “the self-realization of each form of being as it is, un-interfered by abstract concepts or systems.” when he refers to the feature of Chinese poetry.260 He points out two features of Chinese language. One is freedom from the ‘personal pronoun’ universalizes the state of being or feeling, providing a scene or a situation into which all the readers would move. Another feature is ‘tenseless’. Why tenseless? Yip Wai-lim explained that the fact is the mental horizon of the Chinese poets does not lead them to posit an event within a segment of finite time in a causal linearity, but they tend to return to the natural world itself, that undifferentiated mode of being, “which is timeless, the concept of time being a human

258 Stephen Heath, ‘From Narrative Space’ in Contemporary Film Theory, ed. Antony, Easthope (New York: Longman, 1993), p. 69. 259 George Rowley, Principles of Chinese Painting (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959), p. 61. 260 Yip Wai-lim, Chinese Poetry, pp. 4-5.

141 invention arbitrarily imposed upon Phenomenon.”261. This concept originates from

‘viewing things as things view themselves’.

Chinese artists would not force the perspective of the self as a means of ordering the natural world (Yip Wai-lim uses the term Phenomenon) before them. Yip Wai-lim expounds that “the lack of the use of personal pronouns is in tune with the Chinese concept of losing yourself in the flux of events, the Way (Tao), the million changes constantly happening before us.”262. It appears that visual elements in Chinese poetry and scroll paintings often coexist in spatial relationships in which the viewer-reader may move and be directly present. They are poised for a moment before being imbued with the atmosphere that evokes. Yip Wai-lim also points out the time prepositions and conjunctions such as “Before he came. . . . since I have been here. . . . then . . . .do not exist in Chinese painting and poetry, nor do they in actual events in life. No tense either.

It resemble in appreciating Chinese painting, what viewers see is just something that is happening-now.” 263 Yip Wai-lim recognizes that the experience of painting and poetry is more like watching a movie.

There are changing perspectives in Chinese poetry which can be found in Tang poetry. Yip Wai-lim demonstrates the tendency for Tang poetry is to reproduce visual curves of the events, emphasizing different phases of perception with a mobile point of view of spectator or what he called “spotlighting activities”.264 The poems discussed here, which is adopted from Yip Wai-lim’s transition, are laid out according to the original Chinese characters’ order of appearance and graphic impression of the Chinese characters.

261 Ibid. 262 Yip Wai-lim, Chinese Poetry, p. 11. 263 Ibid. 264 Ibid.

142 In Sky-Pure Sand ýɘɃ by Ma Chih-yuan ѕ͎Ϻ (1260-1341) we read:

Dried vines, an old tree, evening crows; ḛ̏́Ȝǚѧ A small bridge, flowing water, men's homes; Ķȝɒȸ5Ĥ An ancient road, west winds, a lean horse; ¥ϷΈюʵѕ Sun slants west: ÷ЪΈ A heart-torn man at sky's end.265 Ǒ͆5Üýɖ

Such a poem is very close to a painting. The successive shots do not constitute a linear development (such as how ‘this’ leads to ‘that’). Rather the objects coexist, as in a painting, and yet the mobile point of view has made it possible to temporalize the spatial units. Here is another poem, Ice-River Snow ȼл by Liu Tsung-yuan ȇě] (773-819).

A thousand mountains-no bird's flight. ĿѤѐ̐ A million paths-no man's trace. ͤű5ϒɦ Single boat. Bamboo-leaved cape. An old man. Ē͗˽˱̬ Fishing alone. Ice-river. Snow.266 ʐАĩȼл

In this poem, the camera movement is from a birds-eye view with which we can at once take possession of the totality of the scene on a cosmic scale as in all the Chinese landscape paintings: the poem zooms in upon one single object, an old man in the midst of the vast frozen river surrounded by snow. Unlike the film which often focuses on events to be strung together with a storyline, the cinematic movement here reproduces the activities of the perceiving act of an intense moment. The time here has been enlarged to the total consciousness of which is not completed until all the visual moments are presented simultaneously as in the perception of a classical Chinese painting. Yip Wai-lim asserts that it is “the spatial tensions here-the immeasurable cosmic coexisting with a speck of human existence-put us in the center of Phenomenon,

265 Ibid. 266 Yip Wai-lim, Chinese Poetry, p. 1.

143 allowing us to reach out to the circumference.”267

As I mentioned earlier, Chinese poets/painters would not force the perspective of the self upon the natural world. The artist has become one of the objects in Phenomenon.

Yip Wai-lim uses “revolving perspectives” to describe how one views totality from different angles simultaneously. This happens also in Chinese poetry. The viewer/reader is made to move into the total environment to experience the visual events from different spatial angles. It is an environment in which viewer/reader move about rather than viewing it from a fixed distant angle. Without determining the definite spatial relationships of the objects, without assigning them fixed positions as viewed from chosen perspectives, Chinese are liberated to see them from different perspectives.268

Yip Wai-lim reveals the “sculptural quality” in Chinese poetry and paintings that is “we are enabled to cross the limits of words into the realm of sculpture, toward the act of perceiving a piece of sculpture whose total existence depends on our viewing it from different angles as we move around it.”269

The best examples of poetry is from Wei Wei’s Mount Chungnan ̎Ŀ. Based on Yip Wai-lim’s interpretation, it approximates a more three-dimensional description of objects in nature as to sculpture:

The Chungnan ranges verge on the Capital, þ%ϣýІ Mountain upon mountain to sea's brim. ϭĿzɔЫ White clouds-looking back-close up. ʸмǵ Green mists-entering-become nothing. рпcˆɺ Terrestrial divisions change at the middle peak. vЍŁζ Shade and light differ with every valley. Чǥˉòȭ To stay over in some stranger's house- ȣƫ5Ħ͸ Across the water, call to ask a woodcutter. ЬȸÆȚÿ

267 Ibid. 268 Ibid. 269 Ibid.

144 The mountains are represented from different sides, from far and near, up and down, front and back, high and low, just like a film of the mountain taken from various angles, two visual objects juxtapose to form an idea.270 This simultaneous presence of two objects is like the juxtaposition of two separate shots, two screens (projections).

Sergei Eisenstein describes it “resembles not so much a simple sum of one shot plus another shot-as it does a creation. It resembles a creation-rather than a sum of its parts-from the circumstance that in every such juxtaposition the result is qualitatively distinguishable from each component element viewed separately.”271 Eisenstein’s film theory, accomplished by varied camera angles and montage editing, owe much to the fragmented shapes of Cubism, in which multiple views of reality (seen simultaneously as if from above and from the side in repetitive layerings) allowed for multiple understandings of reality.272 Eisenstein’s above statement reinforces that the language of film montage exists in conventional Chinese painting and poetry.

Modernism began by discovering a different way of measuring the world, a different way of seeing. Cubism seemed for many people to be about one person’s subjective perception of reality, because artists could see the back and the front at the same time. Contemporary English painter and photographer David Hockey (1937- ) recognizes that Cubists were inside the pictures. He has long admired the protean genius of Picasso and influence on his creative influence leitmotiv, David Hockey experiments with taking photographs from different perspectives at slightly different times. The result is photomontages which created ‘layers of time’ arranged in reverse perspective.

In his illustration of moving focus, we found similarity with Chinese perspective;

270 Sergei Eisenstein, Film Form and Film Sense, trans. Jay Leyda (New York, : Meridian Books, 1957), p. 28. The structural principle of the Chinese character inspired Sergei Eisenstein to conceive the technique of montage in the film. 271 Sergei Eisenstein, p. 7. Quote from Yip Wai-lim, Chinese Poetry, p. 22. 272 Yip Wai-lim, Chinese Poetry, p. 23.

145 however, what Western viewers could misunderstand in the Chinese artist’s mind is the infinity of time and space consciousness, their desire to pursue unity of Man with

Nature.

Reverse perspective, in which the lines converge in the eye of the spectator instead of in the vanishing-point, would have been much truer to psychological fact. George

Rowley argued that “this type of perspective has often been falsely imputed to Chinese landscape painting,” even though he understands the Chinese could never have been satisfied with any method of scientific representation and always insisted upon artistic presentation.”273 Chinese artists would not force the perspective of the self upon

Phenomenon. They practiced the principle of the moving focus, by which the eye could wander while the spectator also wandered in imagination through the landscape.

Compared to Hockey’s photo collage, it will clarify to say that Chinese artists lost themselves in the universe. Yip Wai-lim has defined that Chinese artists let visual objects and events explain themselves by their coexisting, coextensive emergence from nature as well as let the spatial tensions reflect conditions and situations rather than coercing these objects and events into some coextensive spatial relationships.

The attitude behind the mobile perspective of Chinese painting invites us to explore nature, to wander through the mountains and valleys discovering fresh beauty at every step. Only by a mobile perspective, which opens out a fresh view at every turn of the path, is such a journey possible. Indeed, we can only truly appreciate a great Chinese landscape painting if it has this power to send our spirits wandering.

273 George Rowley, p. 63.

146 Aesthetics of Wandering Contemplation

In my research, the exploration on non-linear aesthetics in Chinese arts is to propose an examination for the creative method and visual thinking in the Media Arts field from a Chinese point of view. As we mentioned before, Chinese art is rooted in the notion of ‘unity of Man with Nature’. The development of mobile viewpoint is to break through the limits caused by time and space then to achieve the free land. Chinese non-linear aesthetics is best presented in landscape paintings. I propose Dancing Brush video installation with a presentation of ‘aesthetics of wandering contemplation’ which suggests the feature of Chinese moving image aesthetics, and a new perspective to understand the multiple-montage (simultaneous points of view) language of media arts.

To achieve the ‘aesthetics of wandering contemplation’, it requires the process of

‘subtraction aesthetics’ inspired from Lao Tzu’s teaching “Can you wipe and cleanse your vision of the Mystery till all is without blur?” as the creative method for both artist and viewer. This method is well illustrated in Tsung Ping and Liu Hsieh’s statements. Chinese landscape painter Tsung Ping ěɷ (375-443) in his Preface to the Enjoyment of Painting, or Hua-Shan-Shui Xu ʬĿȸŗ states:

Whenever the body lingers, whensoever his eyes grope, He writes forms with forms and color with colors.… 274 The sage possesses Tao and deals with things accordingly, while wise men keep their hearts pure to enjoy material forms.... 275 For that which meets the eye and calls forth response from the heart as the true forms of things will also meet the eye and call forth response from the heart of the onlookers if the representation is skilful. When this spiritual contact is established, the true forms are realized and the spirit is recaptured.276

274 Lin Yu-tang, p. 46. ϓƤˀȎѴ˂Ƥ̠̓Ѵ9ŦįŦѴ9͘ν͘ 275 Ibid. ̴5²Ϸǝʉ ρ̱ɮƝǟλ 276 Ibid. ÿ9Ɯ˂ǮŻ ɸʖ̱ь"ƞň |˂2®Ɯ Ż2LǮ ƜǮƖ˘ ˘ϊʖų

147 Liu Hsieh (465-520) of the Six Dynasties period, deals with the subject of the poet’s attitude to the phenomenal world in his famous Wen Hsin Tiao Lung ǎŻ

жѰ which states: “As eyes move back and forth, the heart imbibes and issues things... The feelings set forth are like gifts, they are returned by inspiration.”277

The space in which “whenever the body lingers and wheresoever the eyes grope” is not the space drawn by focal perspective, but adopts multiple layering of viewpoints to compose a rhythmical space. This is in accordance with the ‘three perspectives’ of

Chinese painting theory. The time in which “as eyes move back and forth” is in tune with “There is no departure so that there shall not be a return”. Both statements confirm

Chinese artists’ consciousness of the universe.

To achieve the artistic realm of ‘wandering in mountain and water,’ one must rely

on wandering “whensoever the body lingers”, seeing “whenever eyes grope” as well as

“meeting the eye and calls forth response from the heart” with delight, in other words

the “perceiving–receiving activities” of ‘intuition of contemplation’, the immediate

presentation of things. The result of Chinese ‘aesthetics of wandering contemplation’

is the unity of ‘visible and invisible’ (form and formless) and ‘emptiness and fullness’

as well as ‘seeing and imagination’ which are through the Taoist “decreative-creative

process” of what I propose as ‘subtraction aesthetics’.

277 ˂ǔŭϾѴŻ2°̊ ƌŭ=υѴ͓Cć˸ ʉ͘˻

148

Figure 2-13: A combination of ‘three perspectives’ as mobile viewpoints Returning Home at Evening by Dai Jin 7à (1388-1462).

149

Figure 2-14: An illustration of moving focus by David Hockney.

Figure 2-15: David Hockney’s photo collage, 1983.

150 CHAPTER THREE

FORMATION OF IMAGERY

3.1

Xiang %: image/ symbol/ phenomena

Chinese calligraphy began as pictographic representations of phenomena in the natural world. Rooted in an attitude of the Chinese mind as represented by the eight trigrams from Book of Changes, the Chinese have developed a language of visual symbols in the art of landscape painting. The Chinese observe the workings of the cosmic dualism of Yang and Yin. According to the ‘Great Ultimate,’ the creator of all existence, which produces two forms [the yin and yang], the two basic forms generate the four basic emblems, then the eight trigrams. “When the eight trigrams formed ranks, the [basic] images were present there within them.” (Xici ) The four emblems are known as the xiang which is an important concept in Chinese thought and art. The eight trigrams communicate their information by their emblematic figures. Under this system, the ba-gua manifests as the abstract concept of the natural world. Following texts from

“Xici Zhuan” reveal how Chinese perceive things and how imagery takes shape.

In Heaven it creates images [all phenomena], and on Earth it creates physical forms; this is how change and transformation manifest themselves. In consequence of all this, as hard and soft stroke each other, the eight trigrams active each other.278

This is why closing the gate is called Kun (pure yin, the passive principle), and opening the gate is called Qian (pure yang, the creative principle). One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustiblity of their alteration is called their free flow. What one sees of this is called the images. As these take physical shapes, we may

278 ÜýƞλѴÜÝƞŦѴζΊˍ ǠǄѴ~Ȇ˅ƼѴf˅ˁ

151 say that they are concrete things.

Figure 3-1: Examples of arrangements of trigrams

The yin yao and yang yao are perfect different lines. " Qian Kun Heng ! Yi

The right side and opposite side are in the same line + Zhen Gen Tuen ) Mong

Not only ventilate but also oppose. Tai Pi - Ju-jih - Wei-jih

Their arrangements in any kind. Bi . Fong

There is a definition of xiang from the author words: “This is what the Changes as such consist of images. The terms image [xiang] means ‘the making of semblances,’ and the Judgments deal with their materials.” (Xici II)279 In another section we read:

“The sage had the means to perceive the mysteries of the world and, drawing comparisons to them with analogous things, made images out of those things that seemed appropriate. This is why these are called ‘images’.” (Xici I)280 The text reveals

279 Ǜ̱λ'Ѵλ'̱Y' 280 ̴5ǰ9Ίý"τѴ̲ǁΫlŦĥ λlʉĞѴǠǄά"λ Wang Bi annotated: “As Qian is hard and Kun is soft, so each thing has its substantial character. This is

152 that the source of xiang is the representation of the universe, and the perceiving method.

According Zhang Dai-nian’s šŀŔ (1909-2004) analysis, three distinct uses of the term xiang are discussed: ‘image’ (in Great Commentary on Book of Changes),

‘symbol’ (in Great Commentary and Tao Te Ching), and ‘phenomena’ (in Song and

281 post-Song works). Whereas symbols in Great Commentary on Book of Changes are visible objects, in Tao Te Ching Lao Tze said: “The great symbol is formless.” (TTC 41).

The symbol stands for the invisible Way in contrast to things that can be seen. From the

Song onward the term xiang was used in its mode sense of ‘phenomenon.’ This usage can be illustrated with passages from Zhang Zai and Wang Fu-zi ʓÿ" (1619-1692).

Zhang Zai related phenomena to chi while he said: “The so-called chi is not specifically its state as diffuse vapor or congealed mass, what can be seen by the eye and known. It is also said of what is firm or compliant, moving or stopping, flooding or trickling. All these can be called phenomena.”282 It discloses that phenomena may not have form, but nonetheless they are still realities that can be apprehended. Chinese philosopher Fung

Yu-Lan і Ͷ (1895-1990) concludes that “the appearance of anything is called a xiang λ, when it has physical form it is called an object (wu ʉ).”283

The Book of Changes remarks “Since the Tao consists of change and action, we refer to it in terms of the ‘moving lines’ [yao ʁ]. Since the moving lines consist of different classes, we refer to them as ‘things’ [wu ʉ] .Since these things mix together, we refer to these as ‘patterns’ [wen ǎ]. (Xici II) 284 Wang Bi annotates: The moving lines belong to either the yin or yang category; it is in consequence of this that they acquire hard or soft functions.285 Wen is the original term and concept for Chinese

why the text says: “drawing comparisons to them with analogous things.” 281 Zhang Dai-nian, p. 211. 282 Zhang Dai-nian, p. 214. 283 Fung Yu-Lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy, (New York: Free Press, 1966), p. 390. 284 ϷǰζǄǫʁ ʁǰ˶ѴǄǫʉ ʉ˅иѴǄǫǎ 285 Lynn, Richard John. p. 93.

153 character. It reveals that the creation of Chinese calligraphy began as pictographic representations of phenomena in the natural world, retained the power to evoke the kinetic forces that animate nature itself. The effects of brushwork were tantamount to observing, or seeing in imagination.

Oracle Bronze Big seal

Seal Clerical Kaishu

Figure 3-2: The Chinese Character ‘horse’ and the development of scripts.

For Chinese calligraphers and painters, creativity is that of a vast universe of infinite transformations in which images derive from nature. Ancient calligraphers often described their brushstrokes as elements of nature in the spirit of the creative process. In his essay entitled Jiu Shi & , The Nine Forces, Tsai Yung ͬϿ (132-192), the late-Han dynasty calligrapher, considered that “Calligraphy began with nature. When nature was born, principles of yin and yang were established. When yin and yang were established, forms [xing Ŧ] and forces [shi ] emerged.”286

286 Wen C. Fong, p. 34. ÿǭ̻Ǔ͋ɻѴ͋ɻǔ˫ѴЧЪʡɹѶЧЪǔʡѴŦȷvˍ

154 In Bi Sui Lun ˵ЯΪ , Yu Shih-nan ͺ (558-638), who expounded the

Taoist philosophy on calligraphy reinforced this creative method. Since his statement is an important document, I quote it at length:

Calligraphy contains the essence of art. The action of moving the brush follows the principle of wu-wei (non-action). Based upon the idea of yin and yang, the brush moves and stops. Grasping the essence of ten thousand things the characters are formed. To understand nature and its changes is to know that the constant is ever-moving. The art of calligraphy is mystical and subtle. It bases itself upon the spiritual interfusion not upon artificial exertion. It requires the enlightenment of one's mind but not sense perception. The form of the characters is what you take in with your eyes, but eyes have their limitations and obstructions. If one holds on to only the outer structure of the characters one will be impeded by their material substance.

The Chinese perception of form is embedded in patterns of negative and positive

(yin and yang) from nature, individual calligraphy strokes are seen by the writer to create positive and negative space in the ground.

Wen C. Fong describes the physical act of applying brush to paper as compared to spontaneous creation. “The blank page is the undifferentiated oneness of the universe before creation; the first stroke, born of the union of brush and ink, establishes on the paper a primary relationship between yin and yang, and each additional stroke creates new yin-yang relationships, until the whole is reunited into the harmonious oneness that is Tao, the way of the universe.287 The yin-yang relationship and the formation of imagery are well demonstrated in my work INK. Through the interaction of black

(shadow) and white (light), and with fishes/leaves movements animated by natural kinetic power, it generates various forms and shifts space dimensions.

INK also illustrates the concepts from the Book of Changes that all sixty-four hexagrams originated from a single straight line and its division into two; and that first

287 Wen C. Fong, p. 34.

155 single line is the origin of everything. Lao Tzu’s echoes “Tao gave birth to the One; the

One gave birth successively to two things, three things, up to ten thousand things.”

(TTC 42) In INK, the original brush stroke-like single line produces all images and all images are sprung from the first one. For Taoist ‘One’ is the beginning of everything; the word ‘one’ represents the ‘beginning’ and means ‘oneness’ as well. The aesthetics of Chinese art are also centered on this very ‘oneness’, and on the very first line or stroke; for this first line or stroke, set down by a well-disciplined hand, is the seed of any artistic creation. The first aesthetic principle requires the soundness or excellence of the very first movement of the brush. Shi Tao ːɴ (1642-1717), the famous monk-painter of the late seventeenth century, established this concept. He wrote:

In the ancient days there was no method for the creation of art; all things were combined in one wholeness. When this very wholeness began to separate, the method for creation started. How did this method start? It started from yi-hua or ‘one brushstroke’. This very first ‘one brushstroke’ or yi-hua is the origin of all compositions and the root of the myriad phenomena. It is innate in the power of the supernatural being but can be employed by men. The method of ‘one brush-stroke’ springs from the calligrapher or painter himself.288

Although Shi Tao’s discussion of aesthetic principles is concerned with painting, its emphasis on the first stroke of the brush is especially pertinent to calligraphy. For each Chinese character is built up from one basic brush stroke, on whose degree of excellence depends on the excellence of the finished character, and that of the entire piece of calligraphy. The fabric brush animation is another ‘spontaneous’ presentation of the one brushstroke with the free flow of the stroke emphasizing the reality of movement with sincerity, rather than focusing on appearing words.

288 Quote from Chiang Yee, Chinese Calligraphy: an Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press), 1973, p. 217.

156

Figure 3-3: INK reveals the idea of ‘one brushstroke’ and the relationship between yin and yang.

157 Chinese calligrapher extends the imagery of things in Nature to form inspirations of creation. Man is usually too proud to observe things in Nature in details and learn from their unpredictable precious forms. The Eight Formulae fΗ of Tang calligrapher Ouyang Xun ȥЪΝ (557-641) applies vivid metaphors to represent the basic strokes in calligraphy: each basic stroke in calligraphy is originally nothing but an abstract sign, but in the calligrapher's perceptive mind, he/she gives it a form by comparing it with the linear imagery of things in Nature such as grass, wood, tiles, stones, the vast sky, or the picture of a few stars with the moon absent. So when viewers appreciate calligraphic works, they seem to see sparkling lines of the water waves of artist's observation. At the same time this imagery has internalized his implicit life philosophy, which surpasses the physical and obtaining the ‘essential.’ Figure 3-4

Imagery: Eight Formulae of Ouyang Xun are as below:

is like a falling rock from the high peak. ćџŁ"îː

is similar to the new moon in the vast sky. =Лˣ"xǯ

is like clouds stretching far and wide. ͝Ћ"Хм

is like dried cane of ten thousand years old. ćͤȨ"ȅͳ

158 is a snapped pine tree drooping from a cliff. ǿMƬѴͥƲːŃ

is like shooting ten thousand arrows. ćͤБ"şʷ

is the rhino's ivory cut by a sharp sword. yơǑʋλ"Ώʅ

is like the vagueɋŒϵ˵

Another example in Lu Yu’s Щ̫ (733-804) Shi Huai-su Writing on the

Discussion of Cursive Script with Yan Zhen-qing ЊƝ̋įъˇΪ͟ǭ

Yan Zhen-qing asked, “Can we find our own masters?” Shi answered, “I have observed that the high peaks are surrounded by the summer clouds and that I should learn from them. The marvelous sight is like a horse flying out of the forest or a scared snake sliding into the grass. I passed some shattered walls, and all these are natural.” Yan Zheng-qing asked “How about the trace of leakage in a house?” Shi stood up, held Yan's hand and said, “You have got it!”289

The summer clouds, high peaks, the flying horse, the scared snake, shattered walls and leakage in a house are objects with vivid images. When added with adjectives, they

289 ъˇǫѵŐ2ǰ͋ų#ѱ̋ǫѵ¶ΎöмùăŁѴϙŒŐ"Ѵlʴƀ͸ćѐѤsȃѴћ ͻc͟ ϵâñ"ϏѴ͋ɻ ˇǫѵ @ćĻɫʳѱ̋ωѴƺgƦǫѵų"ˍѱ

159 express the profound capability of the artists in terms of transformation, thus creating works with marvelous imagery. These visual rhythms are both poetic and imaginative, but above all they show that calligraphy brushstrokes are manifestly expressions of instinct, spontaneity and naturalness. American philosopher of art Suzanne K. Langer

(1895-1985) said on the subject of the symbolic function of art: “The importance of an art symbol cannot be built up like the meaning of a discourse, but must be seen into first: that is, understanding of a work of art begins with an intuition of the whole presented feeling.”290 This explains the creative process of Chinese artists often start with seeing things, but the mind approaches things and enters into the world of imagination.

Idea and Image

Before I go further to discuss Chinese calligraphy as expressive art. I should point out the relationship between idea and image which is another important aesthetics derived from Book of Changes in “Xici Zhuan”, we read:

The master said: “Writing does not exhaust words, and words do not exhaust ideas. If this is so, does this means that the ideas of the sages cannot be discerned? The master said: “The sages established images in order to express their ideas exhaustively. They established the hexagrams in order to express exhaustively the true innate tendency of things and their countertendencies to spuriousness. (Xici I)291

Regarding the formation of imagery from the Books of Changes, Contemporary

Chinese philosophy scholar Cheng Shih-chuan ˠːɇ (1909-2005) explains it his article “Yi Xiang Xin Qua” ǛλǐΠ , New Interpretation of I Ching in Yi Xie Xin

290 Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key Philosophy: a Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 1957. 291 ČǫѵǭʿΒѴΒʿƔ ɻ|̴5"ƔѴl©Ί# ǫ̴5˫λ9ʿƔѴΙ9ʿƌ T

160 Tan Ǜĕǐƶ . He considers that “to established images in order to express their ideas exhaustively” ˫λʿƔ states in “Xici Zhuan” means an idea is generated before image. It includes four aspects of idea: xin-yi ŻƔ intension or the intentional, which is in people’s minds but it doesn’t act yet; yi-yi Ɣ̩implication or meaningfulness; and qing-yi ƌƔ affection, concerned or mental projection and possessed. The above three involve conscious and unconscious activities including presents such as immediate recognition, directive vision, and intuitive comprehension.

Cheng Shi-quan concludes that the concept of “established images in order to express their ideas exhaustively,” reveals the main feature of Chinese philosophy wisdom and cultural spirit which emphasizes on symbolization.292

According to Cheng Shi-qua’s analysis, the method of capturing imageries revealed in the Book of Changes includes “the imagined” Ɣλ, “imageries of situations” +λ, and “imageries of objects” ʉλ. The best example of this formation method is revealed in Chinese characters.293

Wang Bi’s Commentary on the Book of Changes: Clarifying the Image ·Ǜʫ

DǙλ established the relationship of idea and image which related to expression concept in Chinese art and literature. Since the concept is important, I quote here in a length:

292 Cheng Shi-quan, “Yi Xiang Xin Qua” in New Interpretation of I Ching in Yi Xie Xin Tan (Taipei: Li-ming Culture,1989), p. 72. 293 Quoted from Cheng Shi-quan, p. 77. According to Cheng Shi-quan’s analysis, the six principles regarding the formation of characters proposed by Xu Shen ΚƗ (was born about 86 B.C.) in the first standard work on Chinese etymology, the Shuo Wen Jie Zi Υǎΐč, could be categorized as below: Imageries of objects: Xiang-Xing λŦ: Imitative Symbols; Zhi Shi Ƴ+: figures which suggest the meaning, often by the idea of some motion. imageries of situations: xing-sheng Ŧ̸: Phonetic Compounds, in which one part stands for the meaning and the other for the sound; Hui-yi ǮƔ: They are something more than two simple figures placed side by side, the one qualifying the other: their meaning is ‘metaphorical’ ; it is a new thing, not logically contained in the parts. imageries of ideas: Zhuan-zhu ϝɌ: mutually Definiting, which is concerned with the use of synonymous characters; zhia-jie PO: Borrowing, which concerns the loan of homophone. Chiang Yee, Chinese Calligraphy, pp. 24-33.

161 Images are the means to express ideas. Words [i.e., the texts] are the means to explain the images. To yield up ideas completely, there is nothing better than the images, and to yield up the meanings of the images, there is nothing better than words. The words are generated by the images, thus one can ponder the words and so observe what the images are. The images are generated by ideas, thus one can ponder the images and so observe what the ideas are. The ideas are yield up completely by the images, and the images are made explicit by the words. Thus, since the words are the means to explain the images, once one gets the images, he forgets the words, and, since the images are the means to allow us to concentrate on the ideas, one gets the ideas, he forgets the images.294

Wang Bi clarifies the notion of “the images are the means to allow us to concentrate on the ideas, one gets the ideas, he forgets the images” by referring Chuang

Tzu’s words295, he goes on to conclude with “If this is so, then the words are snares for the images, and the images are traps for the ideas.”296

Dancing Brush demonstrates the relationship of ‘idea and image’ in Chinese aesthetics as expounded from I Ching. “The ancient sages established the hexagrams in order to express exhaustively the true innate tendency of things.” The natural lighting effects of shade, shadow and highlight represented for me the five colours of Chinese ink painting. During filming Dancing Brush, I concentrated mostly on close-ups ie:

“looking up and down-all embracing perception of existence” resulting in abstracted details and reduced subjects becoming pure form.

294 ÿλ̱ѴsƔ̱'ѶΒ̱Ǚλ' ʿƔ͡͝λѴʿλ͡͝Β ΒʡǓλѴǄ©ĴΒ9ΎλѶλ ʡǓƔѴǄĴλ©9ΎǛ Ɣ9λʿѴλ9Βͧ ǄΒ̱Ƥ9ǙλѴųλ̲ſΒѶλ̱Ƥ9ĎƔѴ ųƔ̲ſλ 295 From ‘External Things’ “The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, yon can forget the words. Where can I and a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?” ̱͞Ƥ9ÜѢѴųѢ̲ſ͞ ϑ̱Ƥ9ÜbѴųb̲ſϑ Β̱Ƥ9ÜƔѴųƔ̲ſΒ øʉ 296 ɻ|Β̱λ"ϑѴλ̱"˷'

162

Figure 3-5: TRANSIENCE demonstrates the view of “looking up and down-all embracing perception of existence”. It discloses the experience of interfusion of subject and object.

163 3.2

Calligraphy as Performing Art

My idea for creating the fabric brush animation sequence in BLUE was deeply inspired by Ms. Tong Yang-tze’s (1942-)297 ͨЪď calligraphy works. She is best known for giant-character calligraphy with a marvelous vitality and grandeur.

Tong Yang-tze is one of the most innovative calligraphers of her generation. She has long been recognized by Chinese scholars as one of the most audacious of the calligraphers in Asia trying to break the iron grip of ancient calligraphic formulae in order to produce work that is meaningful for and relevant to the contemporary world.

The script Tong Yang-tze uses for most of her works is an extreme version of a form known as kuang-cao ʎ͟, wild cursive298, which is characterized by the dramatic abbreviation of brush-strokes that blend as if executed with a single fluid gesture of the painter's brush. Explosive with overflowing energy, her calligraphy appears with an outstanding similarity to the pictographic images of some of the abstract expressionists.

Chinese classicist Tai Ching-nung ͏сϠ (1902-1990) proposed a theoretical foundation and source for Tong Yang-tze's attempts at a convergence of calligraphy and painting. He described Tong Yang-tze's style of calligraphy as “A masterful brush, powerfully transcendent and orderly. Employing fei-bai ѐʸ, a technique leaving spaces or streaks of white within the strokes of black ink, she forms a delightful contrast, in which calligraphy and painting are completely indistinguishable.”299

297 Tong Yang-tze was born in Shanghai in 1942, she began studying calligraphy at the age of eight. Upon graduating from the Fine Arts Department of National Taiwan Normal University, she entered the University of Massachusetts, from which she received an M.F.A. She integrates Western art theories and compositions with modern graphic design and traditional esthetics to create a vigorous brush style. 298 Being one of three styles of Cao-shu ͟ǭ, Kuang-cao began in Tang Dynasty. The most famous Chinese calligrapher of Tang Dynasty Zhang Xu šǖ (d. after 750) is known as the “crazy” Zhang who wrote in an extraordinary wild cursive script (caos-hu). 299 In an article entitled “The New Convergence of Calligraphy and Painting” in 1983 reflecting on Tong

164

Figure 3-6: Duteng Tie , wild cursive of Tang calligrapher Zhang Xu.

Figure 3-7: (left) Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy, Carefree (Buddhist scripture) 69x69cm. 1995 Figure 3-8: (right) Tong Yang-tze’s calligraphy, Boundless, 69x69cm, 1994.

Yang-tze’s unique explorations and achievements in the art of calligraphy, Tai Ching-nung invoked the statement by the philosopher Yang Xiong ƹв (53 BC-1 8 AD) of the Western Han Dynasty: “Calligraphy is painting of the mind.”

165

Figure 3-9: Tong Yang-tze, Everything has an inherent meaning, it is not necessary to verbalize it. (Tao Yuan-ming, Jin Dynasty), 53x234cm, 1996.

300 A review for Tong Yang-tze’s exhibition Realm of Feelings: A Dialogue of

Calligraphy and Space expounds that “the process of reading her works is not only the consumption of simple words, but also the creation of mental images.” It is said that

Tong Yang-tze

Has been deeply influenced by the perspectives of Western modern art. In terms of the form of her calligraphy, she strives for an alteration of structure and composition. Occasionally, For the sake of artistry, her abstract expression nearly alters the characters beyond recognition, turning them into abstract reconstructions of points and lines, which may even require additional explanation to be read. Yet ultimately the words can be discerned, while successfully leaving room for the views to lend their own.301

Her point of departure remains the act of writing with literal as well as figurative meaning, so that the result is in the semantics of language. The quality of merging calligraphy and painting appears in Tong Yang-tze’s works. The similar quality also can be seen in the fabric brush animation in BLUE.

When I did the fabrics movement in the black stage, I couldn’t predict the results of brushstrokes generated by varied shutter speed as well as by the relationship with my strength, direction toward to or away from lights and camera lens. I could just express a feeling that I want to express and dance for it. The fabric brush acts rhythmically,

300 Held at Taipei Fine Art Museum in 2004. 301 Realm of Feelings - A Dialogue of Calligraphy and Space exhibition, Taipei Fine Art Museum, 2004.

166 stretching to the left, drawing away to the right, and turning. Brushstrokes are malleable, rhythmical, flexible, and alive through my body movement delivering energy. From the dancing lines, the unique characters (radical sign) and emotion are gradually explored which characterize the meaning of fabric brush. The tension and lines that extend in between each brushstroke become part of the beauty of calligraphy. The form of rhythm and cadence are produced by the conjunction of space and time. These fabric trails of motion in space have also written/drawn the dancing traces of time and the process of fluid motion.

In this experiment of fabric brush animation technique, what viewers see is like

‘dynamic marks’ left behind by the brushstrokes and the tracings of ink. The camera captures the ‘marks’ spontaneously. This is what I call “spontaneous animation”. After a few experiments, I discovered that slower motion and wide/longer fabrics generated more volume which created rich ink (water) and thick strokes; quick motion and narrow/light fabrics generated dry and fine strokes; combinations of the above two could create strokes in the same style as fei-bai. Also, short fabrics and small movement could create varied dots. The re-animated process is like conducting a piece of music by leaving kinetic ‘marks’ that created the visual rhythm. These fabric brushstrokes correspond to Chinese brush and ink, in their infinite line-and-surface, bone-and-flesh, hard-and-soft, and dry-and-wet combinations, and can theoretically represent or signal everything in the universe.

Stroke and ink are not simple lines to Chinese calligraphy and painting, they company it with strength, movement, and imitation, allowing viewers to feel hard and soft, cold and warm, light and weight, and so on…which utilizes psychology to gain a cognitive response. Not only is there an affirmation of power, but also a capacity within the space to identify the individual sign related to viewer’s mental image. Calligraphy

167 as a two-dimensional art medium would then become three-dimensional when the understanding of the symbolism becomes clear.

These fabric brush animations have the quality of abstract expression like Tong

Yang-tze’s works. When viewers appreciate the work in Dancing Brush, they don’t try to find a word, but to feel the emotion expressed between abstract lines and signs. In the shifting cadences of the lines created by fabric brush, the abstract meaning of words is transformed into concrete images in the viewer’s mind. Chinese art historian and scholar Joan Stanley-Baker ŰĶͷ, points out how it is accessible for non-Chinese readers as Chinese calligraphy evolves more and more towards abstraction. She reviewed the statement of Wang Chi-chien ʓđϼ (C. C. Wang, 1907-2003), the idealist (literati) painter and calligrapher who discussed brushwork in terms of music:

Brushwork is like a voice. The painting is like the story which provides the narrative, the message. Those who don't understand go to the Opera in order to ‘watch’ the battles and the love scenes. But those who know, the aficionados, go with their eyes closed, to hear the singer and follow he voice. We go to ‘listen’ to Mei Lan-fang, not to ‘watch’ acrobatics.302

It appears that Chinese calligraphy possesses the characteristics of ‘visualized music’. Involving the element of time, Chinese calligraphy, music, and dance have great connections and qualities in common. Thus, we realized viewers don’t need to

‘understand’ the literal meaning of the calligraphy to appreciate it, like we appreciate music.

Chinese scholar Zhang Tie-min’s šИȶ303 expatiates on the temporal quality of

Chinese calligraphy and says “The fundamental visual form of Chinese calligraphy and

302 Joan Stanley-Barker, ‘Calligraphy in China’ in The Living Brush Exhibition Catalogue, Pacific Hertage Museum (San Francisco: The American Asian Cultural Exchange Pacific, 1997), p. 19. 303 Zhang Tie-min, ‘Calligraphy as Painting of the Mind’ in An Overview of Chinese Calligraphy Culture (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1995), p. 206. Quote from Wang Chia-Chi, “Calligraphy as Painting of the Mind: Tong Yang-tze’s Calligraphic Aesthetic” in exhibition program Realm of Feelings - A Dialogue of Calligraphy and Space (Taipei Fine Art Museum, 2004).

168 painting (particular monochrome ink painting) is lines of the brushstrokes. It materializes words and images through visual motion, in its ever-shifting forms, is the vehicle for calligraphy capturing of moments, and the vehicle for expressing the tempo of the brushstroke, forming the structure of calligraphy's sense of cadence and time.”

Joan Stanley-Baker points out the dynamic principle in time of Chinese calligraphy,

“What we seek in Chinese calligraphy is therefore not merely formal beauty in a composition of a series of interrelated configurations in space, but the palpable, living energy of the process of creation where Chinese follow interconnected brush actions as they move in time. The entire work, like a ‘score,’ can be ‘heard’ as music or seen as dance in real time”304

Inspired by Asian thought and aesthetics, Water Moon ȸǯ, Cursive: A Trilogy

Dance ΁͟ЄǬ -three pieces uniquely capture the development of the art form calligraphy; the dance quality of Chinese calligraphy has been well presented from contemporary theater works of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre мМ͖д, Taiwan founded in 1973 by Lin Hwai-min ȃƝȶ (1947-).

For Chinese calligraphers, the act of writing words or the twisting of the wrist must be a performance of the calligrapher’s entire body and hands. The stroke responds to the slightest movement of the right elbow and arm, the force of the entire body. The following statement was told in the old treatise Bi Zhen Tu ˵ХÚ , Strategy of the

Writing Brush 305 : “The dots, lines and curving strokes of calligraphy must be accompanied by the forces of the entire body.”306 In the process of developing the works, Lin Hwai-min’s choreographies have reflected on calligraphy as much like dance as an art form. He relied on Chinese tai-ji, martial arts, and qi-qung ȷ to

304 Joan Stanley-Barker, p. 14. 305 Bi Zhen Tu was created by Mandan Wei ΃ÿ5 (272-349). Legend has it that she was Wang Xi-Zhi’s teacher. 306 ѫʬɋƽĺ˄Ѵнʿϓ" ̲ϧ"

169 create these work. Tai-ji motions began in the middle of the body then were carried out through chi or inner energy. Dancers evoked images of the Chinese character, yung ȹ meaning ‘eternity,’ graceful motions of stretching down and then pulling up a bit as well as spreading out and reaching down to articulate a word307. In the end, the dancers find themselves writing very large calligraphic characters. Lin Hwai-min remarked that one thing always in common between the brush work and movement that is the concentrated energy with which calligraphers dance in writing. To share this energy, their dancers practiced following ink on huge enlargements of Chinese characters. This led to unimaginable motions.

Figure 3-10: The stroke order of writing yung ½

307 The Eight Components of the Character Yong theory originated from Wang Xi-Zhi ʓ̪"Ѳlate Han dynastyѳhas been more widely studied than other systems and is still the most generally used as the basis for practice. It has been well interpreted in a book entitled Yong Zi Ba Fa ȹčfɉ by Li Pu-Guang Ǽͩ` of Qing dynasty.

170

Figure 3-11: (left) The Cloud Gate dancer evoked images of the Chinese character yung ½ Curvise I, 2001. Figure 3-12: (right) The Cloud Gate dancer wore black as she danced against a plain background, seemingly writing calligraphy on paper as she went through the choreographed movements. Curvise I, 2001. Photo: Liu Chen-hsiang.

Figure 3-13: The choreography in Water Moon are inspired by tai-ji movements. Photo: Liu Chen-hsiang

171

Figure 3-14: The fabric brush animation in BLUE. In the shifting cadences of the lines created by fabric brush, the abstract meaning of words is transformed into concrete images in the viewer’s mind.

172 3.3

Kong-Bai

The Tao, which for Confucius was moral conduct, was for the Taoist and the

Buddhist the way of nature-effortless, free, and zi-ran “self-so-ness”. Zi-ran, spontaneity of mind and wu-wei, non-action are the features of Tao. “Tao never does; yet through it all things are done” is the account of the great beauty. To advocate zi-ran, accommodate zi-ran is the main source of Taoist aesthetics. Based on the concept of zi-ran, Lao Tzu also considers su or primordial simplicity ̋, pu or plain ț, dan or flavorless ɗ and zhuo or clumsiness Ư are inherent qualities of zi-ran by saying

“But simple views, and courses plain and true. Would selfish ends and many lusts eschew” (TTC 19)308, “the greatest skill seems like clumsiness” (TTC 45)309 also “The

Tao, considered as unchanging, has no name. Though in its primordial simplicity it may be small, the whole world dares not deal with (one embodying) it as a minister. (TTC

32)310 as well as “It acts without action, does without doing, finds flavor in what is flavorless.” (TTC)311 For Taoist, the Great beauties of Heaven and Earth do not speak for themselves thus presenting as the feature of emptiness, non-action, and primordial simplicity as made in heaven.

In Chinese, kong ˣ means emptiness, void; bai means white ʸ. Visual kong-bai means white colour space in painting. The empty space kong-bai does not mean

‘nothing’, but the ‘usefulness of the useless’, it provides greater possibilities. Kong-Bai in Chinese art appears as colour as colourless, form of formless.

308 Ί̋ƭțѴķ˛Ĭȣ 309 üň͝Ư 310 ϷŒɺ¯ѴțѴзĶѴý͂͊͡' 311 ɸɺɸѴ+ɺ+Ѵ¸ɺ¸

173 Colour of Colourless

Lao Tzu reveals “The five colours blind eye” thus he teaches “knows the black, yet cleaves to the white” (TTC 28) lead to the Chinese artist’s love for monochromatic water-and-ink painting. Artists in the Song and Yuan periods fell in love with

“colourlessness,” or “black-and white,” because they see colours in black-and-white.

They see rich colors in ink, like seeing life emerging in the dead tree or infinite possibilities in kong-bai.

In the years following the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the idealist tendencies of

Taoism were strengthened by the growing influence of Buddhism in the Song dynasty

(960-1279). Chinese art had the opportunity to give up forms and techniques to a greater extent and lead the Chinese spirit into a stage of meditation. Chinese painting makes the effort to dispose of colours and transform to water-and-ink. Not only is landscape painted in water-and-ink, but also figure painting is replaced by bai-miao ʸƸ literally, plain drawing or sketch drawing. One thousand years following this period, black-and-white dominated the mainstream in Chinese painting. Compared to other civilizations, it may be a unique and noteworthy characteristic of Chinese painting.312

Jiang Xun points out in Chinese art history, “colours giving way to water-and-ink illustrates the process how Chinese transform from the pursuit of the outside to meditation on the inside in Chinese painting.” In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the prosperity, glamour, and sensual pleasure gradually give way to water-and-ink, which features the simple, natural state of mind.313 Zhang Yan-yuan, an artist-writer in the

Tang Dynasty, reveals the sign of the transition from colours to water-and-ink in his well-known book entitled Li-Dai Ming-Hua-Ji or The Famous Paintings of All

312 Jiang Xun, pp. 129-130. 313 Ibid.

174 Dynasties ȩ7¯ʬΖ , He states,

Trees and grass grow and thrive, waiting for no colours on the palette. Floating clouds and falling snowflakes are not white because someone paints them this way. Mountains are green without the use of green paint while phoenixes are multicolored without the use of five paints. Thus, five colors are incorporated in the ink, and one can paint whatever one wishes to. If one is focused on five colors, he is far away from real objects. What one must not do when painting is to merely imitate the appearance.314

Jiang Xun comments on the aforementioned passage are of great importance because they demonstrate the Tang Dynasty undergoing a dramatic painting revolution, in which painting is upgraded to abstract and conceptual. The revolution is centered on colours. “Generally speaking, the colours applied in paintings are imitation of those of objects. However, Zhang Yan-yuan affirms, ‘Floating clouds and falling snowflakes are not white because someone paints them this way,’ which illustrates that colours applied in paintings are not the same as those of real objects in real life. To go a step further,

Chinese painters create abundant colours in the monochrome ink.”315

Jiang Xun compares Chinese artists with Impressionists on light. The former have deliberated over colour, the latter make a scientific and visual analysis on colours in the light. Chinese artists extract colours from the light, and treat colours as a concept in the monochrome from a new perspective. Jiang Xun recognizes when Zhang says, “Five colours are incorporated in the ink and one can paint whatever one wishes to,” what it means is that Chinese painting has become a symbol of a kind of concept or thought.316

The pioneer of Chinese photography, Long Chin-san ЁсĿ (1892-1995)317 was

314 ͟ǶǌȔѴŮ˓"Ũ мляƹѴŮВ̲̆ʸ ĿŮˣр̲̭ѴѥŮ0̲̘͘ Ǡ Ǆϴï̲0͘mѴά"ųƔ ƔÜ0͘Ѵ|ʉλ$ˍ ÿʬ̱ʊŽŦνѴЉˬȩȩmόѴʠίʠ̍Ѵ ̲øоňĨ 315 Ibid. 316 Ibid. 317 Long Chin-san was born in Zhejiang Province in China. In 1927 he became one of China’s first photo-journalists when the Shanghai Eastern Times, where he was employed, brought in the country’s

175 famous for representing the artistic conception of Chinese painting in landscape photography. He created a compositing method called “Composite Picture” which allowed him to combine multiple images in the dark room. The results were photographs which incorporated the methodology of traditional Chinese water-and-ink painting, creating a synthesis of Chinese aesthetic and western photographic technique.

Long Chin-san studied Chinese painting since his teenage years. It had a deep impact on his photography works where the concept of kong-bai has been greatly disclosed.

Figure 3-15: Yu Chien Á! (13th century) “Boats Returning from a Distance Shore” (section of Nagoya) Eight Views of Hsiao and Hsiang $«.] , handscroll, ink on paper.

Figure 3-16: Fishman (detail) by Wu Zhen ê (1280-1354), ink on paper.

first colour printing machine. In his age of 47, he created the compositing method “Composite Picture”.

176

Figure 3-17: Long Chin-san, Fishing Under the Snow, photography, 1969.

Figure 3-18: Long Chin-san, Spring by the Riverside, photography, 1934.

177 Form of Formless

Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), the leading twentieth century philosopher of Japan, has used the notion of “the form of the formless” to differentiate between the Eastern and Western cultures.

In contradistinction to Western culture which considers form as existence and formation as good, the urge to see the form of the formless, and hear the sound of the soundless lies at the foundation of Eastern culture.318

Kitaro’s idea is obviously derived from Taoist philosophy mentioned in previous sections. Formlessness is identified with the infinite, the inexhaustible. Thus it is often used as the negative terminology of ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’. Lao Tzu describes it

“in the Great Beginning, there was nonbeing; there was no being, no name. Out of it arose One; there was One, but it had no form,” Chuang Tzu states it “The Tao cannot be heard; heard, it is not the Way. The Way cannot be seen; seen, it is not the Way. The

Tao cannot be described; described, it is not the Way. That which gives form to the formed is itself formless.” (CT 22) What formless is the source of all forms but itself is empty of forms. Lao Tzu says in Tao Te Ching “as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.” (TTC 11) Form is taken as immediate benefit; Formlessness as long-term function. From the Chinese perspective, Francois

Cheng makes it clear by saying that “emptiness is not, as one might suppose, something vague or nonexistent. It is dynamic and active. Linked with the idea of vital breaths and with principle of the alternation of yin and yang, it is the preeminent site of transformation, the place where fullness can attain its whole measure.”319

318 Kitaro Nishida, p. 211. Quote from Earle Jerome Coleman, Shih-Tao, p. 13. 319 Cheng Francois, p. 36.

178 In the philosophy of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, they have thorough discussions concerning senses and state of mind. Art leads to the elevation and liberation of the spirit through minimum sensual stimuli. Thus, provoking sensual excitement is not what

Chinese art aims at. Emptiness, void, and insubstantial state of mind are all expressions that are used against ‘senses.’ Where there is unknown emptiness, there are shapes, colours, and sounds to be explored and created. I apply the Chinese term kong-bai here to describe the “form of formless” the emptiness purest form of time and space.

In music, kong-bai resembles the ‘silence’, the ‘sound of emptiness’. Chinese music produced by gu-qin usually demonstrates ‘anti-music’. It is plain, hesitant, and repeats itself softly. It seems that sound returns to where it begins, and studies all kinds of possibilities with a variety of techniques. The large quantity of kong-bai represents the original expression of the sound, and the first sound in the universe makes people reflect and ponder.

The following poem of Lu Ji’s Щȟ (261-303) describes the function of kong-bai says: “Trying the Void to demand for Being; knocking upon Profound Silence for sound.” 320 Su Shi reveals its meaning by saying: “In tranquillity, one perceives everything in motion; in the state of emptiness, one takes in all the aspects.”321 Both continue what Lao Tzu’s teaching “Truly, Only he that rids himself forever of desire can see the ‘Secret Essences’; he that has never rid himself of desire can see only the

Outcomes.”322

As we understand the time-space consciousness of Chinese is revolving. Kong-bai is where time begins and where it ends. In Chinese architecture, courtyards are used to create empty space, where people can go through, stop, and return. It is not the solid

320 Χ͹ɺ9οǰ ¦ħĪ̲Ⱥх Yip, Wai-lim. ‘Taoism Aesthetics’, p. 27. 321 сǄ*̨ѴˣǄ̊ͤí Yip, Wai-lim. ‘Taoism Aesthetics’, p. 28. 322 ǄŒɺѴȣ9ΎlĈѶŒǰѴȣ9Ύlź

179 form that can be photographed and pictured, but the relationships between shapes.

Architecture itself is not just pure spatial art, though empty space is used to suggest the elongation of time, namely turning the spatial art of architecture into a temporal art.

In Chinese play, a designated stage reflects how Chinese plays represent time and space. It is known that the space in a Chinese play is one without any stage props. The stage of a play would be designated to a specific time and space once stage props are set.

The stage props are merely symbolic, the time and space on the stage would be fixed and there would be no room for switching. The blank stage setting signifies a stage returning to time and space in its purest form. The stage must not bear any objects that can give it a specific meaning, because what the stage intends to demonstrate is not a stage where a story takes place in a specific time or space, but a stage where any story shared by people in the ongoing stream of time and space may take place.

In Dancing Brush installation, I applied kong-bai in many ways: the visual thinking, editing, experiment animation technique and the design of gallery space.

The mobile white wall in the gallery serves as a screen to create layers of time in empty concrete architecture. It separates the triple projection and double projection areas. One side of the wall is part of the double projection; the other side is a white space which resembles kong-bai in the Chinese scroll painting Han Xi-zai’s Night Revel.

It is not to separate reality, but suggest the elongation of time.

The TV playing TIME on the stage in Kudos gallery represented the existence of human beings like traditional Chinese play did by using a table and a chair on stage as a symbol. The blank background is not a dead spot. It represents the life journey to echo the incense and serves to extend the whole gallery space to an infinite imaginary world.

The image of burning incense in TIME reveals the non-linear, time-space consciousness.

180 Time and space are relative and subject to change as chance meeting. TIME is a 15 minute loop video image. The female voice from the TV is extracted from the soundtrack of BLUE, but recreated with big kong-bai space to allow soundtracks from triple projection and double projection to mix by chance. When the voice appears through the TV (TIME) in random, it brings back the memory of BLUE. Each time, as the voice intensifies increasingly on the blank stage, the kong-bai seems to be the beginning of the universe, where everything is about to emerge.

The example of using kong-bai in video art practice was shown in one of Nam

June Paik’s earlier works Zen for Film of 1964 which consists of an hour’s worth of blank celluloid. Paik’s unique contribution to Performance Art was his adaptation of the technology of the moving image-film, single-channel video, and, most notably, television-to sculptural and installation formats that could be displayed in galleries and museums. John G. Hanhardt, author of The Worlds of Nam June Paik, recognized Zen for Film is “one of his minimalist treatment of the cinematic experience attracted attention.” He described:

With Zen for Film, Paik projected clear film leader onto a screen. The particles of dirt and dust caught in the projector’s gate were illuminated by its beam of light. Paik’s performative interactions with projected film elaborated his connection to performance and structural film. The treatment of celluloid and light as materials of a radical form of filmmaking in Zen for Film paralleled Paik’s performative interactive with the video medium.323

John Cage once described the experience of viewing Zen for Film:

Paik invited Merce Cunningham and me to Canal Street to see his Zen for Film, an hour-long film without images. “The mind is like a mirror; it collects dust, the problem is to remove the dust.” “Where is the mirror? Where is the dust?” In this case the dust is on the lens of the

323 John G. Hanhardt, The Worlds of Nam June Paik (New York: Guggenheim Museum: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 2000), p. 95.

181 projector and on the blank developed film itself. “There is never nothing to see.”324

“There is never nothing to see” refers to the teaching of Zen Buddhism. It also relates to Chuang Tzu’s teaching “to use the mind like a mirror”. Let “spirit is empty and waits for all things”. The mirror is where emptiness is.

Hanhardt reveals Cage’s writing in 1968 which associated the experience of Zen for Film with no images to his best known composition 4’33” of 1952 as well as to

Robert Rauschenberg paintings without images.325 Cage considered 4’33” his most important piece. He explained:

It has three movements and in all of the movements there are no sounds. I wanted my work to be free of my own likes and dislikes, because I think music should be free of the feelings and ideas of the composer. I have felt and hoped to have led other people to feel that the sounds of their environment constitute a music which is more interesting than the music which they would hear if they went into a concert hall.326

These three movements were signaled by David Tudor's opening and closing the piano. Cage attempted to push the audience toward an ‘enlightenment experience’ by asking them simply to listen. What he did was provide a specified period of silence to frame each movement within the piece. Cage compared his use of silence to Robert

Rauschenberg’s white paintings, a way of making emptiness visible.327 He suggested that the ‘no image’ of the images in Zen for Film is the ‘form of the formless’. As an analogy to John Cage, who included silence as a non-sound in his music, Paik uses the emptiness of the image for his art, the purest form of time and space.

Contemporary Taiwanese artists Wang Ya-hui’s ʓгƘ (1973-) video

324 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 180. 325 John G. Hanhardt, p. 95. 326 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 170. 327 Ibid.

182 installation and Yuan Goang-ming’s ΅ŝѦ (1965-) 328 digital photography are different approaches using kong-bai to emphasize time and space in new media arts. In

The Gap (2002) ̝Э by Taiwanese video artist Wang Ya-hui, there is a white wall stretching horizontally in front of viewers in the exhibition space. On the wall are projected real images of a fuse box, a power outlet and a telephone circuit box. With the use of three-dimensional animation software, the telephone circuit box cover opens, closes, and sways. In The Gap, the white wall acts as a screen, blocking viewers’ vision.

From behind the screen, natural, manmade, and mechanical sounds arise in waves, sometimes close, sometimes far away. The wall sometimes shifts to the left or the right, or tilts up or down. In this way, it forms “gaps” that open up, some big, some small, and the viewer can only glimpse one corner of the actual tableau behind: Perhaps it is inside a moving train, twilight in the country side, or a lovely landscape of lakes and mountains. Wang Ya-hui intentionally controls how the wall face is opened and closed only allowing viewers to linger within the gap, piecing together, guessing or pondering a series of scenes we desire to unveil but cannot. Thus, here sounds come to serve the unusual purpose of calling out and inducing reverie. This effect of only hearing sounds but not seeing the entire image increases the suspense and theatricality of the entire piece. Because viewers glimpse only part of the images through a gap and must discern shapes by listening to sounds, viewers are forced to complete the full picture in their minds, by speculating, piecing bits together in their imagination.329

“Sensations pierce through space, visuals drive the spirit. The relationship between

328 Yuan Goang-ming is a pioneer of video art in Taiwan. He is now one of the foremost Taiwanese artists active in international media art. In the early 1990s, he started doing art with electronic and digital media. In the past, his works have often been noted for emulating and recreating scenes from the real world, and underscoring the contrast between imitation and the genuine object. Thus, they reveal a certain circumstance or state that is present, and at the same time convey a considerable degree of symbolic meaning. Examples include Fish in Bowl (1992), Bird in Cage (1995), People Running (1998) and Floating Boat (2000). 329 Quote from 2002 Taipei Biennial Great Theatre of the World Program, Taipei Fine Art Museum.

183 the existence of human beings and consciousness of space begin to rotate.”330 In The

Gap, the white wall moves slowly. It releases the limits of reality at the boundary between perception and experience. The concept is presented in her other video installation, Roll, (2002) which uses a similar approach.

Figure 3-19: Wang Ya-hui, The Gap, 2002.

Figure 3-20: Wang Ya-hui, Roll, 2002.

330 The artist statement available from: http://www.changsgallery.com.tw

184 In Yuan Goang-ming’s work, the montage of still lift images City Disqualified

-Ximen District (2001) äŌāȋ-ΈМʧ, a vast, deserted Taipei City appears. The chosen locale is the crowded, bustling Ximen (or West Gate) district. The dramatic treatment makes the city seem to be an enormous stage that has been thoroughly emptied. In a single moment, the entire theater of the city seems to have shed all functionality.

Yuan Goang-ming created this image by taking pictures with a conventional camera in the same place in different time, then manipulating and reproducing them by a digital program. He makes great use of repeated ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ action, ‘erasing’ the city originally bursting with traffic and flourishing with human activity, and covering it up with “unpopulated” images from different photographs of the same scene. Thus, City

Disqualified-Ximen District shifts from concrete space to abstract time, and is juxtaposed in a highly compressed, asynchronous time frame. Yuan Goang-ming achieved this transcendently two-dimensional image by electronically scanning and piecing together many photographs in a new way, yet each photo comes from reality.331

In this work Yuan Goang-ming practices his idea about digital aesthetics. For him it’s about ‘subtraction’ not ‘addition’. This work creates an illusion from reality by the methods of subtracting and reproducing to interpret the concept of “not existing in here-now”.332

In The Gap, Roll and City Disqualified-Ximen District, kong-bai is the result of

‘subtraction’ where ‘less is more.’

331 Quote from 2002 Taipei Biennial Great Theatre of the World Program, Taipei Fine Art Museum. 332 Lin Zhi-ming, ȃžГ “To and For Between Being and Nothingness: Yuan Goang-ming’s Installation Art” in Contemporary Design ϳƢǓĎÜ͒͹ɺ"Пѵ΅ŝѦǓǡПϕʺͲ΂·̦ Ύѫ ʮ7ΙΓ , Vol.115, p. 146. 2002.

185

Figure 3-21: Yuan Goang-ming, City Disqualified-Ximen District, photography, 2001.

186 3.4

Mountain and Water: Unity of Emptiness and Fullness

The Chinese term ‘mountain and water,’ means ‘landscape’. It suggests solid and fluid, fullness and emptiness, or being and nonbeing what Chinese call shi and xu. The mountains are thought of as the flesh and the streams as the blood, of a living organism.

The early rise of Chinese landscape derived from conceptions of the universe. Water and mountain are the visible manifestations of the very essence of life. Remarked in

Guo Xi’s Ѕɽ (1020-1090) Lin Quan Gao Zhi ȃɇџ͎ in following lines, the texts reveal the organic quality of Chinese landscape paintings.

Water is a living thing. Its form should be tranquil and deep, it should be expansive, should be circling around, should have body…333

Streams are the blood veins of a mountain, the vegetation its hair, the clouds and mists its expression. Therefore, a mountain becomes alive with water...334

Water is the ‘blood’ of the universe. It is important that the blood should have mobility.335

In Chapter Two of this thesis, I already explained that ‘the void’ is derived from the gap between two mountains which imply ‘valley’ as empty space where ‘being generated through nonbeing.’ The image of the valley is connected with the image of water. Like the breaths, water appears inconstant, yet it penetrates everywhere and animates everything. Its function of ‘usefulness of useless’ implies the function of fullness is activated through emptiness. Emptiness such as mist is born from the condensation of water but also taking on the forms of the mountain into a ‘process of

333 Lin Yutang, p. 84. ȸɐʉ' lŦȣɚс ȣȆɨ ȣȿɎ ȣÓʝ ȣ͉̽ ȣÐͯ 334 Ibid. 9Ŀȸɸ΀̈́ 9͟ǶɸȳѠ 9мɸ˘Ũ ǄĿųȸ̲ɐ 335 Ibid. ȸ̱ ýÝ"΀' ΀π·ɒ̲rɩ

187 reciprocal becoming’.336 This process is in tune with what the Book of Changes states

“The reciprocal process of yin and yang is called the Tao.” The interaction between mountain and water is perceived as the embodiment of the universal process of transformation. Francois Cheng asserts that “void in Chinese philosophy is not a hypothetical abstraction. It is not a dead thing, but the creative principle and therefore a living entity.337

According to the Erh-ya ʃг which is the oldest dictionary of the Chinese language (dating from before the Christian era) the word yin originally meant ‘the shady side of a hill’ (valley or low place); while yang meant ‘the sunny side of the mountain’

(the eminence itself). In painting, yin-yang has to do with the action of light, which is expressed by the play of ink particularly in monochrome painting. When Chinese painters paint, the brush forms shapes and ink differentiates between yin and yang.

Mountain and water are born entirely from brushstrokes and ink. The ‘shadow of things’ is the fundamental concept of the rhythmical interweaving of the yin and yang force in the great entity. The ‘solidity’ (fullness) and ‘vacancy’ (emptiness) relate to the ideas of light and darkness. In Hua Chuan ʬ˷ , or The Net of Painting, Da

Chong-guang ˳Ќ` (1623-1692) states “White vacancy is yang, or light; solid ink wash is yin, or darkness. When there are no wrinkles on the top of the mountain, this signifies light. When there is a heavy ink wash in the valley, this signifies the darkness of the shadow.”

In MOUNTAIN & WATER, the silhouette presents a monochrome painting in which the principles of emptiness and fullness are established. The movements are created spontaneously according to the relationship between the body, lighting, and the distance to paper screen. Through that which is empty, the fullness is moved and that

336 Cheng Francois, p. 37. 337 Ibid.

188 which is fullness becomes vacant. When white is changed to black, the high cast down and the low made high. Thus the entire picture will be full of the life rhythm. As the

‘dropping ink’ (luo mo ͥï)338 grows, it shifts white into black. For the Dark (yin) and light (yang) have changed places: the times are out of joint.

Based on semiotic perspective in Empty and Full: the Language of Chinese

Painting, Francois Cheng conceives of emptiness as a sign not a pure philosophical concept. He asserts that emptiness is not inert but “pervaded by breaths that connect the visible world to an invisible one.” He describes emptiness as an ‘intermediary form’ between the two apparently opposites poles.339 Chinese painting is a philosophy in action. Francois Cheng expatiates on the active function of emptiness. He states:

With emptiness as intermediary, the painter creates the impression that the mountain could virtually enter the emptiness and melt down into waves, and that inversely, the water, by way of the emptiness, could rise upon into a mountain. As a result, mountain and water are no longer perceived as partial elements opposed and frozen but as embodiments of the dynamic law of the real. Because of the disruption of linear perspective by emptiness with in the pictorial realm, we once again note this relationship of reciprocal becoming between humans and nature within the picture, on the other hand, and between the onlooker and the picture as a whole.340

Francois Cheng explains the function of emptiness in Chinese painting by applying the concept of “circular movement” what Shi-tao called zhou-liu Ϯɒ (universal flowing) and huan-bao ʝƭ (universal embracing). In the form of free space, mists and clouds, or even just fine strokes and diluted ink, emptiness breaks the static opposition between the two entities and, through the breath it generates, arouses inner transformation. 341 “It is in this relationship of mountain and water animated by

338 Zhong-ren’s innovative monochrome style in which he created the plum petals by ‘dropping ink’. 339 Cheng Francois, p. 38. 340 Ibid. 341 Cheng Francois, p. 86.

189 emptiness that we find a basic governing notion of both painting and geomancy

(feng-shui юȸ): lung-mai Ѱ̈́ (dragon arteries).” He points out two dynamic conception of unity kai-ho (opening-closure) and chi-fu (rising-falling).342 It is the relationship of yin and yang, and kai-he as the most basic single principle in Chinese design in brush stroke. In calligraphy kai-he means “the upper part should receive the lower and the lower should receive the upper, so that each part will have the appearance of being in response and not of turning away.” This is coherence through the interdependence of opposites. 343 The kai-he principle, the notion of harmonious expansion is first expounded in ͛͗ĕʬ̚ of the leading Chinese artist Shen

Zong-qian Ɂěњ (1736-1820) in Ching dynasty. He states:

Where things grow and expand that is kai, where things are gathered up, that is he. When you expand (kai) you should think of gathering up (he) and then there will be structure; when you gather up (he) you should think of expanding (kai) and then you will have inexpressible effortlessness and an air of inexhaustible spirit. In using the brush and in laying out the composition, there is not a moment when you can depart from kai- he.344

Above all, kai-he is to achieve the state of free flow, the rhythmic vitality. Once again, this notion is derived from the Book of Changes, “One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustibility of their alteration is called their free flow.” (Xici I)

In MOUNTAIN & WATER I applied kai-he as the editing principle to establish the yin-yang relationship; the reciprocal process with rhythmic operation presents the harmony of dynamic force, and creates the experience of time passing by through distance. The idea could be interpreted through the term ‘pressing forth’, Tui Ʒ from

Nan Sung Cueh Pi ěƪ˝ of the Ching dynasty critic Hua Lin ͢ʗ (1791-1850).

342 Cheng Francois, p. 87. 343 George Rowley, p. 133. 344 The ‘unity of coherence’ is also observed in George Rowley’s book, p. 337.

190 Hua Lin uses the term ‘pressing forth’ to explain the concept of ‘distance’ in

Chinese painting. For him, three distances is not ‘to pile up and stratify or to dig and hack.’ It is free of mechanical implications, free of all geometrical connotations, and therefore also free of perspective. Hua Lin suggests “pressing forth” as “convergence in divergence” =й̲ which endows space with organic qualities. 345 We are reminded of the rhythmical qualities of Chinese art as the result of ‘convergence in divergence’ which again is based on the concept of yin and yang.

Hua Lin remarked if all things would cluster together, neither height nor depth nor evenness could be perceived as distant. To give appearance of diverging and yet converging means to have achieved the essence of ‘pressing forth’.346 He proposes a method to achieve this convergence in divergence as below:

There must be the right measure of density and looseness of strokes, the right strength or faintness of colors on the whole surface of the painting, brightness and darkness have to contrast with each other, so that the yin forces can press forth into the yang forces and vice versa. Looking at it straight, it is like the broken current pressing forth waves; looking at it sideways, it is like floating clouds pressing forth the moon. The brush and the ink have to press forth in all directions. If convergence in divergence is achieved, the method of pressing forth is achieved; and the method of distance (depiction) is likewise contained therein.347

“Looking at it straight, it is like the broken current pressing forth waves; looking at it sideways, it is like floating clouds pressing forth the moon.” suggests the mobile perspectives of wandering experience. Through the ‘broken current’, and ‘floating clouds’ (visually emptiness), space and time has been shifted. We sense the film camera movement. In the similar line of Su Shi’s “Viewed horizontally, a bridge of a mountain;

345 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Space-Consciousness’, pp. 45-48. 346 Ibid. 347 Ibid. ʰĨl˵ѴɲɗlïѴÒUѴǙǣOǝ 9Ч©9ƷЪѴ9Ъ2©9ƷЧ ˄Ύ"ć ɀɒ"Ʒɋ ˊ΋"ć΁м"Ʒǯ ɺŭт9˵ƷѴɺŭт9ïƷ =й̲"ɉųѴƷ"ɉ ų Ϻ"ɉ2ʿǓǠˍ

191 viewed sideways, a peak. Near and far with varied heights.”348, it discloses the use of emptiness as an interval between shifting perspectives. We are reminded that the rhythmical quality is based on the concept of yin and yang. The following lines from

Chinese Tang poems reflect the idea of distance merged to temporal events through the function of emptiness in Chinese artists’ mind.

The shape of earth end in the ocean’s vastness. Dropped in the river, heaven’s shade grows void. (Li Pai, Tang)349

The sky enters the fishing boat upon the waves. (Du Fu, Tang)350

I want to turn the sky that it may enter the flat boat. (Li Shang-yin, Tang)351

I walk to the point where the water ends, And sit and watch the moment when clouds rise. (Wang Wei, Tang)352

The limited form of earth merges itself in the endless ocean. The infinite sky lowers itself over the river. The white water merges into cloudy sky. The empty space in

Chinese art is seen not to be a dead thing, offering merely a background to bring out the movement of event, but the very essence of life; all rhythms of life grow from it.

The Chinese water-and-ink animations created by Shanghai Animation Film Studio during the 1960’s brought huge international success in the creation of styles and techniques. For example in both Passion of Landscape Ŀȸƌ (1962) and The Crow boy’s Flute ʈ˰ (1964), function of emptiness and mobile point of view in Chinese painting has been well-demonstrated through camera movement and changing of image layers as transitions.

348 ȠˆƞŅRƞŁѴϺϣџ?¬® 349 ÝŦϭɔʿѴýūͥȼ͹ ѲÂ Ǽʸѳ 350 ýcɓɥА͗ (Â ǽʣ) 351 ȣÓýÝcƥ͗ (Â ǼÅа) 352 ΁zȸ˧͸ѴÞˆмωǡ (Â ʓ̕)

192

Figure 3-22: In MOUNTAIN & WATER the female silhouette makes a monochrome painting.

193

Figure 3-23: Traditional Chinese water-and-ink painting techniques are applied in animation Passion of Landscape , 1962. (view clips left then right)

194

Figure 3-24: Clips from The Crow boy’s Flute w>, water-and-ink animation, 1964.

Influenced by Chinese and Japanese calligraphy to create his paintings, the American abstract expressionist painter Franz Kline (1910-1962) described his work,

The Oriental idea of space is an infinite space; it is not painted space, and ours is. In the first place, calligraphy is writing, and I’m not writing. People sometimes think I take a white canvas and paint a black sign on it, but this is not true. I paint the white as well as the black, and the white is just as important….353

His understanding of the relation between depiction and suggestion what Chinese consider depiction (shi), void or suggestion (xu) acts an important role in his paintings.

However, as for most of non-Chinese artists, Kline misses the action principle of

Chinese painting that the relationship between the painted elements (fullness) and the surrounding space (the emptiness) as mountain and water is animated by emptiness.

353 David Anfam, ed. Franz Kline: Black & White 1950-1961, (Houston: Houston Fine Art Press, 1994), p. 19.

195 Figure 3-25: Franz Kline, Untitled, oil on canvas, 1957.

The above water-and-ink animation, MOUNTAIN & WATER and INK, express this relationship between the painted elements (fullness) and the surrounding space (the emptiness) or the relationship of mountain and water animated by emptiness which

Chuang Tzu has described precisely as “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness.” (CT 22)

According to Webster Dictionary, animation as a film genre is more about bringing things to life, to reveal life energy. With this in mind, I propose that yin and yang are worthy of consideration as elements. Yin and yang are opposite elements, not only yin or yang alone could set in function. This is why Book of Changes says: “The reciprocal process of yin and yang is called the Tao.” This is understood as “two things opposite and complementary to each other”. Yin and yang change from one to another; in doing so, bring about life as transformation. In “Xici Zhuan” it is stated:

This is why closing the gate is called Kun (pure yin, the passive principle), and opening the gate is called Qian (pure yang, the creative principle). One such closing and one such opening is referred to as a change, and the inexhaustibility of their alteration is called their free flow. What one sees of this is called the images. As these take physical shapes, we may say that they are concrete things.”

196 We realize what Chuang Tzu says “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness,” is the transformation between form and formless, the function of chi. Yin and yang are pushing movement which brings about a decrease, which leads to transformation. The relationship of yin and yang both as cyclical and as interactive has provided an answer.

Based on Taoist subtracting process which is derived from the notion of ‘Being and Nonbeing grow out of one another’ and ‘usefulness of the useless’, animations in

Dancing Brush are created by the emptiness operated through the yin-yang relationship.

I quote Chuang Tzu’s words “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness.” as a new dimension of creating animation in digital production. My experiments on this are close to the essence meaning of what

Norman McLaren defined as:

“Animation is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible interstices that lie between the frames” and provides possibilities for future animation.

197 3.5

Jing: Image beyond Image

During the Dancing Brush exhibition, I often received responses from audiences regarding the interfusion of reality and abstract experience while they viewed the images that are captured from real life but presented as surreal and abstract. Dancing

Brush has transformed audiences’ visual experiences from normal impression and everyday experiences into transcended perspective. Imagery such as city reflections from TRANSIENCE, CHANCE and INK captured from everyday life are very real, but when you look at the image in details, it is absolute abstract. What the audience sees is

“image beyond image” and “scenery beyond scenery”. Dancing Brush demonstrates that creative process of Chinese artists often starts with seeing things, but the mind approaches things and enters into the world of imagination. It leads the works to achieve the ‘artistic realm’, in Chinese yi-jing Ɣí.

In the Tang dynasty, jing í appeared as an aesthetic category, marking the birth of the theory of yi-jing. As Liu Yu-xi ˚Е (772-842) said, “Jing is gained by breaking the limitation of image.” íʡǓλøThis can be regarded as the most fundamental rule for the category of Chinese artistic conception. Jing breaks image’s limitation in time and space. Jing is the unity of image and its vacuity. Zhong Bai-hua asserts that the structure of yi-jing must be the unity of nothingness and existence.

Through this imaginary world generates an unlimited artistic realm.

The Chinese notion of yi-jing often translated as ‘artistic conception’ or the

‘artistic realm,’ was developed sometime during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In modern times, ‘artistic realm’ has been understood primarily as ‘image’ (the blending of

‘emotion’ and ‘view’). This understanding and usage may have originated from Wang

198 Guo-wei ʓØ̕ (1877-1927), in his book on Poetry Ren-Jian Ci-Hua 5ПΜ΢ ,

354 the terms, ‘artistic conception’ and ‘artistic realm’ clearly refers to ‘image’ . From the concepts of ‘emotion and scene’ and ‘spirit and tone’, Wang Guo-wei derived his theory of ‘worlds’. American Chinese sinologist James J.Y. Liu (Liu Ruo-yu) ͝ƕ

(1926-1986 ) has translated jing as ‘world’, jing-jie íʨ, it is itself a translation of the

Sanskrit word visaya, which in Buddhist terminology means ‘sphere’ or ‘spiritual domain’. Wang Guo-wei applies it to poetry and was the first to use it systematically and to give it something like a definition:

The ‘world’ does not refer to scenes and objects only: joy, anger, sadness, and happiness also form a world in the human heart. Therefore poetry that can describe true scenes and true emotions may be said to ‘have a world’; otherwise it may be said ‘not to have a world’.355

Thus jing-jie could be described as ‘poetic mood’ or ‘realm of visual experience’.

For Chinese, jing-jie is the highest criterion for poetry. Superior poetry is poetry with jing-jie. Wang Guo-wei then elaborated on the term jing-jie: “there is zao-jing Ϭí,

‘realm creation’ and xie-jing įí, ‘realm description’.”

To gain a clearer understanding of yi-jing, Chinese aesthetician Yie Lang ͦǴ

(1938-) suggests the aesthetics of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. Lao Tzu’s philosophy has greatly influenced later developments in classical Chinese aesthetics. We understand

Taoism as the unity of nothingness (emptiness) and existence (fullness), void and solidity. Taoism contains images, but mere images cannot fully represent Tao. It is because images are finite while the Tao is inexhaustible. Influenced by these principles of Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese artists seldom laid stress on the lifelike depiction of some concrete objects. What they sought was to master the Tao and life of the universe. In

354 Yie Lang, ‘Aesthetic Image and Conception’ in Contemporary Chinese Aesthetics (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), p. 260. 355 James J.Y. Liu, The Art of Chinese Poetry (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 84.

199 order to grasp the immeasurable Tao, they must go beyond the limitations of the concrete image which is restricted in time and space. Xie He έψ echoed Taoism and said:356

If we limit ourselves only to the concrete thing, we cannot gain its essence. If we try to obtain something beyond the object, we will penetrate the exterior and the achievement might be subtle and fantastic. (Gu Hua Pin Lu)357

Chuang Tzu developed Lao Tzu’s thinking in a new direction, as we see from one of his fables:

The Yellow Emperor travelled to the north of the Red Lake and ascended the Kun-lun Mountains. Returning south he lost his magic pearl. He employed Zhi (Intelligence) to find it, but without success. He employed Li-shu (Sight) to find it, but without success. He employed Chi-go (Speech) to find it, but without success. Finally, he employed Hsiang-wang (Nothing), and Nothing got it. “Strange indeed,” quoth the Emperor, “that Nothing should have been able to get it!” (CT 12)358

In the fable the ‘black pearl’, Tao is symbolized as the Truth. Zhi symbolizes contemplation and reason. Li-zhu, who was said to be the best-sighted man, symbolizes visual sense, and Chi Gou symbolizes argumentation. The fable meant that we cannot master Tao with reason and contemplation. Nor can we master it with visual sense or argument. Only with Hsiang-wang can we achieve it. Hsiang-wang symbolizes the unity of the visible and the invisible, so to speak emptiness and fullness. Yi-jing is the state of Hsiang-wang which goes beyond the finite visual image, event or setting into infinite time and space.

Yie Lang once interpreted the process of aesthetic sensation and imagination

356 Yie Lang, p. 261. 357 ͝Ʈ9ўʉ,|ǷΊ̉̈;͝¢"λø,ǒ͇ͅ,©άŷĈ' ¥ʬ¿Д 358 ѩŏϳ#χȸ"Ѵʶ#łń"Ѵ̲ǵϾȪ Ͻlʒʔ Ѳ«ѕũ.ѵʒʔѴϷˇ' ѳB ˎѲʖǦѳ̌"̲ų BйǺѲ͘'΋΍'ѳ̌"̲ų BÉΟѲΒϟ'ѳ̌"̲ų' Bλ̥ λ̥ų" ѩŏǫѵʭÀѱλ̥ ©9ų"#ѷ ýÝ˻

200 produced, and appreciated by artists and viewers as “aesthetic intuition”. “The object of

‘aesthetic intuition’ is not ‘the thing itself’ (the substance), but its image (xiang).” The image here is not just the form but ‘form of formless’. According to his observation, western aestheticians tend to use the term ‘form’ (including shape, outline, pattern, and harmony of parts) but he asserts that “the image of a thing is not the same as the thing itself.”359

Yie Lang points out the basic feature of yi-jing according to classical Chinese aesthetic theory which reveals the basic structure of the aesthetic image is the unity of

‘emotion’ and ‘view.’ ‘Emotion’ and ‘view.’ are inseparably united in the aesthetic image, as stressed by classical Chinese aesthetics. “Scenery would be useless without emotion; emotion would not emerge without scenery.” He explains that “without the subjective emotion, the meaningful view cannot emerge; yet without the objective view, emotion cannot be aroused. Neither by itself can produce the aesthetic image. Only the unity of the two, in which the emotion becomes genuinely within the view and the view becomes real by incorporating emotion, can form the aesthetic image.”360 He asserts that the essence of yi-jing must approach the realm of ‘jing’ which is gained by breaking the limitation of image and then artists will achieve the state of ‘unity of Man with

Nature’.361

Ching landscape painter Fang Shi-shu ǒóś (1692-1751) in his Tian-Yong-An

Bi-Ji ýƚŚ˵Ζ says “Nature landscape is the real world (jing). Creating a world through the heart (feeling) and transporting heart through hands is the invented world.

How void becoming solid lies in the relationship between fullness and emptiness, between brush and ink.”362 Zhong Bai-hua revealed that the essence of Chinese

359 Yie Lang, p. 253. 360 Yie Lang, p. 256. 361 Ibid. 362 ĿŇ͟ǶѴϬ͋ɻѴȧĮí' ÔŻϬíѴ9ƦϴŻѴȧ͹í' ͹̲ɸĮѴǠÜ˵ïǰ

201 painting is included in the above text.363 Fang Shi-shu indicated the method of ‘creating a world through the heart’ and ‘transporting feeling through hands’. The concept of

“creating a world through the heart” comes from Buddhism “Jing is created through the heart.” íʥŻϬ Fang Shi-shu emphasized the importance of spirit and imagination as well as the practicing skills of ‘linking heart and hand’ and ‘writing heart through hand.’

Only through imagination and skills can the abstract concept be workable in a painting.

Imagination and skills are two essential elements during the creative process.364 The

Chinese-French painter, playwright and novelist Gao Xing-jian’s џ΁Q (1940-)365 water-and-ink paintings provide a contemporary example of xie-jing, ‘realm description’ that reveals visual experiences without language.

His early works make use of luxurious colors. Later on the elements of light and shadow vital to black-and-white photos inspired him to make water-and-ink paintings.

Gao Xing-jian combines Zen calligraphy with the abstract expressionists’ embrace of chance to convey a sense of eternity. He centers on the exploration and interpretation of the emotive sensitivities of man as well as the process of visually transforming one’s inner mindscape and vision into his ink work. The review said on his first retrospective exhibition in Asia at Singapore Art Museum in 2006:

To use Gao’s own words, his paintings possess “inner visions”366 that serve as entry-points for the viewer to conceive mindscapes. Harnessing a subtlety and calmness in his language of visual art, Gao begets an inner sanctum that invites the viewer in. The artist believes that “painting begins where language fails” 367 and thence he discards the burden of socio-conceptual themes and abandons the superfluity of dogmas. Unlike the pinning down

ɺП 363 Zong Bai-hua, ‘The Birth of Yi Jing in Chinese Arts’ in Strolling in Aesthetics (Taipei: Luo Tuo Publishing 1987), p. 12. 364 Zong Bai-hua, ‘Discussion on Chinese and Western Paintings’ in Where to Find the Beauty (Taipei: Luo Tuo Publishing 1987), p.123. 365 Gao Xing-jian is the winner of the Noble Prize for Literature in 2000. 366 Gao Xingjian, Return to Painting (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2002), p. 42. 367 Quote from an interview with Gao Xingjian in Success Stories - GAO Xingjian: A Soul in Exile (RTHK, 2001).

202 of alphabets to ideas and words to concepts, here the artist revels in an unadulterated expression of emotions and sensations.368

Gao Xing-jian’s “inner visions” demonstrates what Chuang Tzu describes “the state of Hsiang-wang”.

Figure 3-26: Snow, Gao Xing-jian, 1989. Figure 3-27: The Thought, Gao Xing-jian, 1989.

A pioneer in video art since the early 1970s, Bill Viola (1951-) is known for his ability to stretch and slow elemental sensory experience through the use of time-based art and technology. In a dual video projection piece, The Crossing, Viola creates a mesmerizing temporality by repetition and extreme slow motion. It displaces the space-time of the exhibition space that creates a jing for spiritual meditation. Here I quote a description by Mary Jane Jacob:

368 Gao Xingjian EXPERIENCE exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, 17 November 2005-7 February 2006. On line source: www.singart.com

203 The original installation, synchronized image sequences were projected onto both sides of a double-sided screen, each of which showed a dark human form walking in slow motion toward the viewer. The figure eventually filled both displays, stopped, paused, and was slowly subsumed by a growing mass of roaring flames on one side, and by a trickle of water that swells into a rushing deluge on the other. In the 1997 exhibition Bill Viola: Fire, Water Breath at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo, the projections were presented side-by-side, playing the images against each other and allowing the viewer to absorb them simultaneously.369

Influenced by Zen Buddhism, Viola continually examines the spiritual and physical circuit of birth, life, and death in his work. Fire, water and breath imply cyclical rebirth and continuum. Both double-sided and side-by-side screen presentation clearly indicate the real meaning of simultaneity in life. In her interview with Viola in

July 2003, Viola talked about seeking to make an art that enabled a transformative experience to occur in the viewer. He said:

Art works do have a special place as visualizations of invisible forces and realities that people may not otherwise recognize. This is the special power of art and the responsibility of those with artistic talent: to bring images into the world that can benefit all sentient beings.370

This special place as visualizations of invisible forces and realities that people may not otherwise recognize is where the transformative experience occurred. Viola further explained on this transformative experience is the process of moving between the conscious and the unconscious, between the visible and the invisible worlds.371 For

Viola, it is the spiritual experience that can lead to a process of self-transformation. This transformative experience is what Chuang Tzu described in the story of Chuang Chou dreaming he was a butterfly in chapter 2 “Making Things All Equal”. “Between Chuang

Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation

369 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 255. 370 Ibid. 371 Jacquelynn Baas, Smile of Buddha, p. 256.

204 of things.” It is this transformative experience of interfusion of subject and object where created yi-jing.

Figure 3-28: Bill Viola, The Crossing, video/sound installation, 1996.

Based on the Chinese poetry and painting theories about jing, in his essay for the exhibition with the same title “Simulation: the Poetics of Imaging in the technology

Age” curator Wang Chia-chi ʓËѝ renews the idea of zao-jing or ‘realm creation’ in the digital art field. He uses “simulation” as a reconciled rendering of the original

Chinese to the term zao-jing which aims at creating a poetic realm that is visually stunning and can move the viewer with its poetic quality.372

Wang Chia-chi annotates ‘creating realm’ in Chinese poetry or painting theories, means creating an ideal realm on the basis of ‘representation’, rather than creating something out of nothing. However, he emphasized that “the representation must be

372 Wang Chia Chi, ‘Simulation: the Poetics of Imaging in the Technology Age’ in Art and New Media,Yu Wei-Cheng, Phillip George ed. (Taiwan: Digital Art Center, Tainan National University of the Arts; Sydney: College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, 2004), p. 366.

205 poetic and idealistic, instead of being mere formal likeness. That is why it stresses the

‘spirit’.”373

In this exhibition Wang Chia-chi proposes that “creating a realm out of nothing” has become a new aesthetic in the age of digital technology.374 One of the works Wire

Netting (2003) И̗̑ in the exhibition created by young Taiwanese artist Wu

Chi-chun ³đ̷ (1981-), for example, “created a hand-made mechanical ‘projector’, with the ‘imaging magnifier’ constantly ‘moving back and forth and changing the focal length’. Since the lens keeps searching, focusing and changing the focus, the projector transforms a piece of prosaic ‘wire netting’ and projects unusual images no longer associated with the ‘wire netting’.”375 The image of the wire netting that looks like an ink landscape as painted on a round fan is in fact created by mechanical manipulation.

Wu Chi-chung explained on his work that “with the focal length constantly changing, the image disappears and fades, and then is reborn again.”

Wang Chia-chi commented on the ‘representation’ of Wire Netting “has gone beyond traditional ‘representation’ and forms a new type of ‘realm creation’ which addresses the complex relationship that exists between image making and seeing and enriching the traditional aesthetic of ‘realm creation.’”376

This ‘realm creation’ process can be approached in different way. In her video installation work Sunshine on Tranquility (2005) Wang Ya-hui applied kong-bai to a room where the sunlight slowly moves across the space and projects onto a still object. Through this device a corner of reality is projected onto a strange place.

As I has mentioned earlier, Wang Ya-hui’s video installation works release the limits of reality at the boundary between perception and experiences. She is driven by the

373 Wang Chia Chi, p. 367. 374 Ibid. 375 Ibid. 376 Ibid.

206 exploration of human consciousness and examines hidden or conscious changes of

“being” through illusion and imagination. Understanding “the relationship that exists between image making and seeing” is the key to “breaking the limitation of image.” We realized the Chinese theory of ‘realm creation’ is based on the unity of visible and invisible, fullness and emptiness. It is where Chinese yi-jing is created.

Figure 3-29: Wu Chi-chun, Wire Netting, 2003.

Figure 3-30: Wang Ya-hui, Sunshine on Tranquility, 4’36”, 2005.

207 In Dancing Brush TRANSIENCE, CHANCE, LOTUS and INK all create a ‘jing’ through the unusual perspectives of reflections create the abstract, unreal scenery that breaks the limitation of what normal eyes could see. It brings the audience to another invisible reality through the interfusion of subject and object. In MOUNTAIN &

WATER, the silhouettes of the real dancer’s movement and her position to screen paper and light simulate brush strokes and ink. When viewing the film, it is not to look at a naked female body. The images become abstract and appear more like a baby in the womb, interaction of male (the empty space) and female swimming, as well as mountain and water. This film expresses an emotion of struggling for freedom, reserved and yet unyielding. Audiences could create their own scenery beyond the real scene based on their imagination.

INK and MOUNTAIN & WATER evoke the sense of a dynamic landscape moved by vital breaths. The form and formless between mountain and water are animated by emptiness or kong-bai. Chuang Tzu has described it precisely as “The formless moves to the realm of form; the formed moves back to the realm of formlessness.” It implies the principle of ‘realm creation’.

Kong-bai, the emptiness in Chinese art achieves its highest jing.

208

Figure 3-31: Kong-bai in CHANCE.

209 CONCLUSION

During the process of creating Dancing Brush, I frequently arrived at the creative results by accident. During filming, I spent a lot of time trying to take representational images with strong narrative concepts. I became lost. Then I became aware of the quality of spontaneously reflected light and images animated by natural kinetic power.

The results appeared more to me than my ‘knowledge’. I felt that this could really lead somewhere. So I followed it and became more interested and came to rely on this intuitive method of spontaneity and “chance meeting”. As I pursue such “accidents”, I cultivated an intuitive confidence in what I am doing. Through this self-cultivation, it bought me to find the courage to cling to in order to feel justified as an artist.

Here, I quote the famous Kung-an gȌ in the Zen Buddhist Transmission of the

Lamp ǤŹVɾД as example to sum up the Taoist creative process. It states:

Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got the very substance I am at rest. For it is just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters. (The Great and Venerable Teacher)377

According to Yip Wai-lim’s expatiation on Taoist philosophy, the above text can be taken as representation of the three stages of our perception of reality. The first stage,

“seeing mountains as mountains, and waters as waters.” is comparable to the innocent or native manner of perceiving reality like a child’s consciousness before interfered with any intellectual activity. This kind of consciousness responds directly to what the world presents to us. However, when our conscious attempt to express this response in

377 Translation quote from Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen, (New York: Vintage Books, 1957), p. 126. ̰ZŔ}C˙ǡѴΊĿǠĿѴΊȸǠȸѴ͍ůCΌΊˎβѴǰ˹c͸ѴΊĿǠĿѴΊȸ ǠȸѴ̲6ų˹ўȤ͸ѴEɻǠΊĿ§ǠĿѴΊȸ§Ǡȸ

210 ‘concepts’, we are moving into the second stage of perception that is “seeing that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters”. In this stage, intellectual activity is at work which leads us away from the fresh, direct appeal of landscape to seek for in the world of idea for relationships and meanings. The third stage, “seeing mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters” has been through the process of giving up concepts then goes back to the originality of things themselves.

It’s not the same as the first stage. This stage has achieved what Chuang Tzu proposed the realm of ‘synthesis of opposites’.

The famous story of ‘Cook Ding was cutting an ox’ in Chuang Tzu is an example describing how skill approach to the Tao through above three stages.

Cook Ding was cutting an ox for Lord Wen-hui. At every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every trust of his knee-zip! zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music. “Ah, this is marvelous!” said Lord Wen-hui. “Imagine skill reaching such height!” Cook Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way (Tao), which goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint. (CT 3)378

When Cook Ding first began cutting up oxen, all he could see was the ox itsself.

He responded directly to things. After three years Cook Ding no longer saw the whole ox. What he did is go through logical thinking process. He was in the second stage of

378 ŘɸǎƐ±ΐʆѴƦ"ƤΑѴ̾"ƤNѴό"ƤľѴ͈"ƤϐѴˑɻÑɻѴĄtљɻѴ͡ х Ǔȍȃ"͖Ѵ ̒є"Ǯ ǎƐ±ǫѵΰѴÈÀѱƩ͍ͫȧ#ѷṚ̌tĵǫѵ͊ "ƤĆ̱Ϸ'Ѵϯ#Ʃŋ B͊"ΐʆ"ǡѴƤΊɺтʆ̱ Ŕ"ůѴǷÌΊdʆ' ǒ6"ǡѴ ͊9˘ϲ̲9˂΋ѴĜˎȦ̲˘ȣ΁ѴE#ýʖѴƧüЃѴϷü˩ѴÔlÖɻ Ʃ̖̐̿"ǷÌѴ ̲Ʌüʟ#ѱ ђʡ

211 seeing. Finally, Cook Ding goes at the works by spirit and doesn’t look with his eyes.

He is at the stage of “seeing mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.” He did not calculate his path but goes as the spirit moves him, his hand.

Cook Ding has achieved Tao at the third stage by self-forgetfulness. It is by ‘giving up intention’. Everything will follow its natural course when it become with Tao. Chuang

Tzu describe this state as: “Fish, (born in water, growing up in water) forget themselves in water. Men, (born in Tao, growing up in Tao) forget themselves in Tao.”(CT 6)379

In the digital art realm, a large number of works are made by precise calculation through computer programs and peripheral apparatus. It often results in the lack of originality and human affection. Artists should forget the tools with restricted expectations of results then we could set ourselves free. Less is always more.

What Dancing Brush has examined is the artistic touch through directly presenting the nature of material, without presumed concepts or effects in mind before creating works. The “subtraction aesthetics: less is more” through the Taoist’s teaching of

“decreative-creative process”, spontaneity and non-action from what I proposed as a creative method for Dancing Brush video installation has provoked possibilities in media art practice. By applying “aesthetics of wandering contemplation” as a conventional Chinese artist wanders in mountain and water, the process asks artists to wander “whensoever the body lingers”, to see “whenever eyes grope” as well as to

“meet the eye and calls forth response from the heart” with delights, in other words the

“perceiving–receiving activities” of ‘intuition of contemplation’, is to receive the intuitive reflection of things. This is the direction to achieve Chinese artistic realm, yi-jing, where ‘unity of visible and invisible’ (form and formless), ‘unity of emptiness and fullness’ and the ‘unity of seeing and imagination’ is created.

379 Ѣ˅ſǓȼɠѴ5˅ſǓϷ΂ üěŐ

212 APPENDIX I

A Short History of Tsai Jui-Yueh (1921-2005)

Ms. Tsai Jui-yueh, revered as a national treasure for her pioneering development of dance in Taiwan, died of heart failure May 29, in Brisbane, Australia at the age of 84.

Tsai Jui-yueh was a dancer, choreographer, innovator and revolutionary. Her life and career have shown her to be a true internationalist and renaissance woman of dance.

Embroiled in the Second World War and the subsequent civil strife in China and

Taiwan, Tsai espoused only one doctrine: her love of dance. For Tsai, dance was a language common to all humanity and she dedicated her life to enriching, expanding, cross-pollinating, and propagating this language throughout the world.

As a child in the ancient cultural city of Tainan in southern Taiwan, Tsai loved to entertain her parents and visitors with dances she had made to Japanese nursery rhymes.

During World War Two, Tsai went to Japan to study dance with Ishii Baku and Ishii

Midori. Under the aegis of these two pioneers, Tsai was exposed to the ideas of German expressionist dancer, Mary Wigman and a form of dancing known as Eurhythmy, derived from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Tsai danced in over a thousand performances with Baku and Midori’s company in Japan, China, and Indochina, assimilating at the same time the dances of these regions.

Refusing entreaties to stay in Japan, Tsai returned to Taiwan in March 1946, typically dancing her way back with improvised solos on the deck! That same year in

Tainan, Tsai founded Tsai Jui-yueh’s Dance Institute which aimed to further develop different dance styles in Taiwan. On tour with her group, Tsai introduced the epitome of

Western romantic ballet, The Dying Swan to an enthralled public. She also

213 choreographed Homage (Ode) and New Construction, the first modern dance works to be created and performed in Taiwan. In January 1947 Tsai’s Institute presented the

Taipei Dance Season with the prestigious accompaniment of the Taiwan Orchestra.

Tsai’s public triumph was matched in her private life when the orchestra manager. Lei

Shi-yu, took off his watch as a token of affection and proposed to her.

The island was engulfed by civil unrest following an incident known as “The Bolt from the Blue” on February 28, 1947, involving the Taiwanese and the Nationalist

Chinese. Following the bloody suppression of this turmoil, Tsai moved to Taipei, married Lei, and formed a new dance institute. The 1948 repertoire included her first dance to a Chinese folk song Alongside the Xiang River, Death and the Maiden to

Schubert's music, and a piece based on a poem written by Lei for Tsai, If I were a Petrel, danced to Mendelssohn’s music. The civil strife, “The White Terror”, caught up with

Tsai and Lei in mid-1949. The Nationalists expelled Lei and all his fellow staff members from the Taiwan University. The couple decided to immigrate to Hong Kong.

On the eve of their departure, Nationalist agents kidnapped Lei; his wife and child next saw him 40 years later.

Tsai remained in Taipei, hoping to be reunited with her husband, and prepared more recital tours. However she too, was soon kidnapped and interned in a concentration camp. Under less than ideal circumstances, Tsai continued to teach and produce dance dramas in both Taiwanese and Chinese modern dance styles. Astutely enough, Tsai often cast the camp captain in the leading role! After three years, Tsai was released and once again began teaching and choreographing in Taipei. In 1953, she founded The China Dance Arts Institute and dispatched ten assistants to teach in the provincial branches.

The next decades saw Tsai’s influence and creativity flourish and her own studies

214 continued. On tour in Thailand in 1956, she staged a Chinese court dance for the king and queen and subsequently learned Thai court dancing at the Royal Palace. Tsai studied ancient movement forms from the Chinese opera. Her work generals were inspired to write poems about her dancing. Tsai continued to present to the Taiwanese public important works from 143 European cultures, and her own ballets under Western influence such as Romeo and Juliet and Cleopatra, inspired by Elizabeth Taylor’s performance in the film.

Lei Shi-Yu had been a professor of Chinese and Western literature at the

University of Jingu in Tianjin City, China, since 1951. The political climate of the time made any kind of communication between Tsai and her husband Lei impossible. By

1983, Tsai and her son, Roc, had resolved to immigrate to Australia from where they could communicate with Lei and be free from the constraints imposed by the Nationalist regime in Taiwan. Tsai herself discussed and demonstrated some movements she had learned over the decades from her past masters. Tsai’s passion for dance and her intense desire to pass her knowledge on to others were very moving to behold. It is hoped that

Tsai’s enormous wealth of learning, understanding, multi-cultural fusions, and individual creativity may be documented for the benefit of future generations.

(By Evan Jones)

215 APPENDIX II

An Interview with Australian Musician/Composer Colin Offord

Colin Offord is a singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, inventor of original instruments, designer of musical theatre pieces, and visual artist. Of Anglo-Celtic heritage, his extensive travels and many collaborations have led him to a synthesis of the artistic and philosophical influences of western avant-garde and folk music, experimental Jazz, East Asian, Aboriginal Australian, and Pacific island art forms.

Colin Offord’s works are as a journey of self-searching, responding to the very nature and existence of this world. Having been influenced by the avant-garde musician,

John Cage, Colin Offord developed his distinctive perspective of sound in terms of its aesthetic and richness derived from Australian’s unique natural landscapes, its evolution of geographical cultures, as well as reflections and adaptations from the access of multi-cultural experiences.

The following are Offord’s answers to my questions regarding his music and music making between August 2004 and March 2006.

Your works, besides having touches of being avant-garde and experimental, strongly unveiled the Australian culture and that region’s individuality, could you talk about the backgrounds and concepts that influence your personal works?

Offord: As far as my awareness is concern, I have never categorized my music as being avant-garde and experimental, however almost everyone has described my music as such. To me experimenting is not about innovation, but is about exploring and defining

216 myself.

Being a white man with Anglo-Celtic background who was raised in the Sydney suburbs, my surroundings were flourished with Asian cultures, alongside with various neighbor islands of Micronesian, Pomeranian, and Polynesian. Besides I am residing in a land, which belonged to the aboriginals and hence, half of my world is non-Christian cultures. How then, do I sustain from the above impacts? I began to acquire knowledge from books pertaining to philosophies, alongside with pondering on the questions of creative works and emotions, examining my society as well as defining its representations.

I also engaged myself with drawings and sculptures. Both music and visual arts have greatly influenced me on the conception of “material”- the need to define their own uniqueness in the methods of expression. I believe I can adopt the same concept when composing music, by exploring the music itself. Apart from that, Australian psyche are embedded with influences from the natural landscapes, thus I attempt to create an art form by means of my own style in music, as well as echoing the idea of the primitiveness state of nature and three characteristic stages of development in the

Australian history from the aboriginal cultures, colonial cultures and multi-cultures.

Art can be defined as a mirror that reflects life, as one of its motive is about reminding us to shed concern of the many lives that are within this existing world. I have performed in many parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, North America,

Africa, and the South Pacific. From the multi-cultural interactions that I had experienced, I am not merely spotting on the differences, but rather extracting the essence of similarities among them. I have never considered performing music of others; however, I must say that I am greatly influenced by other cultures.

Amidst your process in composing, are there influences of other artists at all?

217

Offord: Indeed, I am influenced by John Cage. First of all, is his unique philosophy in

‘sound itself’. John Cage is interested in the aspects of sound itself, how sound communicates, and how it could be felt. In regards to his perception and experimentation in composing, John Cage is definitely a master in this field. Most of the composers have found no interest in sound itself, but delve into the composition of sounds, merely presenting a style, skill, or rhythm. In my point of view, the most interesting aspect still lies within the sound itself hence I enjoy amplifying sounds that are of delicate natures.

Moreover, I once had an opportunity to experience the impact of Cage’s works while attending a music festival. I was caught totally unaware, unprepared to withstand the acoustics and emotions evoked from every single sound. It was like opening my ears, amplifying my hearing system-undeniably a breathtaking experience that touches the very soul. Most people get to know Cage in forms of recorded materials, however, to understand him is to experience his performance in person. To me, his Prepared Piano is a work in which its abundance surpasses the conventional piano. I favour this piece not because of it being avant-garde or experimental, but rather the beauty of sound itself.

From the perspective of the audience, we make use of our hearts to listen and being touched. When I have a feeling of ‘shock’, ‘fear’, ‘surprise’ or ‘warmth’, it’s due to my lack of understanding of why it is so and begin to think. Certainly, John Cage’s works do possess such profound qualities.

What is most interesting or important for you in music? What about form and ideas?

Offord: In 1422 when the Chinese treasure fleets circumnavigated, mapped, and

218 established short lived colonies in Australia they gave it the name “Big Mouse

Kingdom”. My music stands somewhere between that time and the future. East and

West do meet and always have.

What I like about music is its transience. Music is the most organic of art forms.

Every architectural space or environment transforms the music to its own shape. A performance can never be repeated. The extreme of this is improvised music which is the direct result of an interaction in a given space and time between the performer and the audience. It can never be repeated. Once played it’s gone in the air, only remaining as a memory or as a gradually diminishing but never ending vibration somewhere out at the edges of the universe.

Recorded music is a document of a performance and also stands as an art form in its own right. However even though it’s transience is captured permanently by the recording medium, it is to a lesser degree, changed by the method and type of playback system and the environment it is played in.

Transience is a defining characteristic of music.

A single sound is an idea; a musical phrase is a collection of ideas. The idea can be inherent in the form itself and in some cases its expression may be possible only in that form. A change of sound colour, instrumentation, or placement is a whole new idea.

When does sound become music? No one can say when for another, only for themselves.

With our thoughts we make the world in our own likeness.

American composer Harry Partch said: “Originality cannot be a goal it is simply inevitable.”

Can you define your music? How do you describe it?

219 Offord: When a group of children were asked “what is music?” one eight year old child responded “Music is the house that sounds live in.”

I am not fond of definitions and labels. Definitions and categorizations are always limiting, stereotypes even more so. Labels are fine for the purpose of identification and marketing, but beyond this they do little to increase our understanding and appreciation of a work. The seeming need to put a work into a neatly defined category, a box, is mostly a hindrance to a true understanding of the work of any artist. This is especially true of new art forms. Yet it’s a very newness begs explanation.

This definition is a wonderful description of my philosophy of music.

I am often asked “What sort of music do you play?” I have resisted labels, however in answer to this question I have come to identify what I do as Australasian. I don’t use the European term the “Far East”, As an Australian, living on the Pacific just south of

Asia, I prefer to use the term the “near north“.

What happens when you play music? What is your process?

Offord: A lot of musicians see their performances to be about putting themselves across, showing their personality to an audience. I am more interested in being behind the music, underneath it. For me, the process is one of trying to facilitate and release the music without censorship or obstruction from the self; serving the music. I prepare myself, tune myself, set the situation as empathetically as possible, set the wheels in motion, and get out of the way. An empty vessel has its own resonance. It’s this I seek to play.

I want to allow the music to have its own life; to walk that fine line between being totally in the music and being a detached observer. To stand back and watch as it passes through yet simultaneously to remain active, present and totally involved.

220 Why did you develop your unique music? What are your influences?

Offord: I never wanted to play others’ music. I wanted to develop a music that belonged to me, that reflects who I am and where I am from. It has been a long process to create an artistic place for myself in a world that my kind have been part of for little more than 200 years. I have been inspired by and drawn influence from the western avant-garde tradition, experimental jazz, celtic music, country & western, and country

& eastern music, from Australian Aboriginal music, South East Asian music, particularly Thai and Lao music, and Chinese and the Buddhist and Shamanic traditions.

I don’t claim to know anything about these musical styles. I have simply let them into my life and allowed their nature to influence what I do. Environmental sound and the acoustic properties of different materials and places, both natural and man made have also had a profound influence on my music.

Can you talk about your ideas regarding technology and the arts?

Offord: This is a really big question because technology is such a dominating force in music making and listening these days.

The American painter Robert Rauschenberg said “Art can never be as interesting as life but it can wake us up to the very life we are living.”

Art is a response to the complexity of life, an attempt to understand our world. It can be a mirror of life.

S. F. Schumacher, the English writer and social theorist who invented the concept of “appropriate technology” wrote: “What is it we really require from our scientists and technologists? Methods and equipment:

1. Cheap enough to be accessible to virtually everyone.

221 2. Suitable for small scale application.

3. To be compatible with our need for creativity.

From this is born non violence and a relationship to nature that guarantees permanence.”

The virtuosity afforded by new media is seductive. Often the technology is mistaken for the art form. Technology is a tool. Tools facilitate ideas. A tool is only as good as its user. It can both liberate and suppress equally. For example: the stability and tyranny of the click track or time code in the recording of music. It can suck the life blood out of the music, spoil the “feel”, or it can give great precision to the rhythm section. Samplers, and synthesizers - wonderful tools, so versatile yet they are mainly used to reproduce and modify the sounds of existing musical instruments. When the

Fairlight synthesizer was invented, it could sample any sound on earth and yet it was largely used to sample other instruments. In music, if the guitar has become god then the keyboard has become tyrant.

I use microphones in a similar way to close-up photography. The subtlest sound amplified to reveal all its complexity, on a huge scale - the universe in a whisper. The audience can be immersed in a room full of vibration that changes with the smallest movement of tongue or hand. The limits are our imaginations.

I think of our technological evolution in three broad eras. First, the skill of our hands, the fashioning of materials, bringing them together to create something. Second, the industrial and manufacturing era, mass production, and mechanical skills. Third, the age of electronics, digital, optic fibre, wireless, microchip, and so forth. A balanced interplay of these three eras is a metaphor for a modern life harmonious with our environment.

S. F. Schumacher said: “Technology is no more a culture than a piano is music.”

So often the western world has believed itself to be culturally superior to others

222 because of its technological and financial level of development. Knowledge does not equal wisdom. Technology is not a culture nor does it equal intelligence or creativity.

Our technology does make us powerful and dangerous though. Cultural imperialism succeeds when all other forms fail.

Technological developments quickly become enslaved to popular forms and to marketing cultural stereotypes. This comment was probably made when the piano forte became the popular replacement to a myriad of different keyboard instruments. By reducing options, it increases the complexity of marketing. Through technology, cultural exchange is now possible instantaneously but because human expression is so closely linked to the affairs of the heart and mind, meaningful exchange, expansiveness, inclusiveness and sharing come far more slowly. As a species we hunger for closeness. Technology should free the imagination, not enslave it.

You are very influenced by Asian culture. What are some of the cultural ideas and differences that have been influencial on your thinking about music? What about “World Music” and cultural exchange?

Offord: The great 20th century Zen master said: “If one truly wishes to be master of an art form, one must transcend technique so that the art becomes an artless art growing out of the unconscious.”

I am influenced by everything I hear, musical, environmental, natural, urban, industrial, animal, and imagined. I have an innate empathy with and am drawn to Asian art and philosophy. I really don’t know why nor do I feel it’s important to know why anymore than I need to understand my embracing of experimentalism, Celtic music, or folk song. That’s just what I respond to. I have traveled a lot with my work as a musician and have exchanged music and performed with many musicians worldwide.

223 Two things happen when we travel: first we learn about others and their ways and second we learn about ourselves.

I never think about post modern ideas of appropriation. Because I only play my own music it is easy for me to open myself up to the influences of different ideas. For

Dancing Brush I drew on nan-guan and Chinese er-hu and gu-chin music. My original instruments suit themselves to responding to these sounds so I am able to move in that direction without imitation.

Concepts that are considered to be experimental in one culture may be standard in another. So what is experimental, avant-garde, what is passé, or what is conservative, mainstream? What is new?

Bending the pitch of a note or exploring sound colour is common in much Asian music yet in the West it is considered radical and new. Multiple rhythms or complex time signatures are fundamental in African, Burmese, and Indian music yet considered new in the west, particularly in classical music where traditionally percussion was largely relegated to a time keeping role. Many Asian composers have moved from composing lineal melody into complex harmonies and chromatic melodies...and so ideas go round and round. I think things move in cycles rather than time lines.

When I first heard Papua New Guinea drumming, I found it most uninteresting.

The rhythm was only a simple pulse. The problem was mine however as I was only listening for rhythm, assuming that drums are only about rhythm. But for the PNG highlander, drums are more about making a sound that envelopes and carries on into the next sound, creating a mystical continuum, a drone that for them becomes a spirit voice.

Flutes in the Sepik River region are for playing rhythm not melody. So this is a complete reversal of western concepts. In Papua New Guinea they applaud vigourously at the beginning of each piece and are unnervingly silent at the end.

224 Great more music! Applause! Oh they’ve finished. Silence.

There are groups in the highlands that have no words in their language to identify music, dance, theatre, or painting and yet they have a rich artistic life. Their art is so integrated into the patterns and ceremonies of their lives they have no need to identify artistic work as a separate activity. These are exciting and powerful differences that one cannot help but open up to.

“World music”. What a dreadful term. No one can say what it is yet it’s a powerful new force in the marketing of music. I think it means anything that is white or isn’t classical, rock and roll, folk, or blues. But if you’re Bulgarian or Chinese and play the blues, then you’re world music. If you’re an Australian traditional Aboriginal singer you are in the same section of the record store as an electronic folk band from Poland with an African singer. It’s a crazy but fascinating association.

World music exists for a number of reasons. Music easily strides through cultural boundaries. Musicians everywhere are passionate in their exchange of techniques, styles, songs and instruments. They just love to play together. The exchange of musical ideas is made easy by travel, recordings, internet, and so forth but a major overlooked reason world music exists is technology. Through PA systems and countless variations of microphones and pickups, sound levels of instruments that were formerly completely incompatible can now be volume balanced.

We are now able to hear each other.

No culture or groups of people have a monopoly on creativity.

When we discuss the composing of the music for Dancing Brush you talked a lot about the importance of the sounds. Can you explain this please?

Offord: Our initial response to music is a visceral one, an emotional response to the sound itself. How the vibrations, the harmonic structure, the sound colour makes us feel.

225 From feeling we move to thought. Our cultural, social, religious, personal interests and prejudices enter. Like different food, it can take time and effort to understand and appreciate a new sound.

Sound occupies physical space. Every sound we make changes the molecular structure of our universe. Every sound goes on forever. We feel the vibe long after the sound has faded.

Every good musician wants to have their own sound on their instrument yet strangely many musicians are not as interested in the nature of sound as much as in reproducing the accepted sound for their chosen style of music. Musicians spend so much time getting the notes under their fingers, wrestling with the mechanics of playing, that the idea, the essence can often become overlooked. I think that’s why there is so much repetition and copying in the world of music, that and the financial pressure of earning a living. Perhaps this accounts for the profusion of mediocre, conservative, derivative and cliched work that is marketed in a so called creative industry? That and our desire for the safe and easy option.

The Canadian percussionist John Wyre was interviewing composer John Cage on his 80th birthday said: “All these years you have been challenging and enlightening our thinking and perceptions. What is it that has motivated you all these years?” Cage replied: “All of life is vibration. I just wanted to get things vibrating together.”

(End of interview)

Music is like a house, which contains numerous sounds. From every flow of breath that is produced, they express the consonance of individual emotions. If we were to say that John Cage’s experiments have liberated the hearings and sights of audiences, then

Colin Offord has liberated their hearts through experiencing the sounds of life.

226 APPENDIX III

Chronological Table in China

Dynasties Approximate Dates

SHANG C.1550-C.1030 BC ZHOU C.1030-256 Western Zhou C.1030-771 Eastern Zhou 770-256 Spring and Autumn period 722-481 Warring States period 480-222 Qin C.221-207 HAN 202BC-AD220 FormerѲWesternѳHan 202BC-AD9 Hsin 9-23 LaterѲEasternѳHan 25-221

THREE KINGDOMS 221-265 ShuѲHanѳ 221-263 Wei 220-265 Wu 222-280

SOUTHERNѲSix Dynastiesѳ 265-581 Jin 265-316 Eastern Jin 317-420 Liu Song 420-479 Southern Qi 479-502 Liang 502-557 Chen 557-587 And NORTHERN DYNASTIES Northern Wei 386-535 Eastern Wei 534-543 Western Wei 535-554 Northern Qi 550-577 Northern ChouѲHsien-piѳ 557-581

227 Dynasties Approximate Dates

SUI 581-618

TANG 618-906

FIVE DYNASTIES 907-960

Later Liang 907-923 Later TangѲTurkicѳ 923-937 Later ChinѲTurkicѳ 937-946 Later HanѲTurkicѳ 947-950 Later Chou 951-960 LiaoѲKhitan Tartarsѳ 907-1125 His-hsia 990-1227 SONG 960-1279 Northern Song 960-1126 Southern Song 1127-1279

ChinѲJurchen Tartarsѳ 1115-1234

YUANѲMongolsѳ 1260-1368

MING 1368-1644

QINGѲManchusѳ 1644-1912

REPUBLIC 1912-1949

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC 1949-

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