The concept of “Data-Neurons” consists of two crucial issues,namely “Big Data” and “Neurons,” in the contemporary global network society. Since the last decade of the twentieth century, the rapid transmission of digital data and the powerful driving force of digital media technology have considerably changed the economic, political, media, and cultural dimensions of our society, and thereby usheredin the “information age” and further constructed a new historical reality, namely the emergence of the “network society.” The new historical reality is molded by the dual-hinges of “globalization” and “digitalization.” It turns the structure of an information circulation system into a prominent feature of the new societal form. Since the space for information circulation is transformed into a new physical substance through the dominant process and the supportive function of our society,we can depict this space with three levels of physical support. Electronic pulses constitute the first level;the knots and cores of the space constitute the second level; and the spatial organization in which the management elites occupy the dominate status serves as the third level. In the organizational model of this new information structure, Big Data gradually infiltrate into the realm of culture and further play the key role as the central nervous system in the contemporary techno-culture.

After the traditional databases were regarded as a computerized data storage system, the structuralized data sets of this system have expanded rapidly. The emergence of the concept “Big Data” indicates that common software is no longer adequate to capture, manage, and process the data sets in contemporary information structure. In addition, this concept reveals the valuable aspect of seemingly common and trivial pieces of data by collecting, arranging, and analyzing them with various algorithms that allow these data to transcend the level of information processing andr each the stage of knowledge application. Moreover, rapid transformation and development of digital technology make contemporary databases not only a significant cultural narrative but also a relational and networking method used for the collection and creation of unique cultural heritage. Accordingly, the intrinsic connection between information structure and aesthetics gradually evolves from the potential relationship between information and the vessel that carries it, or the actual relationship established by the components of software,into “database aesthetics” that creates various forms of possibility in terms of individual, culture, and media.

With this regard,in 2013, which is known as the “first year of Big Data practice,” the 8th Taipei Digital Art Festival proposes “Data-Neurons” as its curatorial theme. It follows the approach of calling for proposals of interdisciplinary work without classification adopted since the 7th Taipei Digital Art Festival. Based on the five major activities of the Festival, namely the International Digital Art Exhibition, the Digital Art Awards, the Digital Art PerformanceAwards, the Digital Art Platform, and the AnimA, together with other education and promotion programs, the 8th Taipei Digital Art Festival organizes additional programs such as an opening show of “HH electronic music and visual performance”, the interdisciplinary performance “Threads” collaborated between the DAC (Digital Art Center, Taipei) and the GRAME (centre national de création musicale, Lyon, France), a special exhibition of the art of video games, and a pavilion for the special exhibition of digital design that is more in line with the curatorial theme of this year. A special exhibition of “APPArtAward” held by the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Germany) is also included. These contemporary and avant-garde digital artworks will collectively incarnate the proposition that the cultural form shaped by Big Data will become the core of the contemporary digital world.
- Chih-Yung Aaron Chiu (Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Providence University)

Artists: MITSenseableCity Lab, Markus Kison, Masaki Fujihata, Quayola,
The Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]

*image(left)
Pulse
D-2012. Rubber, acrylic glass, motors, springs, microcontroller, laptop,
java applications, Internet connection, wordpress.com API. 40 x 40 x 25 cm.
Commissioned by V2_ and TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre.
© Markus Kison