I am obsessed with stories.

 

A story is a guide for me to reimagine my life. At the age of 4, I lost sight of my right eye. At 14, the cornea from a donor in Sri Lanka brought light back to my right eye that had been veiled for a decade. Ever since then, the world I see is in part through the eye of this unknown deceased. It bestowed whole new enlightenment of my life upon me: life and flesh are interchangeable and given. My corporeal flesh does not belong to me but a mysterious vessel that rests with me temporarily. After I came of age, I registered as an organ donor, picturing the cornea in my right eye may continue its journey to another one’s body after my death, gazing still at this world. In this immense space-time, I am not the protagonist, but a passenger, a transitory locus for other wanderers…

 

Hence, I am fond of story reading while obsessed with storytelling via different technological mediums. Story may occur in the public space, the white box in museums, the black box on stage, video exhibitions, concerts, or be the pictures and texts on the shelf, waiting tacitly for leading me to reimagine my life via image, text, electronic device, and program.

 

Recently, my practices with interactive media and virtual reality departed from storytelling and made a transition to story-living, contemplating how to experience narratives through immersive and interactive means. Interaction absorbs the reader’s thinking, memories, behaviors as part of works, while VR ushers in new possibilities, wherein the reader’s body becomes a vital element in narratives. Just like meditation, in the process of viewing, a reader steps into the realm of the creator and converse with their own memory and body under the very structure.

 

I envisage the stories I create being wanderers, migrating and roving at the hearts of readers.

Hsin-Chien Huang has been an accomplished new media creator since 1995. His career focuses on integrating cutting-edge technologies with art, literature, design, and stage performance. Huang's innovative projects encompass interdisciplinary interactions, performance, mechanical apparatus, algorithmic computations, and video installations. As a professor at the Design Department of National Taiwan Normal University, he promotes interdisciplinary collaboration through STEAM education and publication.

Huang graduated from National Taiwan University with two Presidential Awards and pursued product design at ArtCenter College of Design. He earned his master's degree at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, as a full Moholy Nagy scholar. Huang was a researcher at Interval Research Corporation before joining the digital entertainment industry. He held Art Director positions at Sega and Sony Computer Entertainment. His education and professional experiences have honed his skills as a cross-disciplinary creator.

Huang collaborated with renowned new media artist Laurie Anderson and legendary French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre. His artworks have been showcased worldwide, including the Venice Film Festival, Festival de Cannes, SXSW, Taipei Fine Art Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Shanghai Biennale, Venice Biennale, MoMA of New York, and Ars Electronica Festival. He has received commissions for prestigious institutions such as the Digital Dunhuang VR Experience, the Future Museum of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and public installation art for Taipei 101.

Huang's accolades include the grand prize of the "New Voices, New Vision" new media competition, the Muse Award from the American Association of Museums, the title "Pride of Taiwan" from Taiwan's Office of the President, Best VR Experience at the Venice Film Festival, the Masque d'Or (Golden Mask) Award at NewImages Festival, Honorary Mention in the Ars Electronica Festival, Best Virtual Reality at the Los Angeles Film Awards, Best VR Story at Cannes XR, and the Jury Award in the SXSW Virtual Cinema Competition.

In 2016, Huang co-founded Taiwan's Virtual and Physical Media Integration Association. He has partnered with the Ars Electronica Festival since 2020 and serves as the Lead Curator of Garden Taipei/Formosa, promoting new media artworks from Taiwan globally.