Interactions Between The Living and The Dead

This project was inspired by some Facebook friend requests I've got recently. They were requests from past artists.

Past Taiwanese artists, including Hsi De-Jin and Chang Da-Chien among others, have turned up on Facebook and made many friends. They must have risen up from their graves to share their artistic aura with the public. In the digital era, one’s life goes on beyond the limitations of death. Michael Jackson not only takes part in films; he also sings with live singers through audio remixing.  It seems that he never perished.

It reminds me that folk beliefs were usually about idolizing great men from the past. People worshipped at the places where the great men were buried, and then they made them deities. The general Yu Kuan enshrined in the Hsin Tien Temple is an example. Believers go there to tell the god their personal affairs and make wishes. I feel there is a subtle similarity between worshipping the general and becoming deceased artists’ friend on Facebook.

An Art Project with a Facebook Account

This project is an experiment.  The late artist Andy Warhol is made into a robot that has its Facebook account to accept friend requests from Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/AndyWarhol2011). It expresses its opinions and reads the comments from its friends. It also travels all over the world according to its itineraries of exhibitions.

What sustains its life is the feedback from online communities. The project would go on as long as it is of concern. When people no longer pay attention to it, it stops operating and passes away.

Some questions it raises to its friends on the Facebook:

• What do you think I really am?
• How long you can survive without art?
• Am I an insignificant gadget?
• Guess how many dead artists gather on Facebook?
• If everyone is given fifteen minutes to be world famous, has your fifteen-minutes appeared yet?
• Do you wish to purchase me?