主編語

Abstract

If there exists such thing as a "social art," then the primary dimensions that define this art form would be "relationship," "communication," and dialogue with "institutions." In other words, this inquiry simultaneously reflects that "design" is a crucial practice in response to social art. Consequently, the profound implications of design inevitably echo certain intentionality of art or artistic characteristics directed towards society. Design, as, or towards, a social art, signifies capturing the art's actional implications in such interactive, reflective relationships. Thus, design can become a form of critical cultural action, while art also deconstructs its self or singular subjectivity in some form of action.

The complexity of the relationships described above is presented in three articles: "Divergent Visual Contexts in the 1970s through Book Design: Humanistic and Advertising Approaches" by HUANG Tzi-Chin, "The Age of Technology Fragmentation: Exploring the Design of "Measurement Technologies for Human Behavior'" by SHIH Yi-shan, and "A Renewed Experience of Sense De/synchronization: Inspiration from Digital Art" by Yu-Cheng LIU. These articles demonstrate different aspects of complexity. HUANG Tzi-Chin explores a cultural transformation from reproduction, hybridization, and divergence to dialogue within the context of cultural implantation in colonial history, drawing from the development of fine arts and design. His discourse portrays the various assumptions and simulations of the "art-design" relationship with "society." SHIH Yi-shan, on the other hand, observes a "Design-Computation" practice in the process of data processing in the measurement of human behavior by big data and computation. In this context, the deployment and calculation signify data as a new medium of social design, and the recursive system of cybernetics becomes a gap through which art can engage. Referencing Latour's discourse, Yu-Cheng LIU delves into how technology interfaces mediate sensory experiences in the field of art and design. The design logic and characteristics of technological tools enable the transformation of human sensibility into information. As a result, the sensory operations of art manifest in a communicative space that differs from the past.

Today, contemporary art is confronted with two major issues: "coloniality" and "technology. If we take "design oriented towards social art" as the focal point of inquiry, we can observe the constant interchange between the realms of art and design. This involves the "stratification" of coloniality and technology in terms of unique languages, hybrid communities, and power negotiations. Yan Shuilong conducted a field investigation of design in the context of colonial modernity, encompassing the domains of imagery, sculpture, tools, and architecture. The mediatization of art has resulted in the translation of international styles, while the mediatization has allowed local cultural images to enter into social communication. In the realm of "graphic design," the "two-dimensional plane" encompasses both the notion of the plane as defined by Deleuze in reorganizing conceptual relations and the shared plane discussed by Jacques Rancière in the discourse of social consensus experiments. Even in the realm of information design, which involves the encoding and organization (deployment) of information, a new movement of "coloniality" occurs at the level of consciousness, bringing about the fragmentation that concerns Stiegler. This gives rise to a topological space that breaks the existing spatial divisions in society, as depicted by Benjamin Bratton's concept of "the Stack." It is this very concept that runs through the different discursive contexts of the three authors, providing various clues as to how art evolves into the practice of design and becomes a means of social transformation.