Second Body by Chieh-hua Hsieh (TW)

“The concept of Second Body comes from the experience of driving cars. If I want to steer the wheel, to brake, to step on the gas, I don’t need to consciously think, yet the car can still go ahead, turn, and park at the correct spot according to my will. Moreover, when I am driving, I know how big my car is when I weave through narrow alleys, and I know where the four wheels are as the car proceeds in its tracks. Maneuvering a car is an experience done almost entirely out of reflex, without the need for the brain to actively think.

This reminds me of the way we move our hands and feet, which move naturally without the need for us to think. When we are infants, we learn how to use our own bodies: we learn to stand on our feet, move, and run, and gradually learn to exercise our bodies as we want. We even learn how to use our bodies to the max in certain sports and exercises. In sum, the accumulation of knowledge, concepts and training allows us to use our bodies without conscious thought, making the use of our bodies an extension of the natural, physical body itself. The same happens when learning to drive, so that driving becomes a process achieved without thinking, with the car becoming an extension of the body.

The present work starts from establishing the presence of the body, while learning the structure of the natural body through setting up knowledge of the body itself. In addition, the knowledge of the structure of exercise is used to represent what we know of our own first bodies in the moment. Afterwards, a fully functional body starts to build up, then change the environment for itself. Gradually, the environment starts to change the body as well. The following section is a 360º full body-length projection that enters the picture to create a non-natural second body, which creates an experience of movement distinct from the movements of the first body. We are re-learning this new body. Adaptation? Conflict? Do we, during the conversion between these two, produce new knowledge to define our bodies with the change in our viewing perspective? Furthermore, how does the second body replace the definition and existence of the first body in the process?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFsaTMakWUg

Concept, Choreography: Chieh-hua Hsieh (TW)
Software Architecture, Video Design, Music Design: Ultra Combos (TW)
Music Design: Yannick Dauby (FR)
Lighting Design: We Do Group (TW)
Custom Design: Yu-teh Yang (TW)
Visual Operator: Hsiang-ting Teng (TW)
Dancer: Shao-chin Hung (TW)
Project Support: QA Ring (TW)
Project Mentor: Justine Beaujouan (CH)

Project Consultant: Kevin Cunningham (US)

Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and Quanta Arts Foundation (TW)