MAIN EXHIBITION


Time’s up
{ AUSTRIA 奧地利 }
簡介 /


建構實驗情境研究所

「……你得拼命地跑,才能留在此刻的位置。」紅皇后效應(擷自《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》)

成立於
1996年,Time’s Up位於奧地利林茨海港,旨在研究公眾與周遭環境之間互動的方法,用以作為啟發思考、學習和交流的途徑。Time’s Up以日常生活為藍圖重新建構當中的互動過程,透過這些重塑的情境Time’s Up邀請觀眾融入其中,鼓勵他們探索個人或團體在不同情境下的空間和行為。在建構這些互動情境時,研究所會運用到藝術設計、數學、科學、科技以及社會學和文化研究多範疇的知識和技術。
作品 /


在那遙遠的廚房

Time’s Up的重要活動都在廚房裡進行,這裡體現了他們十五年來的歷史和故事。由簡單的小吃食譜到各樣的菜餚實驗,在廚房裡每天都有研究所的成員為其他人準備午餐。然而,在這小小的空間不僅生產了簡單的食物,更激發了創意和辯論,它讓計劃落定也解決了棘手的建築難題。這裡也是一個避世的好地方,在等待水煮開時,能看看書刊或跟隨船隻漫遊多瑙河。

雖然有許多組織透過虛擬網絡工作,Time’s Up的成員郤注重實在的交流。不論是一起喝杯咖啡、或是同讀一篇被遺下的文章、或是在寒冷的冬天遠離電子零件、電腦和工作,在暖和的陽光下,十五個成員肩並肩感受著彼此的陪伴,享受人與人之間的交流。廚房是Time’s Up的心臟和靈魂,是研究所的創作核心,它記載了研究所的歷史與故事。
問與答 /


誰是研究所裡最好的廚師?

不不不,這個問題在我們之間並不成立。因為這意味著這裡有最差的廚師,但我們没有最差的,出於彼此的尊重所以也不會有最差的。我們每一個都有煮得好或差的時候,而且有太多因素會影響食物的味道,最重要的是:如果你把每週的烹飪計劃安排在私人的行程表上,你就會有更多時間凖備,考慮你要做的菜餚、要採集的食材,甚至會用當造的食材做菜。如果你太久没有出現在烹飪的名單上,就會被強迫煮菜,這會令烹飪的質素下降。最差的情況是你在進餐前十分鐘才登記並開始煮菜,雖然我們没有遇過這種狀況,最壞的只是有時候成員敷衍了事地做菜讓食物難以下咽。




為什麼廚房裡有那麼多的海軍裝飾?這些裝飾如何激發你們的創作?

我們會跟初次到訪的遊客解釋:因為每個認真主動的當代文化行動,都需要一個真正的藝術收藏,哈哈!

說真的,為什麼我們會有這些收藏品?剛開始的時候只是一張貼在牆上的圖片,慢慢地圖片裡清晰的主題引領著我們向其他方向的發展,把我們的研究所帶到貿易港口與多瑙河碼頭之間的縫隙。
Time’s Up的標誌源自早期海盜的徽標,是個抽象的海盜背景及沙漏,象徵我們如海盜船不停飄泊,是個渴望保持獨立的小國家。啊,水中的浪漫!

我們的裝飾有兩大主題:帆船及燈塔,和各式各樣的相關事物:船夫、輪船、鸛和錨等。我們收藏的唯一限制是收藏品價格必須是五歐元內。我們的長遠計劃是找到能在暴風雨中航行的完美船舶。雖然仍未找到,但我們十多年來一直計劃為畫家做個工作空間,不過尚没有足夠的時間或金錢把計劃付諸實行。





透過虛擬網絡工作比實在與人工作有什麼不好?

我們深深愛好與人有私人的實在接觸。我們一直在創造破壞九十年代後期倡議的虛擬世界的作品,我們要汗水、要接觸、要重量、要人類存在的基本現實。在我們的作品裡,我們也喜歡被人包圍,與他們交談對話。在某人的辦公桌上看到的東西令我們知道他在做什麼,也知道他在奮戰或偷懶。虛擬網絡工作否定這些影響。我們只在需要的時候在網上工作,但這是基於一個強大的物理共性。我們見過在網絡社區工作的人,他們不以感官去認識並真正了解一個人的交往方式。這一類人能以這樣的方式工作對他們來說很幸運,但這種模式不是我們在交往或工作時應有的模式。




在廚房裡產生過最好或最有趣的想法是什麼?與食物有關嗎?

這廚房擔當許多角色,但我們最喜歡做的以它來逃離工作項目的發展。這個避風塘是集中開發項目的好地方,因為它空間大,容許人來人去,跟項目發展正好相反。除了零晨或破曉時份,廚房不是一個專注的地方,它是一個休閒相遇的場景,大家在這裡喝咖啡或吃多士麵包,然後聚在一起,各自談各自不相關的東西。TwixtVille這名稱是在廚房決定的,Anchortronic這名稱是在廚房發明的。每個項目的起源討論都在這裡發生,在某種意義上,Time’s Up的所有項目皆源於廚房。
Introduction /


LABORATORY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXPERIMENTAL SITUATIONS

“.... it takes all the running you can do, just to stay in place.” - ´The Red Queen effect´. Founded in 1996, this laboratory of Time’s Up is now situated in the Linz harbour of Austria. Its mission is to investigate the ways in which people explore and interact with their physical surroundings through discovery, learning and communication. Time’s Up reconstructs interactive normal day-to-day situations that invite participants in the given context and set circumstances to interact with each other and explore, alone and in groups, the space and their own behaviours in the respective situations. To reconstruct these real life interactive situations, lab creators use arts and design, mathematics, science and technology as well as sociology and cultural studies in their research.

Work /


THE KITCHEN (1996~)

In the Kitchen, many of the important activities of Time’s Up take place. The Kitchen embodies the story of Time’s Up with its collection of maritime and other kitsch collected over 15 years. In the kitchen, every day, someone from the group cooks lunch for everyone else. From the simplest of recipes to complex fusion experiments, from simple snacks to multi course dinners, all has been made here. Yet it is not only plain food which gets produced in this tiny room, ideas get born here, plans get buttoned down, tricky construction details solved, debates on principles led. As well as being a kitchen, this space is where people can hide from a public event, search a catalogue while waiting for the kettle to boil or just follow the ships passing by at the Danube.

While many groups work happily in the virtual world of the net, artists from Time’s Up remain in their physical bodies, finding the accidents of encounters, the sharing of a coffee or the chance to read an article left on the kitchen table. Crammed shoulder to shoulder, 15 people can eat a meal on a cold winter’s day with the sunlight just getting in through the steamed up window, enjoying a moment of simple human interaction away from machines, electronics, systems and plans.

The Kitchen is the heart and soul of the group, the core of the collective Time’s Up. The Kitchen tells the story of the group.

Q & A /


Who is the best cook in the Lab?

No, no, no, there is no such question as to who the best cook is. This is implying that there is the worst one‚ which we haven’t got‚ and respectfully would never name! We all manage to cook badly and well. The quality of the food depends on a range of factors naturally influencing the tastiness of the food. Most important factor is this: if you sign in the weekly cooking plan according to your personal schedule, then you have some time to consider what you will cook, for collecting the ingredients, harvesting the garden‚ or even better, using the seasonal garden fruits for your menu, etc. Signing in out of compulsion, because your name has not been on the list for too long, sometimes reduces the quality. In the worst scenario, you only sign in 10 minutes before you start cooking, because no one else has done so yet. Sometimes food just tastes like fuel. Sometimes people cook decadently.




Why are there so many maritime decorations in the Kitchen. How do they inspire the group?

One of the repeated explanations for the first time visitors to our labs is that every serious contemporary culturally active initiative needs to have a real art collection‚ Ha! Seriously? Why do we really have them? It started slowly‚ single images on the wall‚ their somehow obvious content, influenced through several aspects, mainly our lab location squeezed between the docks of the trade harbour and the Danube river. The hour-glass used in Time’s Up’s goes back to early versions of pirates flags, also reflecting this placement as well as our desire to maintain some kind of independence - the pirate ship as a mobile micronation. Ah, the romance of the water!

There are two main themes: sailing boats and lighthouses, with many variations; gondoliers, steamships, storks and anchors. The only rule for any addition to the collection is the maximum spending of 5 euros.

Abstract goal: search for the perfect boat in a storm but we have still not found one. We have planned for over a decade to make a workshop for painters, but still have not had the money or time to do it.




What is the downside of working in the virtual world as opposed to working in person?

We are avid believers in the personal, the haptic and the physical. A large part of our practice is to develop pieces that consciously undermine the virtuality that pervaded the late 1990s. We aim for sweat, contact and weight, the basic realities of human existence. At work, we also like to have people around, to have conversations in doorways. Seeing things on someone’s desk helps us keep up to date with what they are doing, registering their bounciness or slowness. Online work denies all these influences. We do online work when we need to, but that is based upon a strong physical commonality. We have seen some people working in online communities. The lack of chances to actually know a person without all the senses works only for a very special type of person. It is good that this type of person exists and can work that way, however it is not for us and the way we work.




What is the best/most interesting idea generated from the kitchen? Is it food related?

The kitchen fills many roles, but one thing we like to do is to get away for project development. Such retreats are great for concentrating upon a project’s development, as opposed to the open space of the kitchen where people come and go. The kitchen is not a place for concentration, except perhaps late at night or the crack of dawn. It is a place of causal encounters, in which everybody gets a coffee, a tea or a glass of water or toasts some bread. And then stays around and talks about something completely separate. The name TwixtVille was decided in the kitchen, the name Anchortronic was invented there. Background discussions for every project happened there. In one sense we could say that all the ideas for Time’s Up projects have originated in the kitchen.