離水山 Shuishan :: 蔡昱廷 YU TING TSAI

離水山 Shuishan

| 2023

| 三頻道影像、水山村遺骨聲音裝置、複合媒材地圖

| Three Channel Videos, Sound Installation, Mixed Media Maps

深在山裡的聚落、工作站在漫長的歷史洪流下被覆蓋，不為人所知也難以見到實體。
以嘉義縣阿里山鄉水山聚落 (1642M，233676，2592505) 為開端，藝術家在一趟縱走山脈五日的攀爬中，偶然經過了深在山中的水山聚落，阿里山區樟腦煉製的最後基地，日治時期曾達上百戶人家，民國 50 年代起陸續遷出，58 年結束最後一又腦灶，宣告台灣樟腦事業的結束，從此於地圖上絕跡。

水山聚落僅存於歷史紀錄與數字座標中，難以到達的深山位置如同存在於現實又或是圖紙上的中介地帶，是為『失蹤』的存在狀態。同時也是日治殖民時期為了樟腦林業生產目的性所產生的異質空間。通過田野調查，水山聚落的煉樟腦丁大多為客家人，土地乘載著記憶、情感，存在的證明在於地景之中也於氣味之上。土地本身呈現人們生活的記憶堆疊，在歷史洪流的邁進中時而地回望，人因某種目的性集中而後離散，廢棄遺落是文明的必然性在漫長的歷史輪迴中不斷重演。感知環境在時間線上每一階段的堆積，是辨認的過程。廢棄的村落，遺留下的煉樟儀器、散落各處的鞋子，經過時間催化嵌入土地中，儼然成為了地景的部分，那是人造物干涉自然生長後的下一階段性景觀，不為人所知，也難以接近，使自然成為了歷史的收拾者。如王威智在越嶺記行中寫道:「大自然同時扮演收復與破壞的雙重角色，在人們不關心或不需要人們關心的歷史現場，土石草木以自己的方式收拾歷史。』

While trekking through mountains I traversed Shuishan, an isolated village in the mountains far- reaching (1642 M, 233676, 2592505) where it existed the last base camphor was refined in Alishan area. During Japanese colonization period, hundreds of households were engaged in camphor production, but in 1969, the last camphor furnace was heated, marking the end of the camphor industry in Taiwan. Afterwards, the village was not found on the map.

This work attempts to construct a boundary, exploring the experience of meditation and collective memories related to the camphor and the extinction of Taiwan.The land and the remains faithfully present the memories of humans who lived and passed through. In the constantly surging historical torrent, we sometimes look back but separate after purpose focus, in which it implies the abandonment becomes an inevitability of civilization.

From discovery to understanding, the remaining clues speculate the whole picture.The installation serves as a medium for communication with spirits and nature. It is also a symbolic ritual object for entering constructed boundaries, utilizing bone-conducted vibrations to generate sound waves. It turns out that the bones themselves become speakers and thus reproduce the life.

Through the excavations of the history and field study, we found that most of the people who settled in Shuishan were Hakkas who immigrated from across half of Taiwan. The core was from their beliefs on the mountains and the land in which fragmented traces were remained. The land carried people's memories, emotions, and proof of their way of survival. Such proof existed both in the landscape and in the smell of the air. Through the abandoned villages, the camphor refining instruments were left and the shoes scattered everywhere, and at last, they were embedded in the land with the catalysis of time. Thus, they have obviously become part of the landscape. It becomes the landscape of the next stage of landscape after man-made interference with nature.

離水山 - 聲源 Shuishan - Origin Of Sound

| 媒材：複合媒材、電子材料、擴大器、骨傳導震源、水山村遺骨、木材

| Materials：Mixed media, Electronic Materials, Amplifier, Bone conduction speaker, Remains of Shuishan Village, Camphor wood

| 尺寸 Size：60cm (L) x 60cm (W) x 200cm (H)

將水山聚落之山獸遺骨(水鹿、山羌)挖掘出土，那是村民狩獵的痕跡，裝置做為與神靈、自然、現實的交流媒介。本身也是進入構築結界之祭儀象徵物，抽離遺骨本身所處時空、位置、功能象徵，重建其脈絡，如藝術品原初的儀式性。

山獸死去留下肉體，以骨傳導震動發聲作為媒介，讓其透過媒介重現可感知的狀態，使骨頭本身成為喇叭，以震動發聲敘說，試圖凝聚、重組不同時間維度下的聲音記憶。像一種物理性降靈的方式讓遺骨重現作為生物的有機性，骨髓震盪，現代科技干擾過去的遺留物，重現生存，是回看歷史與時間的方式。

聲音為一種進入環境以及出神狀態的方法，在不同的時間階段。骨傳導裝置共十二顆，六軌音頻。五軌音源取至水山聚落混音而成，不同的時間、狀態。一軌為臺灣僅存之煉樟廠客家人煉樟之音源，談話、砍樹、煉製的過程。

木作的樟腦氣味，喚起臺灣樟腦王國的共同經驗，也是那塊深於山中土地的經驗痕跡。

Sound is a way to step into the environment and the trance. At different stages in time, there are twelve bone conduction devices and six audio tracks in total.The five-track sound is from Shuishan villages mixed at different stages of time and states –wood burning, insects songs, water flow, forest, and whisper of wind.
One of the tracks is the sound source from few remaining Hakka people refining camphor in Taiwan's camphor-smelting factory, including their talk and the process of cutting trees and refining.

The smell is also a link of the environment and state. The smell of the camphor made from wood reminds the common experience of Taiwan, which was once the kingdom of camphor. It has been gradually replaced and lost in modern times. Meanwhile, it also belongs to the traces of the experience of the distant land in the remote mountains.