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## "Where are we heading in the imbalance ecology?" Y2K's the Biosignal solo exhibition

  
  
The Y2K is a new media art team that consists of Chiao-Chi Chou & You-Yang Hu. One research in botany and another specialize in new media interaction. In the student period, Y2K created an artwork that manipulate the growth of plant to generate sprouts of odd shape and an interactional installation that transfer electrical impulses to viewers by touching the leaves of Mimosa Pudica. After participated in the Ars Electronica Festival in Austria in 2019, Y2K opened the Biosignal, the first solo exhibition, at the Project Fulfill Art Space. In their new series of works, Y2K involved the fantasy of cyborg in discussing the relationship between botany and technology.  
  
"Humans are the creature that constantly prioritize their interest when dealing with other forms of life," Chiao-Chi Chou tells me. "We dedicate to create an experience in which viewers play a minor role; therefore, they may contemplate living symbiotically to maintain the diversity and biological balance." Stepped in the exhibition, viewers will first encounter an interactional artwork, the Apercevoir, that circularly floating in the space. Growing on the dangled rock islands, numerous Mimosa Pudicas are detecting every kind of activity near them and communicating with each other. "Mimosa can feel If you speak, breath or pass by, and the change of turgor pressure will trigger an adjacent installation to cast ripple on the floor to indicate your position," says You-Yang Hu, who designed all the coding and algorithm in this exhibition. The Apercevoir not only affected by viewers, but also provide them the opportunity to join Mimosas' network." In the centre of the Apercevoir has a bone conduction headphone playing the sonic wave transferred from the botanic signal; after wearing the headphone, viewers can acquire the ability to recognize people's position without using his or her original senses. "In this series of works, each piece function differently, as the Apercevoir is analogous to the human skin," Chiao-Chi Chou explains. "The rest three pieces relate to the three vital elements for life: air, water and sunlight."  
  
With the research in the field of botany, Y2K developed a system to correlate the change of gas density in the space with the plants' cellular behaviour. By observing the stomata with microscopes that enclosed Zebrina pendula leaves, the Breathing illustrates the need of different gases for plants to thrive. "With viewers' participation, the air composition is always chaining," says You-Yang Hu. "Thus, the Breathing will trigger the electromagnetic valve on the gas cylinders to release oxygen, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide to fit plants' need."  
  
"The Cradle is mainly discussing the moist condition, and the static electricity on the surface of moss is the factor in defining whether the moisture in the space is enough or not," Chiao-Chi Chou points out that moisture is more critical than water itself to moss. The Cradle triggers the ultrasonic nebulizer that transforms the water stored underneath the moss into fog to dampen the surrounding and generate an image of a waterfall in concert. Additionally, the Cradle also controls the air conditioner in the gallery to alter the humidity comprehensively. Since moisture is not readily perceivable for human, Y2K creates a variety of artificial cricket's sounds to indicate whether the environment is favourable for moss. "This is also a warning that humans will inevitably live in a world without other creatures if we keep exploiting the earth recklessly," Chiao-Chi Chou says.  
  
For the Pneuma, the ring-light above the Wrightia Religiosa imitates the sun path to provide the primary light source for photosynthesis. To visualize the invisible bioenergy, Y2K uses the electricity that generated form the Pneuma to activate the mechanisms in the other three artworks. "By binding all the artworks interdependently, we expect to create a subjectivity in the exhibition," You-Yang Hu explains. "As a result, we can observe the interaction between viewers and artworks to understand their power relations with other creatures."  
  
Because of how the exhibition was arranged, the connection of works displays a clarity that reveals Y2K's ambition to minimize the superiority of humans. In contrast to the present cyborg, which mainly discuss the possibility of humans with technology, Y2K focuses on the future of plants adopting technology. Most of the people underestimate the value of plants and ignore their subjectivity. Therefore, with the science and technology, plants' conscious may become more accessible to humans, and people can start to consider plants' Individuality. Unlike the typical interactional exhibition, the Biosignal replace the obvious input-output process with viewers body temperature, breathing and movement. Viewers start to interact with all the works as they enter the exhibition, yet viewers also act as bystanders to maintain plants' subjectivity.  
  
In the post-COVID era, going to an exhibition has become different from previous. Because the density of carbon dioxide is always high in the Biosignal, viewers are divided into different batch and asked to sign an affidavit letter for their safety. The pandemic offers a more concrete reason for the prerequisite to enter the exhibition; however, social distancing policy and public panic also reduce people's willingness to stay in an enclosed space. To diminish transmission of disease, most in-person activities are now moving to online or virtual reality, but this is not the appropriate solution for interactional exhibitions. Despite the minimal interaction process, the Biosignal still would not happen if there are no humans engage in the exhibition. Since human appreciates the world with five senses, people need to participate in the process to realize how creativity enables a comprehensive understanding of different concepts and issues.  
  
It was a coincidence that Y2K opened a thought-provoking exhibition in this tumultuous period. Humans have dominated the world and exploited the environment with tools and technology since the Industrial Revolution; however, we are now facing the consequences that we have ever imagined. With Y2K's ambition to evoke viewers' ecological attention, the Biosignal is an instructive exhibition for people to reassess our position on the ecosystem and to recall the living style that people used to have.