Guishan Island, located off the coast of Yilan, was once home to a self-sufficient fishing community. In 1977, the entire village was forced to relocate to the mainland Taiwan (Daxi, Toucheng) due to military requirements. Their homes were bombarded into debris during Martial Law time, causing a deep cultural rupture and confusion. The properties and cultural legacy were missing since then.
To the residents, this displacement wasn't just about moving homes; it was about losing their autonomy and sovereignty. Although many residents hold valid land ownership certificate, over the following decades, the island was expropriated by the state and theresidents were forced to accept the injustice and unfair treatment. Since 2000, the island was finally reopened for the tourists, most residents felt their history was being flattened and commiified into the footnote in tourism brochures.
In 2018, following my lecture on the digitalization of diverse community economies, a Guishan youth approached me with a critical concern: as their elders passed away, the cultural identity of the younger generation was rapidly dissolving. He asked if the strategies I presented could help reclaim their community’s sovereign agency?
This encounter catalyzed our collaboration. Starting in 2019, I began assisting the Guishan community in launching an open community movement rooted in deliberative democracy, beginning with the inaugural Guishan Cultural Forum. These ongoing efforts aim to rebuild their confidence and resilience as a maritime village. By facilitating intergenerational dialogue, the community is now actively reimagining its island heritage within a contemporary context—moving beyond flattened narratives toward an more open, inclusive, diverse, and resilient future.
How can we transform everyday behavior into a social experiment that summons aesthetic momentum? Check-ins encompass historical, technological, social, and political dimensions. How do we facilitate dialogues between history and space, attending to narrative and performative strengths, while linearly guiding participants through multiple layers of the work? How does dramaturgy induce resonance among diverse attendees, prompting them towards "collective decision-making"? Through subtle guidance and a flaneur-like wandering within and outside the deliberative space, how do participants gradually immerse themselves in the dream-like deliberation, gaining nuanced insights into the work?
To create a dream-like deliberation, Check-In Legislative Yuan establishes multiple layers of responses. The opening role of the president of Legislative Yuan and ambient sound (created by a hole puncher) immerse participants in a democratic framework both familiar and uncanny, spatializing the act of checking in and linking it to representative authority. Rituals such as the shamaness’s hypnosis and the guidance of cowbell sounds, and the priest’s ceremonial drinks, allow participants to engage sensorially with speculative interpretations of check-ins beyond conventional deliberation. Finally, semi-anonymous voting empowers attendees not merely as passive spectators but as active decision-makers, progressively deepening their contemplation and sense of involvement.
After sipping the ceremonial drink symbolizing sensory water, participants received two leaves and ascended a tower to vote, reconsidering autonomy and raising the core question: "Should New Taipei City Museum of Art allow check-ins?" Without further explanation, dried leaves signified agreement, green leaves disagreement. As the gavel fell, accompanied by the sound of leaves slicing through the air and lingering hole-punch echoes, participants began to reflect collectively on check-ins as more than individual choices but as embedded in power distribution and cultural discipline.
Check-In Legislative Yuan is an evolving social experiment exploring participation, choice, and collective decision-making from multiple aesthetic perspectives. I established an archival database, openly sharing roles, props, and records, allowing anyone to roleplay and locally extend and iterate new sessions, regardless of who assumes roles such as president, priest, or shamaness, continually generating fresh contemplation and practice.
Simultaneously, the project continually questions alternative mechanisms beyond check-ins in an era intertwined with digital footprints. Can a movement starve or alter the algorithm? Can people establish mutual dependencies without relying on data and social platforms? Through ongoing experimentation and reflection, Check-In Legislative Yuan aims to enrich action research in digital ecology, transforming check-ins from mere proofs of existence into profound public dialogue.
-
Team
Design Lead Yun Cheng CHEN (Lucky)
Researcher Chien Yu Huang (Bosco)
AI Design Chia Reng Tsai
Visual Yen Lin Shen (Daniel)
Website Studio Ming
Video Atelier YenAn
Assistant Summer