Failurism Manifesto ／ 失败主义宣言
It is failure that guides evolution; perfection offers no incentive for improvement.
Colson Whitehead (1999)
“Failure” has become a prominent aesthetic in many of the arts in the late 20th century, reminding us that our control of technology is an illusion, and revealing digital tools to be only as perfect, precise, and efficient as the humans who build them. New techniques are often discovered by the failure of an intended action. Through failures, we have larger possibility to find new empathy, intimacy, and expression. This project, in a form of small exhibition, includes works I did based on the aesthetic of Failurism Manifesto.
1. We invite designers of talent to conduct a sustained observation of all the failures, i.e. noises, mistakes, non-consciousness…
2. By comparing the various role of failures, we would be convinced of the extent to which the former exceeds the later. This will afford not only an understanding, but also a taste and passion for failures.
3. Except in error, there is no more beauty. No work without an imperfect character can be a masterpiece. Art and design must be conceived as an attack on perfection and precision within the boundaries.
4. We will celebrate glitches, bugs, application errors, system crashes, clipping, aliasing, distortion, quantization noise, failure of machine / technology and system.
5. We aim to create a post-gender, poststructuralism world; it has no truck with bisexuality, hierarchical domination and binary technological determination.
