WALKMENMEMORY

6 September 2025 - 24 September 2025

The show has been a process in constant transformation. The final title, Walkmenmory, grew out of Walkmem(mory)—a chimera-like fusion of the Walkman as the emblematic name for portable cassette players, memory, and modes of operation. By ultimately replacing “mem” with “men,” the focus shifts toward the importance of multiple participants, while still preserving the link to memory and to a defining product of consumer culture.

Urban infrastructures, museum objects, things found on the street, second-hand electronics from flea markets, hardware megastores, and online shopping platforms—my residency in Munich began by gathering these materials, radiating outward from them as a starting point. Continuing my previous practice of using 3D printing, I dismantled outdated devices and reassembled their fragments into new forms. This process not only responds to my experience of living abroad but also reflects on the shifting realities of the world at large.

In Walkmenmory, I present a series of modified cassette-based devices. Visitors are invited to take hold of the handles attached to them, moving the devices around as if walking a pet—or as if operating a kind of detector. The turning wheels drive the cassette hubs, so the tape moves forward or backward depending on the visitor’s pace. At the same time, the tape heads perform playback and recording simultaneously: whispers, the hum of air conditioning, hurried footsteps, even the faint buzz of electricity in the space are all captured and layered over the tape’s existing sounds.

These sonic traces resemble fragmented memories—constantly overwritten by newer, more vivid impressions. Once they are no longer picked up by conscious thought, they remain only as incomplete phantoms, surfacing now and then in dreams.

駐村發表是一個不斷變動的過程。展名 Walkmenmory 最初源自 Walkmem(mory) ——一種將日系卡帶機的代表性名稱、記憶以及操作方法奇美拉式拼接的組合。最終我選擇以 “men” 取代 “mem”,以此強調複數觀眾參與的重要性,同時仍保留了與記憶以及劃時代消費者產品之間的連結。

城市基礎建設、博物館物件、街邊物件、跳蚤市場二手電器、大型五金建材百貨、網路購物——這次在慕尼黑的進駐經驗,從材料作為起始點開始輻射發展;並延續我在過往作品中使用3D列印的習慣,將拆解後的過時設備接合、重組為不同的樣貌。這既是對於自身這段異地經驗的回應,同時也是一種回看世界所發生種種的方式。

展覽 Walkmenmory 將呈現複數改造過的磁帶裝置,並在展覽中邀請觀眾抓起裝置的把手,像是遛寵物、又像是操作某種探測器般地移動它們。轉動的裝置輪軸將連動卡帶軸心,隨著觀眾的速度帶動磁條,觀眾們可以往前或往後操作。與此同時,卡帶機的磁頭將以讀取與錄製同步進行的方式,把環境中人們的交頭接耳、空調的轟鳴、急促的腳步,甚至電源的底噪一併網羅,覆蓋在磁帶原有的聲音資訊上。

這些聲音,就像腦海中斷續的記憶——被更新、更為鮮活的事件層層疊覆。當它們不再被清醒的意識拾起時,只能在夢境中,以不全的幽魂現身。

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