The “Transformation of Things” originates from one of Zhuangzi’s writings, “Qi Wu Lun,” pointing out the dynamism between subject and object, reality and illusion – a relationship between things united yet antithetical to one another. This reveals how the world perceived by a subject is not the one and only truth of reality. Perceptions at times do possess the ability to transcend borders between one’s own body and that of the world; they hold the possibility of transforming oneself into an object. As written at the end of the same text, “But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou.”
By means of Virtual Reality, Transformation of Things sets up a unique observational mechanism. What the artwork expresses is not the gradual immersion of a viewer’s perception, nor the body’s presence. Rather it is a situation which guides the viewer towards the notion that presence is continually transforming, calling forth the “Transformation of Things.” In the work, the viewer begins as an observer of a virtual butterfly. Then they are immersed within its very structure. At that moment, the viewer-subject belongs on one hand to the outside, as an observer examining the object. On the other hand, because of how perceptions produce presence, they also exist as an intrinsic part of the object.
In participation with the observer, the virtual entity continuously unfolds the inner part of its materiality to the viewer; when crossed by the observer, its interior inverts into its exterior, creating another dimension for them to exist in. In this observation system “subject and object,” “observer and the observed,” and “self and butterfly” create a totality by one another’s very presence; for “I am at once present inside and outside of the butterfly, the butterfly is at once present inside and outside of me.”
Under such context, the viewer’s self no longer exists as another subject. After going through a virtual metamorphosis, their state of existence becomes fluid in cyber space, flowing towards the structure of the virtual butterfly from its texture to its polygon mesh, armature, and finally coordinates. The entity of the virtual butterfly gradually exhausts itself by revealing its innermost pieces. In the end, the materiality of the virtual entity is revoked, witnessed by the viewer who is left in the essence of virtuality – pure white.
