Su Yu Hsin: frame of reference

About

Su Yu Hsin (*1989) is a Taiwanese artist and filmmaker currently based in Berlin. Her essayistic video installations explore the relationship between ecology and technology and the production of geographical knowledge. Her practice is characterised by a profound and complex exploration of perceptual phenomena and the situated representation and reconstruction of reality.

The work frame of reference, produced in collaboration with GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and NCTU Disaster Prevention and Water Environment Research Center, shows scientists with near-real-time monitoring networks in the Taroko Gorge site in Taiwan investigating how landslides are driven by the weather, and also how landslides affect the climate. The video work shifts its perspective from fixed positions, through cameras fixed in the river, to moving viewpoints, through drone footage or handheld cameras, and the artist reorganized them with observatory datasets into a digital juxtaposition of gradient visualization of seismic waves, further addressing the question of formatting scalar relations between the field, laboratory and database. In the tradition of measuring and observing the Earth through technical devices, Su Yu Hsin’s work invites critical reflection on traditions of perception, representation and scientific engagement with the natural world. frame of reference is commissioned by Taipei Biennial 2020 and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.