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Experimental Design

Pei-Yao Chang



Pei-Yao Chang is a media artist, a researcher and a two-year novice freediver currently based in London. Her practice investigates space(s) and the implication of embodied experiences based on gravitation from land and her weightless freediving journey. As such, fascinated by sensation, movement, and perception, she investigates and explores embodied cognition.


Pei-Yao Chang's current work uses a specific spatial context, and employs ecological and environmental psychology to interrogate the ways humans perceive and engage with their surroundings both actively and passively, attempting to comprehend the boundaries and connections of human and non-human interaction. This is done through an investigation of the tensions and slack through material exploration, documentation, film, sculpture and installation.


Show Location: Battersea campus: Studio Building, Ground floor

Pei-Yao Chang-statement


‘Son, do you know how love should be begun?’
The boy sat small and listening and still. Slowly he shook his head.
The old man leaned closer and whispered:
‘A tree. A rock. A cloud.’


A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud, Carson McCullers




In the United Kingdom (UK) a tree, group of trees or a woodland subject to a Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) cannot be removed, uprooted or pruned without written consent.  It is not easy to apply TPOs for trees. TPOs are made by local planning authorities (LPAs) in England to protect trees in the interests of ‘amenity’, or attractiveness of a place. However, the boundary between human property and trees' roots and branches in their natural state could result in controversy, even a legal challenge. How do we evaluate ‘amenity’ for a monetary value for a court case? What could unfold, if however, we instead take a non-human perspective? What could ‘amenity’ mean for trees?


A Reconciliation is an on-going artistic research project that rethinks the boundary and tensions between human / non-human relationships in a legal context. The project is a multiple-media installation that includes an archive of legal cases, digital prints, and an analog memory box to compose a trio of artefacts. Within this reconciliatory journey, audiences are invited to travel from a legal procedure through affective aspects, through space and time, and re-imagine TPO regulation from the perspective of urban trees in the UK whilst simultaneously opening intimate conversations and connections with trees.


Tree Guard Sculpting in Ravenscourt Park, 2021
Tree Guard Sculpting in Ravenscourt Park, 2021
Preface, Inflatable sculpture, film
Preface, Inflatable sculpture, film


I am interested in space – and the movement of people and objects within space. There is a certain magic to it. It is as if you are inventing an order of things. I believe there is a secret relationship between space, objects, and perceptible and imperceptible movements. [1]


Inspired by Isamu Noguchi's quote and his practice, Sculpting Space, my work Tree Guard is an analog protector temporarily situated in an urban green space to investigate, experiment, and document the interaction between humans and non-humans such as dogs and wind in a London city park.


How do residents or dogs respond when they meet a large air-filled artefact in their pathway? Does it become a barrier? Alternatively, does it help guard trees in order to “survive” in a city?







[1] "From Lamps to Playgrounds, Isamu Noguchi Believed Sculpture Should Be Omnipresent", Itsnicethat.Com, 2021 <https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/isamu-noguchi-art-131221> [Accessed 30 May 2022].

Medium:

Inflatable sculpture, film

Size:

400 x 260 cm, 3 minutes 27 seconds
‘[2016] UKUT 300 (LC)’ presents the research background. The documentation comprises a legal compensation case which involved TPOs in Patchway, UK and an infographic. This visualization explains in a
‘[2016] UKUT 300 (LC)’ presents the research background. The documentation comprises a legal compensation case which involved TPOs in Patchway, UK and an infographic. This visualization explains in a comprehensible form the facts of the case and opens a space for a dialogue between urban trees, the damaged conservatory, and legal processes.
A Reconciliation: [2016] UKUT 300 (LC), Mix medium
Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) [2016] UKUT 300 (LC) UTLC: LCA/105/2015
The original document of Law caseSource: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/LC/2016/300.pdf
A Reconciliation: [2016] UKUT 300 (LC), Mix medium
The artworks illustrate the feature of trees from the law case of [2016] UKUT 300 (LC)
The artworks illustrate the feature of trees from the law case of [2016] UKUT 300 (LC) From left to right: Oak, Eucalyptus, Conifer, and Magnolia | Medium: Grinding Ink on Shuen Paper | Size: 680 x 340 mm
A Reconciliation: [2016] UKUT 300 (LC), Mix medium
Infographic of [2016] UKUT 300 (LC) legal case
Infographic of [2016] UKUT 300 (LC) legal case

[2016] UKUT 300 (LC) presents the research background. The documentation comprises a legal compensation case which involved TPOs in Patchway, UK and an infographic. This visualization explains in a comprehensible form the facts of the case and opens a space for a dialogue between urban trees, the damaged conservatory, and legal processes.




Continuing the research from the law case, the definition of visual amenity, here, drew my attention. The word "amenity" is derived from the Latin word "amoenus" which means "pleasant". In current usage it refers to a useful or desirable feature. Thus, how is amenity defined? How is ‘amenity’ evaluated in monetary value for a court case?


Medium:

Mix medium

Size:

393 x 116 x 515 mm, 297x210 mm
‘A Figure, Figures’ is a series of Risographs – both a data visualization and a pun. The title plays on the polysemous meanings of the word figure, as both “shape” and “monetary value” which is thus d
‘A Figure, Figures’ is a series of Risographs – both a data visualization and a pun. The title plays on the polysemous meanings of the word figure, as both “shape” and “monetary value” which is thus deconstructed and transformed from one of many visual amenity valuation tools, The Helliwell System. This artwork aspires to reveal the evaluation workflow through a monetary value and provokes us to consider the limitations of how humans assess the value of a tree.
A Reconciliation: A Figure, Figures, Risograph on Paper, Digital print on Paper
A Reconciliation: A Figure, Figures, Risograph on Paper, Digital print on Paper
This is the data and information visualization of visual amenity valuation tools redesigned from The Helliwell System for more effective communication purposes. I used this methodology to create the s
This is the data and information visualization of visual amenity valuation tools redesigned from The Helliwell System for more effective communication purposes. I used this methodology to create the shapes for the Risograph works.
A Reconciliation: A Figure, Figures, Risograph on Paper, Digital print on Paper
Data and information visualization of Helliwell System’s Visual Amenity Valuation Tool
Data and information visualization of Helliwell System’s Visual Amenity Valuation Tool





A Figure, Figures is a series of Risographs – both a data visualization and a pun. The title plays on the polysemous meanings of the word figure, as both “shape” and “monetary value” which is thus deconstructed and transformed from one of many visual amenity valuation tools, The Helliwell System.[2] This artwork aspires to reveal the evaluation workflow through a monetary value and provokes us to consider the limitations of how humans assess the value of a tree.


[2] Arboricultural Association, VISUAL AMENITY VALUATION OF TREES AND WOODLANDS - The Helliwell System 2008 (Arboricultural Association, 2008)






A Figure, Figures II is a series of temporary sculptures reproduced from soil and compost. This is an extension work of ‘A Figure, Figure’ - both a data visualization and a pun, and is presented at the Royal College of Art Graduate Show 2022, Battersea South campus. A three-dimensional organic texture, unlike flat Risographs, seeks to extend another possibility to contextualize of non-human perspective. This body of artwork aspires to reveal the evaluation workflow through monetary value and provokes us to consider the limitations of how humans assess the value of a tree.

Medium: Soil and Compost

Size: size various

Medium:

Risograph on Paper, Digital print on Paper

Size:

297x420 mm, 420x594mm
A Reconciliation: 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud’, wood, stone, and memories
A Reconciliation: 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud’, wood, stone, and memories
A Reconciliation: 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud’, wood, stone, and memories
A Reconciliation: 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud’, wood, stone, and memories
A Reconciliation: 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud’, wood, stone, and memories



 'A Tree, A Stone, A Cloud' is an installation that includes an analog memory box, stones, and tree parts to perform a journey of recollection. An embodied experience with trees from my land, Taichung City, Taiwan, is lodged into the container that is built by a single-board computer (Raspberry Pi) with a 3.5-inch LCD screen.

Memory is personal, as is the connection with trees. However, a definition of love remains open. This work is inspired by Carson McCullers’ short story ‘A tree, A rock, A cloud’, in which an old man shares his story with a newspaper boy describing his reconciliation with his life and a transformation of the definition of love. These clips were shot in Taiwan while I undertook a short-term leave of absence. The documentation presents the memory of trees during my childhood and the intimate connection psychically and physically.


Medium:

wood, stone, and memories

Size:

150 x 100 x 110 cm, 2minutes 46 seconds