刪不了的符號 I
Unerasable Characters I

Description

這本DIY書是香港出生的藝術家、程式設計師及研究者孫詠怡（Winnie SOON）的藝術作品《刪不了的符號 I》（Unerasable Characters I）中的一部分。書中收錄了基於2021年6月至2022年6月從微博及「微博視野」（Weiboscope）收集的54,064則被審查的樣本貼文，經機器學習流程產生的預測/輸出數據。

通過運用自由與開源軟體與函式庫、DIY書籍裝訂工具及計算化出版技術（HTML轉印刷），《刪不了的符號》探索公共領域，並開創自身獨特的DIY模式，用以在超越「刪除」涵義的角度重新思考「抹除」這一行為——尤其是在有關建立團結與聯盟的層面上。

當文本不再是固定和受限的存在，而是如水般具有生成性與可塑性時，意義、關係、標記與痕跡的何種形式發生了轉變？又浮現了何種新的形態？

受2020年香港白紙抗議、2022年中國大陸白紙運動等社群運動啟發，本書以可生成卻不可讀的方式規避審查機制。

本企劃想問：這是不是一本禁書？

This DIY book is a part of the artwork Unerasable Characters I by Hong Kong-born artist coder and researcher Winnie SOON. It contains predictive/output data from machine learning processes, based on 54,064 sample censored posts collected from Weibo and Weiboscope from June 2021 until June 2022.

By using free and open source software and libraries, DIY book binding tools and computational publishing (html to print), Unerasable Characters explores the commons, creating its own form of do-it-yourself approach as a way to rethink erasure beyond deletion, especially by way of building solidarity and generating alliances.

When text is no longer fixed and restricted but generative and malleable like water, what forms of meaning, relations, marks, and traces have been altered, and what has emerged?

Inspired by community movements such as the blank paper protests in Hong Kong in 2020 or ‘A4 Revolution’ in 2022 mainland China, the book is meant to be generative yet unreadable to circumvent censorship.

The project asks: is this a forbidden book?

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孫詠怡是一位出生於香港的藝術家、程式設計師及研究者，關注數位基礎設施的文化意涵，特別探討其如何處理更廣泛的權力失衡現象，並對計算化出版、酷兒化程式碼與軟體領域抱有濃厚興趣。其藝術與學術創作涉及諸多主題，包括自由與開源文化、另類編碼實踐、藝術/技術手冊、數位審查制度及邊緣技術。其作品遍及博物館、藝廊、藝術節、分散式網絡、學術論文及另類書寫形式，合著著作包括《邊界影像》（Boundary Images，2023）、《修復我的程式碼》（Fix My Code，2021）及《美學程式設計》（Aesthetic Programming，2020）。孫詠怡現擔任麻省理工學院出版社《軟體研究叢書》（Software Studies Book Series）聯合編輯，並擔任倫敦大學學院出版社（UCL Press）出版委員會成員。

其《刪不了的符號》項目榮獲2023年林茲電子藝術節最高榮譽「金尼卡獎」（Golden Nica Award）。

Winnie SOON is a Hong Kong-born artist coder and researcher interested in the cultural implications of digital infrastructure that addresses wider power asymmetries with a particular interest in computational publishing, queering code and software. Their artistic and scholarly works engage with themes such as free and open source culture, coding otherwise, artistic/technical manuals, digital censorship, and minor technology. With works appearing in museums, galleries, festivals, distributed networks, papers, and alternative written forms, including co-authored books titled Boundary Images (2023), Fix My Code (2021), and Aesthetic Programming (2020), Winnie is also the co-editor of the Software Studies Book Series (MIT Press) as well as Board member of UCL Press and Publications.

The ‘Unerasable Characters’ project received the prestigious Golden Nica award at Ars Electronica in 2023.