Hello from Taipei, Taiwan!
This summer, I am interning at the Lightbox Library (website linked here) in Taipei, helping out with their New Wave Photography Award preparations and with writing English descriptions for different texts in the library. This first week has been insanely hectic but has put me in so many awesome spaces already.
Before starting my first week, I saw my LiA as something only loosely connected to my research last summer by the string of photography. However, through the discussions I have been having with my boss and colleagues, as well as the people I have met in different artist spaces in Taiwan so far, there is a much deeper connection than I expected. My research my first summer really amounted to creating new media for a population that has been unfairly characterized in existing media. Lightbox, in its creation of an open forum and archive, takes the ideological pillars of my work and turns it into a tangible foundation, with a Google Maps-able location and tall wooden beams.
Lightbox was the first organization that I reached out to and, ironically, one of the only ones that reached back out to me. I resonated deeply with their founding idea that “Culture must have roots” and felt like that was exactly what I kept advocating for through my research during my first Laidlaw summer. Every single shift at Lightbox has proven this fit to me.
Here’s a brief rundown of how I spent my week!
Tuesday: 6:30 AM exploration of my neighborhood. Orientation at work. Night market!
Wednesday: I was given the day off to explore 4 different museums and 6 different exhibitions. [Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, The National Taiwan Museum, The National Center of Photography and Images, and the 228 Museum.]
Thursday: Got to speak with Yu Chen Chiu (a photographer based in New York City!) and Natasha Chuk, author and professor at SVA, for two hours! Super interesting conversation about photography, AI, arts education, and the intersection of it all.
Friday: Early morning run in Riverside Park (It is actually called Riverside park. Shoutout Columbia.) and late night talk. Natasha Chuk presented “Post-Photography + The Photographic Substrate” and her book Photo Obscura: The Photographic in Post-Photography. I was sent by my boss to take notes on the questions asked and my own questions about the talk. The conversation that followed the presentation was extremely thought-provoking and I was glad to have been able to participate.
Saturday and Sunday: Got to help out at the Fubon Foundation with Youth Voice Taiwan’s joint programming with Lightbox for high school students! Lightbox’s New Wave Photography Award has a special Youth Perspective award that is decided on by 15 high school jurors. I got to sit in on classes taught by Taiwanese photographers and professors that were catered to get the students to really understand what a “good” image is. Many of the students practiced their English with me during our lunch breaks, while I tried to practice my Mandarin with them. An awesome exchange of language and thoughts! I also spoke with the director of Youth Voice (who actually graduated from Columbia’s School of Social Work in 2005!) who told me about Youth Voice’s dedication to getting students to learn how to speak and think for themselves, having grown up in the age of social media. While the workshops ran pretty long, it was a really awesome way to really immerse myself in the New Wave Photography Award project as well as learn more about the youth culture in Taiwan.
This is the view from my window. A very ironic part of the prompt for me.
Lots of exploring outside of work! I’ve averaged one bubble tea and around 13,000 steps per day.