Shih Wei-Chieh (Taipei, Taiwan) Hacker residency documentation- 11. September – 1. November 2023
The amusing title of this Hacker-in-Residence (hosted in Hackteria ZET – Open Science Lab and the Hackerspace collective Bitwäscherei ) comes from the substantial involvement of the Doctor blade in DIY coating experiments, marking the outset of Shih Wei Chieh’s first year of phd programe at Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. The primary objective of the residency was to identify substitutes for FTO glass in order to develop a transparent film substrate. Although the goal was not achieved during the 7-weeks residency, various parameters were meticulously documented, including low-temperature sintering for TiO2 photo-electrodes and high-temperature sintering for TiO2-electrodes on mineral fibers. These details can be found in the “Residency Research Documentations” section on the wiki.
Interview
Part 1/2: “From e-textile to Grätzel cells, encounter with the taiwanese designer Shih Wei Chieh“, Makery 2023
Part 2/2: “A residency to research Grätzel cells at Hackteria, encounter with Shih Wei Chieh“, Makery 2023
What was the purpose of your residency in Zurich? What did you learn from it?
“In addition to my pursuit of practical solar applications, my most successful DSSC prototype currently produces only around ~2.5 mA per square centimeter. The significance lies more in the opportunities to collaborate with scientists and engage in visits to the laboratory at ETH. This experience has served as valuable training for me, offering insights into how scientists work with nanomaterials. Understanding the conventional applications and purposes, as well as the established protocols for synthesizing nano materials, has been a rare and precious experience for artists. It raises pertinent questions about the relationship between art and science, and how these two domains can and should collaborate effectively.”
“Although it was a fantastic experience for artists to work with scientists with complete freedom and full access to knowledge, I wonder how we can repeat the model without any funding to support the free sofa accommodation and the efforts from volunteers. On the other hand, I believe this is a great model that differs from those residency organized by institutes and centers which always comes with political requirements and demands. The property of the community plays a big part too. During the residency I have met many community members in Bitwäscherei, the role of them are usually very mixed, like chemist with musician background or artist with scientific degree, or engineer with profound knowledge for history of analog computer, the people are a great library and the culture was naturally provided by the community. This dynamic is relatively rare in Taiwan, where career roles tend to be more singular, and scientists typically don’t serve other fields in the same integrated manner.”
Biography
施惟捷 Shih Wei Chieh (also known as Abao) works with wearable art, e-textile, and laser audiovisual. He is also a self-taught material science researcher. His “Laser Dye Project” innovates an optical textile printing method by programmable laser projector and New Cyanotype solution, which inspire him to explore the trans-disciplinary collaboration between new medias and traditional craft techniques. He’s the founder of “Tribe Against Machine”, a project exploring how culture preservation works with modern technologies. His current research develops a DIY dye sensitized solar glass made with natural dye in a large size format, which is used for both energy and as a smart interface for sonic art.
Activities
Many many many… see wiki
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