Artistic Speculations on the First Island Chain NTMoFA’s Instance Dungeons and Sights Unpacks Information Power Dynamics in the Age of AI

NTMoFA’s Instance Dungeons and Sights Unpacks Information Power Dynamics in the Age of AI

Chen Chun-fang　/　photos National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

April 2026

中文

Taiwanese artist Lin Yu-Liang’s work, Nothing But a Faint Shadow. Surrounded by neon lights and multi-screen projections, visitors experience distinct observations of our technology-driven society.

What sparks fly when art collides with AI technology?

The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) is answering this question with this year’s tech-art exhibition, Instance Dungeons and Sights. Adopting a video game-inspired worldview, the exhibition dives deep into pressing global issues such as information power dynamics, geopolitics, and the ethics of war.

Bringing together artists from various countries including Taiwan, France, Spain, the US, Japan, Australia, and Austria, the showcase features a diverse array of mediums—from game engines and interactive installations to video and sound art. As visitors navigate the gallery, they are invited to play, experience, and discover how these artists respond to profound social questions of our time.

“There is only one word to describe this exhibition: ‘cool!’” says NTMoFA Director Chen Kuang-yi with a smile. By utilizing game engines, machinima, AI-generated imagery, and digital scanning technologies, the featured artworks prompt us to rethink the relationships between images, narratives of war, and information systems. At the same time, they present the artists’ distinct observations on our hyper-technological society and the contemporary world.

Consider Dialectics of Survival by Taiwanese artist Wang Lien-cheng. Using an open-source language model, Wang created a program that relies on AI visual recognition to scan and analyze the physical appearance of viewers. The system then recommends a specific item for them to carry in the event of a war.

Through Wang’s interactive installation, visitors engage in a game-like experience that yields somewhat amusing suggestions for survival objects—like a pair of scissors or a cooking pot. While the concept of AI recognition sounds cutting-edge, the system bases its conclusions solely on superficial physical traits without factoring in other variables, leaving the actual usefulness of its advice highly questionable.

“The core concept here is to critique how much of today’s artificial intelligence heavily relies on outward appearance for its computations,” Wang explains. “Inevitably, this approach leads to significant issues of misjudgment and discrimination.”

How to Disappear, a video work by the Austrian art collective Total Refusal.

Taiwanese artist Wang Lien-cheng’s Dialectics of Survival utilizes AI visual recognition to analyze a viewer’s physical appearance before generating an amusing, albeit highly questionable, recommendation for wartime survival gear.

Combining large-scale 3D-printed sculptures with projection mapping, French artist Kévin Bray’s ProtoVise: Shaping IDs, Swapping Worlds guides audiences to reflect on the hidden mechanisms driving everyday media content.

Staying critical when war goes digital

Meanwhile, French artist Kévin Bray, who has long focused on the issue of media literacy, presents ProtoVise: Shaping IDs, Swapping Worlds. Combining large-scale 3D-printed sculptures with projection mapping, the work aims to guide audiences to reflect on the daily media content they consume and the hidden mechanisms driving it.

Curator Chen Hsiang-wen points out that today’s global conflicts and political events are constantly amplified and reconstructed through imagery, social media, and algorithms. Like isolated “instance dungeons” in a multiplayer video game, these crises unfold simultaneously across the globe. Using this metaphor as a starting point, the exhibition re-examines the intricate dynamics between image generation, the mechanics of viewing, and the power of information. Ultimately, it asks how we understand the real world through the lens of such imagery and information.

In an era where the cognitive boundary between reality and the virtual has completely collapsed, Chen emphasizes, “We do not need to reject technology. but I deeply wish to convey through this exhibition the necessity of awareness and critical reflection. That is the profound significance of hosting this exhibition here in Taiwan.”

Situated squarely on the First Island Chain, Taiwan serves as a crucial node where information, geopolitical power, and diverse perspectives intersect. Every day, the island receives a massive influx of varied imagery, which continually shapes public perceptions and judgments.

Speaking at the exhibition’s opening, Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hwi noted that it focuses not on technology or warfare in themselves, but rather on how people should view and comprehend a world dominated by images and data. Through the medium of art, the exhibition poses a critical question: When war enters our screens and algorithms, how do we maintain our judgment?

As Deputy Minister Lee aptly pointed out, the true value of art does not lie in providing easy answers, but in compelling us to constantly recalibrate the distance between ourselves and the world around us.

Exhibition Info: Instance Dungeons and Sights

· Dates: Now through June 28, 2026

· Hours: Tue–Fri 09:00–17:00 | Sat–Sun 09:00–18:00 (Closed Mon)

· Venue: NTMoFA (Galleries 103–107 & Gallery Street)

· Address: No. 2, Section 1, Wuquan West Rd., West District, Taichung City

Distinguished guests at the opening ceremony of NTMoFA’s Instance Dungeons and Sights. Attendees included Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hwi (front row, fourth from right), NTMoFA Director Chen Kuang-yi (front row, fifth from right), curator Chen Hsiang-wen (front row, sixth from right), and participating artists.

American artist Alice Bucknell’s video game installation Earth Engine proposes the concept of “Earth-as-Player,” subverting the human-centric control logic found in conventional gaming.