The Body as Input: Computing the Unknown Reality

Introduction: Reclaiming the Power of Sight Beyond the Black Box of Algorithms

In 2025, WHYIXD was invited by the CMP Museum of Arts to curate the winter special exhibition Input > Unknown, inviting visitors to participate in the generation of an emerging, unknown reality. Continuing the museum’s ethos of “Unlocking Imagination,” the project responds to an era in which the boundaries between physical and virtual realities are increasingly blurred. We face not only technological shifts but also a new set of questions regarding ethics, resources, meaning, and existence.

In this age of rapid digital evolution, our understanding of “reality” is often organized by algorithms hidden within an opaque black box. As the world becomes more predictable, are we still aware that we actively participate in constructing what we perceive? Input > Unknown is a response to this question: reality is not a fixed outcome, but an ongoing process of generation.

Borrowing the syntax of the computer command prompt “Input >,” the exhibition frames the entire venue as an open system awaiting computation. The visitor’s body, senses, and actions serve as the “input data.” Every movement triggers a line of code; every gaze generates a new result. This is an experiment in the uncertainty of “viewing,” inviting participants to engage in a sensory computation of the unknown and re-examine familiar boundaries—when you alter your angle of observation, the world returns a different face.

The exhibition’s structure mirrors both computer logic and the underlying rules of the world: from the initiation of perception (Boot), to bodily computation (Processing), to data rendering (Rendering), and finally, collective co-creation (Sandbox Mode). It is a corporeal computation experiment and a philosophical dialogue on the nature of the unknown.

Four Stages of a Generative Unknown World

Curated and created by WHYIXD, in collaboration with the German sound art laboratory Kling Klang Klong, Taiwanese visual studio HOUTH, and artist Chih-Wei Chuang, this journey constructs a multisensory experience woven from light, sound, wind, and data. The exhibition begins with the activation of the body, gradually delves into digital illusions, and culminates in collective co-creation.

01. [Boot] — Hello World

The journey begins with a bodily “boot-up ritual.” The entry pass is a custom-made polarizer. Similar to a computer’s “Boot” process, visitors must rotate and adjust their viewing angle to decode hidden messages within the light, opening a personalized perceptual interface.

On-site machines present daily ethical dilemmas (e.g., environmental agency, technological equity, privacy), inviting visitors to vote “Accept” or “Deny,” activating critical reflection and conscious action.

02. [Processing] — Dynamic Field

After booting, the body descends to the lower level to face the monumental Dynamic Field. This stage represents the “Processing” phase. A massive pixel matrix, built from polarizing surfaces and kinetic mechanisms, employs an entirely analog, hands-on approach—hand-applied lightboxes and varying film thickness—to generate an intensely digital visual state.

Here, the body is the primary subject of image generation. Every step and breath interacts with the space, performing real-time computation of light and reality.

03. [Rendering] — Tender Soul of Ocean: recall

Following bodily computation, visitors enter a darkened realm. This work represents the “Rendering” of prior inputs. It gathers real-time weather data (wind) from the museum’s exterior and crowd flow data from the interior, translating these “Inputs” into fluid patterns of light and sound.

All audio-visual elements are algorithmically generated, without any pre-recorded samples, creating an inherently “natural” digital environment. Visitors become co-authors of this environmental rhythm, sensing the continuous resonance between climate, sound, and human presence.

04. [Sandbox Mode] — Spectrum of White

The final chapter, created by Chih-Wei Chuang, opens a “Sandbox Mode.” Using the refractive properties of polarizing film, the work returns to the most elemental input: touch. Visitors leave traces with their fingertips, participating in the work’s ongoing formation.

Individual acts of input converge into a collective field of consciousness. The once-white surface gradually reveals a vibrant spectrum, forming a “white rainbow” collectively generated by participants, symbolizing the evolving vitality of human connection.

Reality as a Dynamic Generation Established Through Choice

In the luminous field where analog and digital converge, Input > Unknown uses tangible physical phenomena as a metaphor for the operational rules of both digital and real worlds. Just as a subtle shift in the overlapping angle of polarizers alters light intensity, our position and perspective within the information environment determine how the world manifests to us.

The exhibition explores the power dynamics of viewing, bodily subjectivity, and the mechanisms of reality generation. In an age shrouded in data, we tend to believe in the objectivity of the images presented to us, often overlooking that the act of viewing is itself a choice of stance—an exercise of power. Dynamic Field and the stages that follow establish a field that appears objective yet remains perpetually rewriteable. Reality is not a stable destination, but a temporary phenomenon established under specific perceptual conditions.

The exhibition summons a renewed awareness of our active role in existence. Reality is not a passively received objective output, but a dynamic generation arising through bodily intervention and deliberate choice. Amidst a world increasingly sorted by algorithms, we are reminded that we retain the power to perceive and reinterpret—a profound affirmation of our existence.