Taoist Corporeal Map

2020

“Religion is not always a force on belief, but it is always about the formulation and the materiality.”


 “煉度”(Lian-du) is a taoist meditation technique for the salvation of lost souls. It is divided into two kinds of practices of meditation. “內煉” is the individual meditation, while “外煉” means the ritual that is performed in public and on a collective basis. These two practices are combined to achieve the unity of both inner and outer space. The principle of “內煉” is to imagine the body as a universe and to assign different facilities to body parts and organs. While meditating, one tries to bring the lost soul through the body to reach the “jade clarity”. “外煉” materialise this process, and forms it into a performance in actual space.

These two practices are perfectly unified through the correspondence of the two spaces (an imagined vs. an actual one). Yet everyone who mediates has their own map of inner universe. While there are very specific names of each apparatus in the corporeal landmarks, no one’s travel would be the same. This made me into visualising the inner universe with my imagination, and into bringing the ineffable experience to our eyes and ears.

This work is chosen for a duo-exhibition took place at Space101 in Rotterdam. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/864188610706502/

framework

work developed in the class Interactive Media Design taught by Jakob Schlötter