PROJECT CONCEPT
Conceived in 2020, DOOM is a research-based creation project that experiments with sound and sensory experience, and is intended to develop into a trilogy across multiple dimensions. Its thematic trajectory is rooted in the long-term study of informational impact, sensory perception, consciousness, and philosophical imagery. Cheng seeks to construct perceptual scenes detached from linear time through a personal worldview and aesthetic logic, articulating complex states of engagement with subtle symbols and intense stylistic expression. The project begins with sound experiments and expands into text, installation, moving image, and spatial practice, reaching toward what lies beneath appearances.
As the prologue to the series, DOOME: Null Gods explores the relationship between the collective unconscious of humanity and the convergence and direction of digital information. Cheng posits that the greater the volume of information, the more pronounced the hierarchy becomes—minor messages are more easily overlooked, replaced, or ultimately lost within the digital sea. This ever-accelerating stream of information interlinks humanity’s collective unconscious. If in ancient times collective awareness was projected onto gods, then what forms of “divinity” might be generated by the collective unconscious of the present day? The project was developed during Cheng’s residency in the C-LAB Creators Program (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab) in 2022, and was presented in November of the same year at the Taiwan Sound Lab’s spatial audio venue. Drawing from accumulated data and personal records, Cheng reconstructed texts and images through his own consciousness. These materials were then converted and disrupted into sonic and visual elements. The work was composed exclusively for a 49.4-channel spatial sound system, using coordinated dissonance among multiple sound sources and timbres as its developmental methodology. The sonic dynamics and visual installation were shaped by the project’s text and spatial context, presenting the endpoint of collective unconsciousness as an apocalyptic threshold and crafting a unique sensory experience.
At the conclusion of DOOME: Null Gods, the collective unconscious condenses into a singular apex—an entrustment of the digital psyche. It exists beyond the limits of space and time, in a mode inaccessible to conscious perception. This prompted the artist to reflect on the nature of extremity and the boundaries it implies. Might there exist a state of ambiguity even within seemingly absolute divisions? Building upon these findings, Cheng began developing the next phase of the project. The focus shifts from the aggregated extremity of information toward the limits of existence and the non-absoluteness of boundaries. If DOOME: Null Gods concentrated consciousness into a point, then its sequel DOOMAIN extends outward as a radiating line—a trajectory emanating from that point toward the unknown. Within the phenomenological field of consciousness, boundaries intersect, overlap, reflect, and entangle, forming an indeterminate and ambiguous contour between states.
DOOMAIN: se(l)ves, the first chapter of DOOMAIN, centers on the exploration of extreme boundaries and the ambiguity that arises between them. Cheng challenges the absoluteness of borders while delving into the critical thresholds of extremes and the inherently ambiguous nature of delimitation itself. When a so-called limit is established, what reactions occur across shifts in perception, transformation of qualities, or changes in evaluative criteria? Does its delineation become clearer or more blurred through its very existence? Inspired by fields such as deconstruction and phenomenology, Cheng also draws from physical phenomena like double pendulum motion and electromagnetic induction, recognizing within them multiple entry points for philosophical interpretation. These concepts are extended into sound experiments through the use of acoustic interactions such as resonance and feedback, forming a practice that examines transient moments of extremity and ambiguity at the threshold. He considers the extreme boundary and the ambiguous to be two inseparable aspects of the same state—where one is present, the other arises. As such, he places cyclical and stochastic mechanisms side by side within the installation, using the entanglement of periodic and aperiodic structures to guide his investigation. Between the domains of physics and consciousness, we seek patterns from within the projected expectations of boundaries, navigating repeated circuits in search of logic. Constructed processes fold into one another. Temporal sequences and spatial quadrants become ambiguous, and the senses, standing at their intersections, deviate from themselves.
As consciousness expands outward from its concentrated point, the contours of extremities—boundaries, edges, and thresholds—begin to emerge. Jacques Derrida defines différance (a neologism combining “difference” and “deferral”) as the shifting and indeterminate transition between one thing and another, or between opposing terms. Not only is difference a form of différance, but sameness also becomes différance: sameness is the différance of the different, intellect is the différance of sensation, concept is the différance of intuition, culture is the différance of nature. Every natural “other” is but another deferred nature. In other words, “every opposing term is the différance of its other.”
While establishing the core concepts, philosophical imagery, and personal aesthetic, the DOOM series also extends into social and political critique. DOOME: Null Gods used processes and phenomena such as information, technology, media, and belief as its backdrop for reflection—posing questions on collective structures, the formation of self-awareness, and the potential bifurcations within current and future frameworks. As a transitional node, DOOMAIN continues this inquiry while expanding its scope to address industrial symbols, power dynamics, subject-object relations, and structural politics. Elements such as cyclical mechanisms, mechanical objects, image degradation, industrial noise, spatial anomalies, and edge structures serve as critical entry points into these inquiries. Through them, the project explores a suffocating sense of compression and extended pressure, articulating a state of purity and residue following the apocalypse of consciousness.
The interstitiality generated by différance is irreducible. It resists categorization, numerical calculation, and assimilation. Every difference retains its own spacing, its own interval, and this very inassimilability allows difference to function. It preserves the interstitial nature of things, preventing the collapse into closed systems of sameness or binary oppositions. Sameness becomes a repetition imbued with difference rather than a reproduction—each repetition is a first time. This kind of repetition escapes circularity, allowing the “other” to emerge continuously from within the same. Within DOOMAIN: se(l)ves, difference and repetition across materials become central modes of expression. In the diverging cycles of their respective différance, and within the fractured polarity of ambiguity, the work traces the extreme boundaries between material interstitiality and the existence of consciousness.
《DOOM》是構思於2020年，實驗聲音與感官體驗的創研發展計畫，將依循不同面向發展為三部曲。主體脈絡圍繞於資訊影響、感官體驗、意識存有與哲學意象等長期研究之概念，試圖以個人世界觀與創作美學循序建立悖離時間軸線的感知場景，以幽微意象及強烈風格呈現自身關涉的複態。創作形式上以聲音實驗作為起點，與文本、裝置、影像與空間等媒材結合延伸，通向隱沒於表象之下的未知。
作為序章，《DOOME: Null Gods》旨在探討人類集體無意識〔2〕與數位訊息匯流及導向之關係。他認為資訊越龐大，主次之分越明顯，渺小的訊息將更容易被忽略或取代，最終消逝於數位之海。迅速匯集的資訊將人類的集體無意識串連，若千年前人類將集體意識寄託於神祇，那現今人們的集體無意識又是否會創造出新的「神祇」？該計劃於2022年臺灣當代文化實驗場Creators聲鬥陣計劃進駐期間製作，同年11月於臺灣聲響實驗室立體聲場空間發表。他將收集與紀錄之各類資訊賦予個人意識進行文字及圖像之再造，續以格式轉換及破壞等方式製造聲音與影像素材，並於49.4聲道立體聲場空間限地製作，以多重聲源與不同音色間的協調與錯位作為研究發展項目，並依循創作文本及空間特性設計聲響動態與影像裝置，重現集體無意識作為末日的端點，建立獨特的感官體驗。
在《DOOME: Null Gods》之最終，集體無意識凝聚成為穹體頂點：它是數位心靈的託付，超越了時空間的限制，以意識未能感知的方式存在。而這使創作者開始思考何謂極值，及伴隨其而生的邊界，看似絕對的劃分中是否亦存在含混的狀態？他以此研究結果為基點，開始籌備下一階段計畫，將探索方向由聚集而成的訊息極點，延伸至極限的存有及界限的非絕對性和含混。《DOOME: Null Gods》將意識凝聚為點，續作《DOOMAIN》則是自端點反向發散的射線，向未知延續。其邊界在意識的現象場中相交、疊合、反射和糾纏，劃出樣態間不定的含混輪廓。
《DOOMAIN: se(l)ves》為《DOOMAIN》計畫之第一階段，主體概念為探索各種邊界極值與其之間的含混狀態。他對邊界的絕對提出質疑，同時著迷於極值的臨界狀態及界限本身的含混本質。當所謂的極限成立後，感知狀態的推移、質變及量衡準則間會產生何種反應？其分界又是否因其存在而更加分明或模糊？於解構理論、現象學等領域獲得靈感的同時，他從雙擺運動、電磁作用等物理現象發現諸多可以哲學角度切入之處，並將其延伸於聲音實驗當中，透過共振、回授等聲學物理交互作用進行「須臾的邊界極值與含混狀態」之實驗。他認為界線極值與含混狀態是一體兩面，其一必定伴隨另一方產生並共存，因此他將循環與隨機共置於裝置中，以週期與非週期相互糾纏的方式研究。在物理與意識的間距中，我們依循界線內可能的預想，在重複循環的迴路中尋找規律。被建構的過程彼此疊合，時間軸線與空間象限化為含混，感官在交界中悖離自身。
在由意識集點擴張，由點延異線的同時，界線、邊域等極值範圍輪廓得以形成。德希達認為延異是一個不同物到另一個不同物、一個對立項到另一個對立項的位移和搖擺不定的過渡。不僅差異是延異，同也是延異，同就是不同的延異，知性是感性的延異，觀念是直覺的延異，文化是自然的延異，所有自然的他者都是另一個被延擱的自然，即“每一個對立項都是他者項的延異”〔3〕。
在建立核心概念、哲學意象及個人美學的同時，《DOOM》創作系列也涵蓋至社會、政治層面的反思與批判。《DOOME: Null Gods》以資訊、科技、媒體與信仰等社會進程和現象作為反思背景，從中討論群體結構與自身意識於現今框架中及未來的歧點路徑可能。 作為此計畫的中繼點，《DOOMAIN》 除承接上述背景外，更將範疇進一步延展至工業象徵、權力關係、主客體與結構政治等關係的反思與對抗：以循環運作、機械物件、影像毀壞、工業噪聲、場域異響與結構邊線等構成要素作為探討切入點，以更具綿延注壓的窒息感闡述意識末日後的純淨與餘燼。
由延異所產生的間性，是一種無法化約的間性，也是一種無法化約的差異與他者。換言之，由於無從判定，每個差異之間都繼續帶有間距，每個差異之間都是不可計算、無法被歸類。正是這種無法被化約才讓差異得以進行，繼續保有事物之間的間性，而避免回到封閉的同一性或二元性的系統中。同一成了具有差異的重複而非再現，每一次重複都成為首次，這種重複不會陷入循環，重複也讓他者在同一中不斷出現。〔4〕在《DOOMAIN: se(l)ves》計畫中，將以不同媒材間的差異與重複作為主要呈現手法，在其各自的延異而悖離的循環中、在雙極破缺的含混中：劃出媒材間性與意識存有的極值邊界。
〔1〕「含混」使用之啟發來自於哲學家梅洛龐蒂。〔2〕此處「集體無意識」與榮格之論述並非完全相同，此處尤指「 數位訊息與集體意識」之關係。 〔3〕引用自《社會科學研究》2011年4期：《論德希達延異的非概念化解構》，余乃忠。 〔4〕引用自《論虛擬的悖論—從解構哲學觀點探討網路空間》，洪世謙。