Yu-Hsin SU
Yu-Hsin Su, b.1989, Taiwan
Yu-Hsin Su is a filmmaker and artist. She produces essay films and video installations with a plethora of research and fieldwork to ponder over the complex intersectionality and interplay among humans, non-human, and natural environment and to explore the possibilities with critical infrastructure. Her recent practices have been closely associated with the political ecology of water.
Su’s Blast Furnace No.2 is a short science fiction narration based on a true story. In history, China procured an iron-smelting blast furnace from Germany at the end of the Cold War. A group of engineers arrived at Hattingen to dismantle the blast furnace and moved it back to Hunan. Su begins from the perspective of an unfinished science fiction left by a fictional translator. Authentic archive images and footages taken by the artist are juxtaposed to explore the possibilities that may be loosened in the history where the starting points of energy crisis and globalization were interlaced with political movements. If we see coal as the solar energy frozen in the past, altering the understanding of the scale of materiality, can we find the solution to the energy crisis?
The story of Particular Waters unveils the sought-after wafers manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). The semiconductor manufacturing process demands a huge amount of water, which requires particular treatment. Yet, where does the water come from? Who decides how, and by whom, the water is used? In particular, in the drought and border shutdown due to COVID-19 in 2021, Particular Waters connects the hydrological network of TSMC fabs in Hsinchu to the complexity of the global semiconductor supply chain. From the perspective of the female driver for water transport, the work seeks to explore the hydrosocial engagement and ecological impacts, along with the inquiry into the meaning of scale. This work is the result of a collaboration with Prof. Ya-Chung Chuang from the National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University. (S.H)
