台灣史上第一場「小人國」博覽會
Journal
科技醫療與社會
Journal Issue
7期
Pages
125-156
Date Issued
2008
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper applies Bruno Latour's concept of translation to the grand exhibition held in colonial Taiwan in 1935. The author draws a series of analogies between the uses and arrangements of models in the exhibition and Latourian models of laboratory practices within which objects are dissolved, modified, rescaled, and staged. Once in the exhibition, the views were as if surrounded by miniatures. The purpose of translation was to interest viewers in the message encoded in the exhibition by the colonial government. While the Japanese authorities achieved a partial success, limits on space and resources rendered the translation incomplete. Moreover, though the semiotics of the translation permitted some viewers to grasp the delivered message, viewers from different backgrounds would have had different understandings of the ”inscription.” A close study of this attempt at translation and of its limited success shows that the exhibition was a field of struggle for seeing and believing.
Type
journal article