“Self-control Removal System” , by Chloë Cheuk and Liu Chang is one of the three commissioned works resulting from the collaborations of 3 emerging Hong Kong artists and 3 research laboratories for  Foundation – A Web3 Media Art Festival. On 27th May 2023(Saturday), the two artists will conclude their 6-month research on extended realities and contemporary art. In addition to introducing the artwork and creative process, they will share various interactive methods and narrative strategies of AR artwork.

This interactive AR artwork metaphorically represents the causes of school violence in Asian cultural settings and the mental damage that school bullying can cause. The players takes on the role of a parent, thinking about how they could use the limited resources at their disposal to help their children gain a bright future (to win the game), unaware of the consequences of their actions. The Lucifer effect states that empowerment and lack of supervision are the reasons why people become evil.This hypothesis overlooks a crucial condition, namely the depletion of self-control by stress. The wealth gap within the country elicit enormous anxiety in parents. Therefore, one of the primary source of stress for students is their parents’ anxiety over maintaining the family’s prestige or advancing the family’s social standing. In order to compete for profit or government funding, the most important goal of a school nowadays is to achieve a high enrollment rate in top universities. To stimulate competition and maximize the use of educational resources, school divide students into different classes based on their grades. Students with good grades are given many privileges and better educational resources, so competition for rankings in school becomes another major source of stress for students. Students are under great pressure from school and family. Teachers are under tremendous pressure on performance evaluation. These pressures constantly deplete the ability of teachers and students to control their negative emotions and unethical thoughts. When self-control is depleted, teachers and students become unable to suppress their anger and want to use verbal and behavioural violence to release it. They are unable to suppress some of their evil thoughts and impulses and begin to bully the inferior. The loss of self-control also reduce one’s ability of logical reasoning and self-awareness, so the victims usually ignores their pain and does not know how to resist bullying. Loss of self-control can make people selfish and unwilling to help others, which explains why bystanders of school bullying are usually apathetic to the incidents.

The work uses animation and voice to depict how students and teachers gradually losing their self-control. The voices are derived from web forums as well as interviews in psychological publications. When victims of school bullying are not aware of the accumulation of negative emotions or do not know how to deal with the accumulated negative emotions, they may unconsciously use maladaptive coping strategies: Bullying a person or animal that is less powerful than themselves, being submissive to the abuser, isolating themselves from social interaction, and practising perfectionism and indulge in relaxing activities such as sex, video games, alcohol, television shows, and drugs. 

由卓思穎及劉暢共同創作的《自控力摘除系統》為「未來史詩：Web3 網絡媒體藝術節」其中一件藝術家與研究者合作的研究成果。兩位藝術家將於5月27日（六）晚上在藝術節的平台分享他們在過去六個月以AR為主題的研究成果。除了對作品的介紹以外，藝術家們還會分享AR藝術作品各式各樣的交互方式和敘事策略。

這個互動AR藝術作品隱喻地表現了亞洲文化環境下，校園暴力產生的原因以及校園霸凌可引致的精神傷害。玩家扮演一個父母的角色，思考應該如何利用手裏有限的資源來幫助兒女博得一個光明的未來（贏得這個遊戲），但殊不知自己的行為會帶來的後果。路西法效應指出，被賦予權利以及缺乏監管是人變成惡魔的原因。這個假設忽略了一個重要條件，即壓力對人自控力的消耗。國家內部的貧富差距讓父母產生巨大的焦慮，因此父母想要維繫家庭名望或者階級晉升的焦慮成為了學生壓力的主要來源之一。 為了爭奪利潤或是獲得政府資助，學校以升學率為最重要的目標。為了刺激競爭以及最大化地利用教育資源，學校按照成績對學生進行分班。成績優秀的學生會被賦予很多特權並享受更好的教育資源，因此學校裡的名次競爭是孩子壓力的另一主要來源。學生承受著來自學校和家庭的雙重壓力。而老師則承受著巨大的考績壓力。這些壓力不斷的消耗著老師和學生控制自己負面情緒和惡念的能力。當自控力被消耗殆盡，老師和學生變得無法抑制自己的憤怒，想要用言語和行為暴力來釋放，並且無法抑制自己的一些的惡的想法和衝動，開始欺負比自己弱小的人。失去自控力也會降低一個人理性思考以及自我感知的能力，所以受害者通常會忽略自己的痛苦，不知道如何解決自己被霸凌的問題。失去自控力會讓人變得自私，不願意幫助別人，這也解釋了為什麼校園霸淩的旁觀者通常都非常自私和冷漠。

AR裝置用動畫和語音描繪了學生和老師如何逐漸失去自控力。語音的來源是網絡論壇和心理學文章中的採訪內容。當校園霸淩受害者沒有意識到負面情緒的累積，或者不知道該如何處理累積之負面情緒的時候，會無意識地使用不良情緒應對策略: 欺負比自己弱小的存在，順從施暴者、隔絕社交、實踐完美主義，過渡沈溺於令人放鬆的活動，比如性交、玩遊戲、飲酒、看電視劇、吸毒。

Artist Sharing 
Date: 27/5/2023 (Saturday)
Time: 8 pm HK/ 2 pm CEST
Venue:  https://distant.gallery/foundation-festival
Speakers: Chloe Cheuk, Liu Chang

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藝術家分享

日期： 27/5/2023 (星期六)
時間： 8 pm HKT
地點： https://distant.gallery/foundation-festival
講者：卓思穎、劉暢

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