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Whether a civilization ends in self-destruction or self-degradation, ruins, as evidence of the Dasein of the civilization, are concrete and highly interpretive. A ruin often reveals itself as a desolate and indifferent presence. Its grey appearance shows varying degrees of decay and yet it is imposing and silent at the same time. It is also contradictory and inopportune. It publicly displays all the past episodes, which are open to imagination. Why was the ruin here in the first place? How was its operation and order previously maintained? Who were once here? Why did they come and leave?
While the content of a ruin unfolds in front of us, it provide us with minute leads to put together the the broken pieces of the history of a civilization. Now we try to reverse the axis of time and extend our imagination and puzzle pieces into the future. As a result of history repeating itself, we would see the possibilities of ‘ruins of the past’, ‘civilization of the present’ and ‘ruins of the future’ on both sides of the time axis.
Human beings prize ourselves as the creators of civilizations. As the fluctuation of a civilization comes to an end, can we face the doom with the same spirits as when we first created the civilization, with our heads help up high? Or, are human beings bound to fail to fight back and become engulfed in the waves as a civilization approaches its end?
This documentary focuses on the nationalistic struggles and changes of modern Taiwan and its industrial civilization with international power wrestling at the backdrop. The documentary then proposes that the Taiwanese civilization would fall into a ruin if a large-scale industrial disaster takes place in Taiwan, which is used as an example to demonstrate and reflect on the mutual verification and comparison between civilizations and ruins. Its theoretical framework draws mainly on Ulrich Beck’s risk society discourse and Takahashi Tetsuya’s discussions on system of sacrifice.
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