Towards a Techno-Hauntological Aesthetic: Immiscible Time and the Spiritual Imagination in Bodyless (Shishenji, 2019) by Huang Hsin-Chien

This article discusses and explores acclaimed new media artist Huang Hsin-Chien’s virtual reality (VR) experience Bodyless (Shishenji, 2019). In this film, through the process of the body illusion or the body replacement program, a component specific to VR, viewers embody the soul of a political prisoner deceased during Taiwan’s martial law era. Bodyless juxtaposes Taiwan’s traditional spiritual traditions with references to the Ghost Festival (中元節) and includes a dystopic vision of the future that appears towards the end of the film. This article establishes, through a close reading of several key sequences of the film, the emergence of a techno-hauntological aesthetic. It creates a dialogue between Huang’s dream-like imagery and various interpretation of Bliss Cua Lim’s concepts of immiscible time and heterogeneous space. How does Bodyless visually enact, perform, and develop a techno-hauntological aesthetic? How does the artist explore philosophical concepts related to memory, time, and space by using VR?