AboutTAxT
About TAxT – Taoyuan Tech-Art Festival
Taoyuan City is Taiwan’s leading industrial and technological hub and has been ranked as the #1 smart city in international evaluations. With its unique environment combining culture and technology, the Taoyuan City Government launched the TAxT – Taoyuan Art x Technology Festival in 2017 to develop a cultural-tech city. The festival integrates multiple goals, including internationalization, local engagement, campus cultivation, and industry collaboration.
Since 2019, the festival has further introduced the Taoyuan Tech Performing Arts Award to discover and nurture talent at the intersection of technology and performing arts. TAxT is currently one of the few large-scale tech-art festivals in Taiwan organized by a local government and has become an important platform for cross-disciplinary exchange between technology and the arts.
Message from the Director
Amid the rapid evolution of technology, humanity’s imagination of “life” is advancing toward an unprecedented new horizon. The 2025 Taoyuan Tech-Art Festival, themed “New Type – Hybrid Evolution & Future Life”, focuses on exploring and interpreting the possible forms of future life. From robots and artificial intelligence to bionic technologies, the rapid development of technology is no longer confined to the realm of science fiction—it is gradually entering our everyday lives.
This year’s exhibition theme aims to provoke reflection: as technology increasingly approaches the boundaries of “life,” how should we reconsider the relationships between humans and machines, nature and the artificial, in the world of tomorrow?
“New Type” is not only an imagination of future humans but also a reconsideration of contemporary living conditions and values. As technology begins to participate in defining and evolving life, art plays an indispensable role as both observer and interlocutor, guiding us through the torrent of information and helping us seek new ethical frameworks and cultural positioning. We sincerely invite you to join this annual celebration at the intersection of technology and art, and explore with us the infinite possibilities of future life.
Message from the Curator
This exhibition focuses on imagining and exploring the possible forms of future life amid the rapid advancement of technology. It is organized into three main subthemes: Chimeric Cyborgs, Hybrid Creation, and Virtual Life, showcasing emerging life forms ranging from robots, artificial humans, and cyborgs to genetically modified beings, artificial intelligence, and synthetic life. The works reveal the diverse possibilities inherent in humanity’s creation and simulation of life.
The curatorial concept resonates with Henri Bergson’s notion of the “élan vital” in Creative Evolution, emphasizing the continuous generation and evolution of life and the universe. It also draws on Stiegler’s observations of the interplay between technology and life, highlighting that technology is not merely a tool but a driving force for the evolution of future life. The exhibition presents technology and nature, the artificial and the organic, not as opposites but as components of a co-creative, symbiotic network.
The term “New Type”, inspired by the classic animation Mobile Suit Gundam, symbolizes a concept of humanity that transcends existing perceptions. By linking philosophy, science fiction, and contemporary art, the exhibition encourages audiences to reconsider the definitions and boundaries of life, exploring the ethical challenges and potential pathways of future life through the dialogue between technology and art.
