Taipei Operations (book and exhibition plates)

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The material in the 'Taipei Operations' design studio, exhibition, and book was produced in 2001 when Helsel (the author of the design studio, book and exhibition curator) was first introduced to Taipei. At that point the work focussed on 'how' one might look at the Asian city, and attempted to avoid the generalisations that westerners often make by developing, or designing, innovative design methods and observational techniques to counter this problem. The exhibition was designed to be participatory, whereby the citizens (perceived by the author to be the real experts) could engage with the urban design proposals. The work was revisited in 2011 at the invitation by the Nevada Museum of Art to acquire the body of work for its permanent archive and exhibit the work in a joint exhibition with artists working in the landscape outside of Taipei. By then, Helsel had spent an additional 10 years developing a knowledge of the issues and urban agendas in Taipei. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Helsel revisted the work as a historic document that was specific to Taipei, and not as a generic Asian city that was considered at the time of production. This new edit of the work and additional text cites the unique urban conditions in Taipei: of 'bottom-up urbanism', of user-generated design, of 'illegal architecture' and the particularities of urban planning regulations that allow these to occur. These new findings could be demonstated in the selection of the artefacts from the original exhibition that have been acquired. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The Center for Art and Environment is the first research centre and gallery of its type in the USA; its archive is accessible to researchers, and selected works from the archive are often exhibited in the museum in curated exhibitions. The archive includes works of notable practices such as The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), and the artists Michael Heizer and Walter de Maria.