Illuminating the Collections (First)

The film, “Illuminating the Collections”, is derived from an ongoing, long-term filming project conducted by the Museum, depicting how the villager of Huesio village named Fish, who has struggled with insomnia for years, utilizes various light sources to illuminate all types of museum collections. Hence, in this project, the “Sahel Rock”, accession number＃M-PRE0001, was selected as the first object to embrace the light. It is a rock sample taken from the bedrock that had been evaluated during the petroleum exploration undertaken by the Overseas Petroleum and Investment Corp. (OPIC) in Africa in 2010. Afterwards, it was transported by a tanker to Taiwan via the Cameroon–Chad border. Yet, it had changed hands several times, being acquired successively by national institutions and private owners; eventually, this rock sample was accepted into the collections of the Huesio Geological Museum. In the film, the crew documented the process during which Fish employed the B&Q 16W/F3000 light bulb fitted into the ELPA clip lamp (model no. SPOT BLNE27T-S) to illuminate the rock and then pulled an all-nighter to fine-tune the light positioning. With the feelings of tiredness and heaviness in the body, Fish trudged around the rock in much the same way as robotic motions performed; in so doing, he attempted to simulate the apparent path of the sun repeatedly, thereby embodying the spirit of ancient human migrations, during which archaic humans walked barefoot across barren continents.