Taipei City Government

You may find it hard to believe that this place used to be the Shilin District No. 5 Wholesale Meat Market. This, however, was merely the role of the chrysalis, and after a magical transformation, it does duty today as an upscale art space. The spankingnew Digital Art Center Taipei opened in June, 2009. This digital-media center is the direct result from the Cyber City initiative launched by the city government in 2004. The project completely overhauled the abandoned warehouse, a process that consumed six years and NT$25 million. In the same spirit as seen in Manhattan's famed Meatpacking District, new life has been brought to a former distribution center as a unique space for commercial/artistic originality and entrepreneurship, a fine new scenic landmark for tourists to explore in the thriving Taipei world of the arts.

The exterior expresses the quality of the center's progressive, leading-edge role-a sleek, post-modern look and feel in compelling bright yellow hue. The interior design, in turn, utilizes the digital arts in a fresh fusion of space for path-breaking innovation and the community environment. The first floor is an interactive space bringing together related arts departments at domestic schools and digital-arts creators of film/ video and other digital artworks, with an exhibit space provided to showcase the results. The use of the space integrates community resources, creating a boundaryfree relationship between creativity and space. Visitors will find that they themselves have been ingeniously made part of the display, making the DAC not just a venue for a display of a static collection but a place that brings its own inimitable style to the mix that stimulates communication and artistic composition.

The second floor is dedicated to experimentation in the digital arts; there are multimedia artists in residence here from Taiwan and overseas, engaged in innovative projects. This department is also responsible for staging the annual Taipei Digital Art Festival, and serves as a display showcase for the festival's winning works. The center's outdoor area has been set up to encourage the public to come and try their own hands on creating digital-arts; the enclosure wall has become a long-term exhibit showcase of the results, resplendent with projected imagery—the reason it has been given its“Digital Wall” moniker.

You're in for quite a thrill this October, when the center stages an enticing program called the“Magic Animation Video Festival,” to run from Oct. 1 to Oct. 25. The best and most renowned works by local and overseas talent will be shown in a unique presentation space magically sealed off from the outside world. The works are on a wildly diverse array of themes, and will be played consecutively in order to let audiences take in the maximum number of artworks in the shortest time. And perhaps best of all, it's free! What better fun could be had than such a free-wheeling shuttle between reality and illusion as this!? Come to the wonder-full DAC for a brand-new taste of magic and art.