本作品以推測設計（批判式設計）為出發，探究對於生物階級的期盼與想像：「吃狗肉比起吃豬肉，更是一件不合理的事嗎？」因物種差異而決定個體價值的思想，其實就是物種歧視。
「Electreatment」是一組虐待原生動物草履蟲的水體電擊裝置，而原生動物是被科學家定義為物種之中最低等的動物。利用具舒壓功能的橡皮球觸發進而電擊，以遊戲的歡樂反差來突顯其娛樂特性，同時掩飾其電擊生物殘忍的本質。我們以遊戲體驗的方式打造：若感測器感應到小鋼球被投進圓管後，將觸發電擊而達成虐待。這樣的行為之於肉眼看不見的原生動物是否無傷大雅？那麼以相同的手段對待魚類、家畜、甚至人類呢？「在思考與現實間的斷裂之處，都是有血有肉的生命。」
裝置放在血肉模糊的豬肉攤前，乍看略顯微不足道；令人上癮的投球遊戲掩飾著電虐的機制，相較正在毫無忌諱切剁的那把刀，其實並無差別。
Electreatment was based on the speculative design theory (Dunne & Raby, 2013), bringing human’s expectation and supposition of speciesism on the table. The notion that individual values are determined by their species categories is actually speciesism, a form of discrimination based on species membership. So, Electreatment aimed to raise people’s awareness and hence probed into a rather philosophical question: Is dog meat consumption more unreasonable than pork consumption?
Electreatment is a set of electric shock devices in the water that irritates protozoans which are defined by scientists as the lowest ranking animals in the animal hierarchy. The electric shocks are achieved through people squeezing a soft and relaxing rubber ball. People may find it entertaining to play with the rubber ball; the cruelty of electrifying protozoans would then lose track.
Electreatment is designed based on the ideas of Chinese toys or children’s games, and is accessed through gaming experience: when the small steel ball in Electreatment is thrown into the tube and sensed by the sensor, it will trigger an electric shock and achieve the process of irritation. Is the behavior to irritate those invisible protozoans innocuous to us? What about the same practice of irritation through electric shocks on fish, livestock, and even human beings?
We expect to make the public contemplate upon the moral bottom lines and the contradiction of biological classification system. People can freely categorize whether Electreatment is a toy or a torture tool.
“This would put people into a scenario when all cruel behaviors are sugarcoated with frolics and banter. Most of us are unaware of how our behaviors affect other creatures in daily lives just like we are squeezing the rubber ball.”
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謝采樺 林奕儒,《電擊原生動物之裝置Electreatment》,
互動裝置, 2020
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指導 何樵暐
總召 梁容輝
程式 張哲瑋 陳彥家
攝影協力 王新媛 涂靜林
特別感謝 林鴻叡 張喬 鍾官諭 施皇旭 黃端亭 顏冠睿