Abstract
The impact of Neoliberalism has created a complex relationship between urban and rural development in Taiwan, where rural areas experience a perplexing pattern of progress and decline, taking two steps forward and one step back, leading to some prosperity but remaining poor overall. As the population is highly mobile, the boundaries between urban and rural have gradually become vague; this trend has led to the neglect of the subjectivity and values of rural areas. Under the impact of this structural alienation and the imbalance between urban and rural development, the National Development Council defined 2019 as "The First Year of Taiwan Placemaking." This study focuses on Hengshan Township in Hsinchu County as the pilot field site and mainly employs Action Design Research (ADR) with stage-reflection to re-think strategy before each subsequent stage. The project invites local residents to participate in artistic activities with outsiders in Hengshan, with the local art studios and the Jiuzantou Train Station as the main base. The intention is to use art as a medium to summon, inherit, and transform "body experiences" from everyday life to unite, trigger, and activate the "empathetic sensation" of all activity participants, whether they are insiders or outsiders in the community. Furthermore, this study re-explores and applies local knowledge and historical memory to promote cross-generational, cross-ethnic cultural interaction and transformation and looks forward to the intertextuality of "local resources" and "cultural creativity" to establish a cultural heritage within a value-added symbiotic cycle. Finally, this study reflects on the aesthetic strategy of placemaking via transforming corporeal experience into artistic activities. The study aims to ignite the spark of "local vitality" and root sustainability in "local ability."