The other day I found a flyer for an art exhibition on mechanical/conceptual (i.e. super modern) art, so of course I had to go check it out!
The exhibition was in Mullae, just a few subway stops from here. When I started following Naver Maps to get to the location, I was led through Seoul's steel and sheet metal manufacturing and wholesale district. It was so loud! Big, open shop fronts and warehouses and men using heavy power tools.
It was the coolest, grungiest place to have a dystopian-themed exhibition.
And when I got there, one of the artists was actually there!
Jong In Lee is a masters student at KAIST, a university in Daejeon known for its technology and engineering program. Jong In's work is computer-based and interactive - a kind of prototype AI that creates its own data (which leads to pretty white dots appearing on the screen and joining together organically). But then if a human comes along and places their hand over the sensor, their presence also creates data, and the AI program creates a kind of defensive wall of red dots to protect its pretty ball of white-dot-data.
A whole lot more goes on to do with frame rate and generations etc, but even with Jong In's excellent English explanation, I'm not well-versed in visual media art theory so I won't even try to explain it here -_-
First just the program makes the data. The data materialises from the two blue points at the top. The green point below is where human input would come in, but because there is no one at the sensor now, there aren't many defensive red dots.
Then, a human puts their hand over the sensor and SUDDENLY the program goes into defensive mode. More defensive dots are sent out by the program!
Then it becomes a big ole pretty mess, until the frame rate gets to a certain point and then the program just... self-destructs!
Then, it resets and starts again ^_^
Other pieces in the exhibition included this one by Se Hwa Yoon called 'Time Line'. At the top of the structure is a fax machine (really!) and at the bottom is a paper shredder. The artist sends photos from her phone to the fax machine at regular intervals, and the fax machine prints them out... And whatever was the earliest photo gets shredded at the bottom.
This piece was also really cool! Just a set of mechanical wings, flapping slowly. But there were feathers only on one side. And it was tethered to the ceeling so it wasn't exactly flying anywhere. But it was beautiful in a sad way.
The exhibition is on until October 16th, and the address is 문래3가 54-20, Level 2. If you can use Naver Maps, it will lead you right there. If you can't... here is a screenshot and get a Korean friend to come with you! (Actually I recomend taking a native speaker, because all the information about the art is in Korean.) Look for the white banner inside the doorway.
Also, although the Mullae Station Exit 7 area seems industrial by day, there are some cool galleries, coffee shops and food places tucked away. I highly recommend taking a wander through the neighbourbood. As grey and concrete as the area is, it is also amazingly green and colourful because of the effort people have put in to plant various plants, herbs, fruits and flowers everywhere!
