ACT Festival 2018: Otherly Space / Knowledge

2018 ACT Center Convergence Contents Exhibition invited Abe Kazuo, an exhibition cooperation director, under the general direction of Park Nam Hee, and it was conducted under the theme of 《Otherly Space/Knowledge》 (2018.03.02-25). This exhibition asks about the status of our technological innovation and social change in the era when information, time and energy are almost simultaneously connected with the data world. These works capture and propose a third space that exists between sense and knowledge using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, VR, and electromagnetic wave systems.

<freedom village> (2017) is a video about people in Daeseongdong, UN citizens who have been constantly present since the ceasefire but have been institutionally absent at the same time. A 'town of freedom' was built in a place where it is too close to the military boundary, making it difficult for people to live in, but those people have hidden their existence even in the rapidly changing Korean modern history. The work is aware of the irrationality and contradiction of the world around us and creates a moment to look at the common life of human beings. 

Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and media artist Taito Manabe gathered electromagnetic waves around them to create a sensuous world with visual and auditory images. <sensing stream - invisible and inaudible> (2014) dynamically displays the electromagnetic waves, along with sounds, transmitted and received by wireless communication devices, Wi-Fi, digital TV, and FM radio.

<we should take nothing for granted> (2016-present) is a work that deals with various aspects of the military related industries hidden or revealed in various forms, and the present state of possibilities held by personal information, government inspections, security, and active civic groups.

<arctic perspective initiative> (2014-present) introduces the Phoenix Declaration, which discusses culture, ecology, technology, autonomy, and traditional knowledge for the Arctic Circle and Community Autonomy, which are the first to be affected by global climate change. In conjunction with the animated map and collaborations of LABOR B and API, the German design driving organization, the API Arctic Map displays API’s past and future activities and shows convergence points, interests and dispute points within the Arctic region.

Social Soul is provides immersive digital experience inspired by a question: how does it feel to be inside someone else's social media stream? Lauren McCarthy and Kyle McDonald have designed an experience that brings to life a user's Twitter stream in a larger-than-life structure where their social media profile is on display in a 360-degree stream of monitors, mirrors and sound. 

<tandem v2> (2016) is a software system where a person’s drawing input is “imagined”, interpreted and expanded upon by a computer to suggest an outcome. <tandem v2> can select one mood among many such as joyous, sad, furious, and dreamy, and various character types can be also combined with one another. The choice of a character affects an image to be created by the work.  

<flying pantograph> (2016) has a flying quadrotor (drone) with a pen in front of a remote canvas, which draws a painting in response to human hands. The work lets people overcome the constraints of physical space through a flying object that is run by the machine language.

<exhausting a crowd> (2015) was inspired by Georges Perec’s novel, “An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (Tentative d’epuisement d’un Lieu parisien)” of 1974, and automates the task of describing all events happening in 12 hours in a busy public space in London. It not only records the mood of a public space in the current society, but also shows a dystopian surveillance system of the future.

This work is a science fiction film based on the installation work of Japanese architect Ryuji Suzuki, Substance Enforcement 56: Mu Zeeum. The work shows how machines detect the material world from different angles compared with humans.

Ryoji Suzuki is an architect and creator whose works encompass  various genres including films, books, and photographs.

<our muse (see by your ears)> (2016) by Evala, a Japanese sound artist, offers VR experience only through sound. 

<womb of ants> (2018) is a multimedia work which shows audio visually.