[Student] [23.11.14] Beyond the Sight, Faculty of Global Convergence, Arts Electronica to perform art ①
- 소프트웨어융합대학
- Hit360
- 2023-11-20
The International Media Art Festival, ARS Electronica, was held in Linz, Austria, from September 6 to 10. The festival, which was held around the core agenda of the AI era, says that humans themselves need to ask questions about truth, ownership, rights, control, and responsibility under the theme of "Who Owns the Truth?"
Students majoring in culture and technology convergence at the Department of Global Convergence also participated in the Ars Electronica Festival and performed their own art to their fullest. Under the same team called Beyond the Sight, they were divided into City of Hope: Hoffnungburg [Kim Ji-seop (18), Lee Ji-min (19), Discord [Cho Yong-min (18), Park Joon-ha (Cultec/Video 19), The Universe Thinks [Hong Eun-ji (Cultec/Consumer Studies 20), Park Ji-hye (Cultec 20), and Lee Soo-min (Cultec 20). Students said they received a lot of inspiration and feedback from interacting with various artists through this experience. Let's meet Beyond the Sight, who has gained a great driving force in taking the leap to the wider world.
Q. Hello. Nice to meet you. Please introduce your work.
| | City of Hope: Hoffnungburg
Lee Ji-min: City of Hope: Hoffnungburg is an interactive art form that requires participation from visitors. Visitors measure their heart rate through a heart rate measurement sensor. And appreciate the virtual cities that are created. The audience's heart rate data is used as a medium through which the virtual city of Hoffnungburg is created and destroyed. In fact, it was designed to create a virtual building according to the heart rate of the visitors so that each visitor could build a different virtual city. We produced 3D works using Unreal Engine 5, and Arduino and heart rate measurement sensors were used to render data in real time.
| | Discord
Cho Yong-min: Discord is a media art installation artwork that utilizes projection mapping, objects, and sound effects. It is produced in the form of installation art as a means of effectively delivering messages to the audience, and video media and sound effects are repeatedly played in the form of loops.
Discord makes the audience feel audiovisually that an object representing the Earth is unstable due to the sounds of disgust and conflict. The sound generated by the woofer speaker shakes the earth-shaped spherical object connected by wire, and according to the sound, the image reacts as if it were covering the shadow of the spherical object. Through this, the audience can look back on our society and pursue peace by conveying the message that small sounds of hate and conflict can shake the whole planet.
| | The Universe Thinks
Hong Eun-ji: The Universe Thinks is an interactive piece that expresses the uniqueness of human intelligence with data visualization tools. Three data (average number of filament strands of neurons and cosmic giant structures, beta wave data, and voice frequency data) were used in the work. These three types of data overlap and change throughout the exhibition, including real-time voice data from visitors collected through the microphone.
Q. What message did you want to convey through this work?
| | City of Hope: Hoffnungburg
Kim Ji-seop: The main exhibition theme of ARS Electronica was 'Who Owns the Truth?' Through this exhibition, our team thought about the relationship between artificial intelligence and technology. In fact, I thought that the Fourth Industrial Revolution was an endless development in technology, and that the living environment changed rapidly as it efficiently handled vast amounts of data that were difficult for only humans to handle. Our team thought that only humans could develop technology, and artificial intelligence was also looking at it from the same perspective. So I wanted to show through this work that the full owner of this technology is human.
| | Discord
Cho Yong-min: Our team thought about what would be the biggest issue that people all over the world could share in common in modern society. Then, I came up with the idea of conveying the message that if small hatred and discrimination spread, it could return to a big conflict, and the work "Discord" started from there.
Conflicts on large and small scales have always existed historically, but in modern society, diversity and equality are especially respected, and conflicts between traditional and new perceptions are emanating with the development of the media. In response, our team defined the global spread of mutual hate and discrimination as the biggest fundamental problem in modern society and wanted to raise the audience's awareness of these problems.
Through Discord, the sound of hate and discrimination is shown to the audience audiovisually to shake the Earth unstable, allowing the audience to reflect on hate and discrimination and ultimately displaying the work with the aim of peace.
| | The Universe Thinks
Hong Eun-ji: ARS Electronica held this year's festival based on the question, "Who owns the truth?" Our team, who was interested in digital art, came across a public offering program held by the Department of Culture and Technology Convergence in our school. Since the era of Asian Super Intelligence (ASI) is not far away, we started brainstorming with the question, "Is our intelligence really special?" Then, I learned that the human neuron neural network and the universe's giant structure not only externally resembled, but also had excellent mathematical similarities among many natural phenomena, and I wanted to convey the message that "nature itself represents the uniqueness of human intelligence."
Q. I wonder if there are any differences compared to the work I've been doing so far.
| | City of Hope: Hoffnungburg
Kim Ji-seop: I haven't done many works to compare them, but when I've done them, I wanted to show the convergence of technology and art. In this work, I wanted to create something that develops the work by interacting with external "machines," so I made a production using "Arduino," which others may be familiar with. In the past, if we had manufactured with devices with clear usage and utilization, it seems that designing a machine to expand through Arduino was different from the work we had done so far.
Lee Ji-min: I've never made a finished work before. I've had a few experiences planning games and organizing teams so far, but I've never made art like this before. The City of Hope: Hoffnungburg exhibition at the 2023 ARS Electronica is my first work. Compared to game production, I think the characteristic of this interactive art work is that it was able to implicitly express the message I wanted to convey. Games and our works (interactive art) have something in common that they only work with user manipulation. However, while games are designed and produced to deliver "fun," I believe the purpose of interactive art is to deliver a key message through the display. I think this is different from the previously planned content.
| | Discord
Cho Yong-min: As our team consisted of the Department of Imaging and Nuclear Communication, we had experience producing many works such as motion graphics and movie videos. I've also worked on commercial advertising videos and music production, but most of them were for the general public in Korea. This exhibition at the ARS Electronica Festival was new in that it featured works with numerous foreign artists on the global stage. The genres were really diverse, and I was able to have cross-border exchanges by talking to high-quality artists. Numerous artists and audiences in Europe did not just appreciate the work, but shared and agonized over the meaning of the work by giving constructive feedback. In the process, we were able to have a differentiated exhibition experience that was not possible in Korea.
| | The Universe Thinks
Park Ji-hye: Before that, I only made works with class projects and I didn't have much experience in making works, so this ARS Electronica was my first step as an artist. As it was my first time, I was disappointed with myself because I didn't know many things and was inexperienced. Honestly, I still don't know what art is. I suddenly think that not knowing what it is will be art. I think when I came back to the text and felt disappointed that I wasn't good at it and didn't know, I rather acknowledged that I didn't know and thought about what I could do and what was the next step. There were many things I've never seen before, and I stayed up all night to make it happen, but I think I could see my limitations.
Hong Eun-ji: It's the first time I've ever been involved in digital art or creating exhibition works, not art majors. All they showed in front of people was pictures or videos edited for club performances or hobbies. But everything was a new challenge as I participated as an artist in a global digital art exhibition.
Q. Is there a memorable episode that happened during the creative process?
| | City of Hope: Hoffnungburg
Kim Ji-seop: Most of all, what happened at the exhibition hall was the most memorable. During the exhibition, the role of curator was also performed at the same time, but it was difficult to explain in English and a second language, not Korean, but the audience's position was similar to ours. Even if we didn't understand each other in words, it was most impressive to understand the flow of the conversation.
Lee Ji-min: I remember working all night at Hyehwa Cafe. There was a large-scale revision during the production process of the work, and at that time, there were signals saying, "Let's finish it even if we stay up all night." In the late hours, we took turns taking a nap for an hour to cheer each other up, and eventually we completed it.
| | Discord
Cho Yong-min: Originally, the concrete object to be used in the work was planned to be made using a 3D printer, but the professor who saw the plan asked me to make a prototype by the next day. At that time, with the mindset that the project might fail if I couldn't make a prototype, I remember using woodlock bought at a stationery store and making it by hand for nearly 20 hours. It was difficult at that time, but when I think about it, it was an essential process in the process of making the work.
|The Universe Thinks
Park Ji-hye: It was fun extracting EEG data measurements myself. Three brainwave data were used to show human intelligence, and beta wave data was extracted from five types of brainwaves. During the meeting, I recorded the EEG data, Eun-ji recorded the data when writing the book report, and Sumin observed the changes when memorizing the play script. It was amazing because it was my first time recording EEG data.
Hong Eun-ji: When I look back on the creative process, I remember worrying about whether it would work out as the first runner of Sungkyunkwan University and working in a hurry on Deadline that suddenly appeared. A fun episode was when we first extracted brain waves with an EEG meter. It was fascinating when our EEG graph was drawn on the iPad screen after successfully connecting to the machine. When I closed my eyes and was relaxed, I saw the alpha brainwave data go up, and when I imagined or focused on something, I watched it fluctuate in the beta brainwave quite interestingly.