Converging Realities: Navigating the Para-Real in a Digital-Physical World
Art Sonje Center, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Korea and the French Embassy in Korea, is pleased to announce the upcoming program, Converging Realities: Exploring the Para-Real in the Digital-Physical World. This program is scheduled for Thu. October 12 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and offers a unique blend of activities, including a VR Chat performance and a screening by Cade Diehm, and artist talks featuring Lee Eunsol and Gregory Chatonsky.
As part of Art Sonje Center’s Art & Technology Research Program (ASJC Research), this initiative is designed to delve deep into the intricate relationship between web-based visual culture and contemporary art. ASJC Research serves as a platform for fostering discourse and raising awareness about the nature of technology convergence art practices, often overshadowed by market-driven and capitalistic motives. Following the presentation of Michael Joo’s NFT project in June, this second event explores the connection between the emerging metaverse as a new production site for subcultures and contemporary artistic practices. In this dialogue, we aim to explore the following inquiries: Can the visual culture generated by the metaverse emerge as an alternative to underground culture that catalyzed new artistic expressions and production in the 1960s and 1970s? Do various metaverse platforms enable new artistic expressions in contemporary art practice? How does the operation of virtual communities facilitated by metaverse platforms open up new possibilities in contemporary art practice?
Participating artists in this program bring diverse perspectives to the forefront within the realm of digital subculture. Cade Diehm delves into the various activities of subcultures aimed at building networks and digital identities to protect common interests and break free from economic exploitation, all while observing the emergence of digital subcultures. In collaboration with the New Design Congress, Cade Diehm will screen their latest work titled “Together in the Wires: Para-Real Memory in Ephemeral Worlds.” This documentary film explores the influence the Korean influence on world design and community in emergent digital spaces. Furthermore, to delve into the peculiar and transcendent spaces that emerge at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds, the program will introduce VR Chat dance artists and performances. Gregory Chatonsky, a French-Canadian artist and the pioneer of Net Art, will lead discussions on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) as a subject of research and creative exploration. He will explore themes such as ruins and the materiality of digital flow and will introduce his recent work in Le Havre, France, “The Artificial Non-Existentialist Revolution.” Lastly, Lee Eunsol will present her recent work related to a character named Kimberly Lee, a virtual character created due to a hacking incident on her Instagram account in 2017. Inspired by events that unfolded without her knowledge, this project explores the complexity of virtual characters within the vast landscape of the online economy. Lee Eunsol has organized an online community to carefully manage and protect the digital existence of Kimberly Lee, presenting this ‘care-taking’ project as an artistic practice