Unfold X - Shaping the Future
S-Factory Seongsu, Seoul, South KoreaCurator: Seungah Lee
Artists: Taeeun Kim, Honam Kim_Kisoon Eom_Haejin Jung, Jinah Roh, Log, Loopntale, Sanghee, Ubac Studio, WAYY, Jeho Yun, Inkang Lee, Youngjoo Cho, Daito Manabe, David Oreilly, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Iris Qu Xiaoyu Marc Lee Shervin Saremi, Moritz Simon Geist, Haram Kwon_Joonhyung Bae_Karam Eum_Seolhee Lee, BioMedia & AATB
S-Factory Seongsu, Seoul
Shaping the Future:
A new art ecosystem mediated by technology
Technology has changed and developed at full speed including the World Wide Web. It was invented in 1989 on the basis of hypertexts and hyperlinks to improve communications, and has created a new hyper-connected world with full access and speed for anyone, anywhere. Humans and technologies have evolved together as the former becoming more dependent and the latter becoming more indispensable with the rapid rise and development of information and technology. Technologies in the age of information are creating diverse cohabiting relationships with humans, establishing highly intriguing 21-century art and media ecosystems.
Shaping the Future stirs questions on the changing relationship between art and technology, showcasing unexpected “happenings” that occurred in the process of humans collaborating with technologies and the art capacity building a symbiotic relationship with technologies. How can artists surrounded by the technology-mediated environment co-exist and strike a balance? Do they welcome the encounter with data ecosystems organized on the basis of complex relationships? Will artificial creativity involving AI, ML, and GAN further boost humans’ imagination? Or will it make artists complacent and unmotivated? Will digital ecosystems grant artists eternal freedom without the limit of time and space? These ongoing discourses and debates on the relationship between art and technology, along with artists' concerns are still unresolved.
The potential of algorithms has been celebrated in recent years as a “digital revolution.” The logical and indisputable outcomes, including art, generated by machines have diminished the value of individuality, originality, diversity, and sensitivity that were sought after by the art world and have narrowed the scope of freedom artists can opt in. Meanwhile, the newly-emerged, non-human creators equipped with information and technology in the art scene are gradually expanding their presence. Now, the change of directions toward more future-oriented creativeness is needed more than ever in light of deep concern over humans in the digital era and, further, the survival and identity of future artists.
The exhibition divides into three categories according to key issues: “Data Fantasy” examines different changes through data in the information age and studies the role and relationship of creators based on data. “Uncertain Species” explores the entire process of art creation driven by non-human creators based on trust and knowledge. “Meta-scape” showcases the landscape of digital virtual space without the constraints of time and space beyond the closely-connected reality as well as forecasts the multifaceted and diverse spectrum of future. Artists fused the exhibition meticulously to portray the future that is sustainable and alienated from reality.
The technological environment in the information age explores a new deviation from time and space. It also shows both utopian and dystopian futures with the ceaseless generation of uncontrollable automation and data algorithms and the great uncertainty against the accumulation of advanced information data beyond the limit of the human memory. Thus, constant practice is needed to cope with unexpected problems and situations accompanied by the changing future. Taking sufficient time will also help adapt to this new series of changes as reflection on media and examination on technologies are particularly required for the art fused with technology.
The show is not a process of separation between utopian and dystopian futures by technologies, but rather a discovery of artists’ identity, ways of adaptation, and challenges and directions for new relationships through the world around them with the extensive data and research. Taking in the speed of the modern time is one way to enjoy our lives as we are living in an era of the unavoidable overload of technological information. Shaping the Future will serve as an opportunity for visitors to envision futures with healthy tension brought by different types of relationships between multiple media and technologies by relishing in the exhibit.
– Seungah Lee (Artistic Director)
Data Fantasy
“Data Fantasy” presents various experimental works of art such as data visualization, data algorithm and data science. With the unfolded potential of data, visitors can relish in the data space and different approaches for understanding complex relationships with the help of data ecosystems provided with diverse perspectives on data-related issues.
Uncertain Species
“Uncertain Species” introduces the compelling body of work practiced by new species including non-human creators. The artistic ecosystem has transformed to adapt to new changes with the emergence of the species, including robots. This section discovers how these non-human creators interact with other beings through individual artworks and projects and investigates the future interrelation between species and digital ecosystems continuously evolving and expanding through analog and digital communications, automation, and learning.
Meta-scape
Humans are no longer limited by the concept of physical space thanks to the development of technology. Immersive experiences offered by virtual space further make humans more sensitive and responsive. “Meta-scape” showcases experimental projects which lie in between analog and digital space through sound mapping and real-time, live-stream performances. With artworks leveraging AI and VR technologies, visitors can appreciate the concept of humans’ physical body, senses, and their interrelationships with a fresh eye.
Seoul Arts & Tech Festival “Unfold X”
Seoul Arts & Tech Festival “Unfold X,” a core business of SFAC presenting the current state of novel art creation based on state-of-the-art technologies, showcases diverse programs. It includes: the convergence-centered exhibition Shaping the Future 2022 where visitors can enjoy aesthetic views and senses, and Dialogue X, a wide range of lectures with guest artists and curators from abroad.
“Unfold X” presents the co-existence of mankind and technology under the theme of “the new art ecosystem mediated by technologies” through the exhibit Shaping the Future. In addition, Dialogue X and special lectures serve as an opportunity to define the meaning of convergence art as a tool for communicating with the world through voices from specialized institutions and organizations at home and abroad. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings rapid lifestyle changes with the advancement of technology, “Unfold X” will capture novel outcomes derived from diverse artistic experiments for earnest debates on the reality driven by such development.
SFAC’s Seoul Arts & Tech Festival Unfold X 2022, with the collaboration of House of Electronic Arts Basel (HeK), ZKM: Center for Art and Media, KOCCA R&D Center, Gwangju Media Art Platform (G.MAP), and Universal Robots, realizes the platform of merging arts and technologies on the basis of a joint collaboration system between specialized organizations and corporations.
We ask for your continued interest and support as “Unfold X” embarks on a journey of identifying convergence art, the subject still in dispute, to contribute to widen the scope of arts and to function as the platform in regard to the highly opportune theme of “convergence.”
* Seoul Arts & Tech Festival “Unfold X” is an international festival prompted by the request from the convergence art scene for building global presence and in accordance with one of the 10 core tasks of Digital Culture City by Seoul Metropolitan Government which demands the convergence of art and technology.
Unfold X
For the past 10 years, DA VINCI CREATIVE (2010-2019) has put a focus on expanding the scope of arts by supporting the convergence between art and technology. Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (SFAC) reorganizes its business as “Unfold X,” which aims at expanding the innovative convergence art platform through the collaboration between convergence art-specialized organizations and corporations. This has occurred due to the continuous request of creators and producers in the convergence art scene since 2020 to establish a larger presence abroad and to receive support. “Unfold X,” in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will put its utmost effort to contribute to the change and development of contemporary convergence art , uniting science, technology, and art.
Exhibited Artwork
YANTO - yaw and not tip over
Mobile App as Interface for Interactive InstallationsDue to accelerating acidification and industrial aquafarming, our ocean is becoming increasingly uninhabitable. Aquaculture workers and scientists now rely on genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and machine learning as potential tools to mitigate climate change. YANTO - yaw and not tip over imagines a speculative aquaculture farm 30 years from now, where artificial intelligence creates synthetic more …
Chengdu Biennale
HEK, Basel
S-Factory Seongsu, Seoul