SPACE April 2023 (No. 665)
July 2022, along with the remodeling of the University Cultural Center, Seoul National University established an Institute for Culture and Arts to promote the cultural ecosystem that connects creators, contents, and space. The institution with this aim held the first international symposium on the 3rd of March 2023, with ‘circularity’ as a key theme. Ten speakers, both domestic and foreign, shared their knowledge and experiences from across various fields such as art, design, architecture, technology, business management, and philosophy. From their stories, we understand that circularity will play an important role in the future of culture and arts.
ⓒSNULIVE
In Human Frontiers (2021), Michael Bhaskar points out that, ‘The progress of humanity has slowed down, and no idea is as big as it used to be.’ Coming from a consultant writer who worked at DeepMind, who developed AlphaGo, this claim might seem unpersuasive. However, comparing the past with today, many will agree. The Year 2000 (Kahn Herman, Anthony J. Wiener), written in 1967, predicts what it would be like in 2000, if humanity kept evolving at the speed it was evolving at. In retrospect, many of the predictions in The Year 2000 were far off. As Bhaskar put it, we have ‘gained a social network where we scribble 140 words, instead of flying cars’. As was made evident after participating in this symposium, this lack of idea could be the result of ‘limited resources’.
Lee Jihoi (curator, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) mentioned Kenneth Ewart Boulding at the opening ceremony when explaining the background to this symposium. Boulding was an English- born American economist who was one of the founders of the concept of a ‘circular economy’. He asserted that a circular economy should be the basis of humanity in a world of limited resources. This is still used as the key to sustainability in today’s environmental and economic sectors, and the term ‘circularity’ is no longer unfamiliar to the general public. Seoul National University Institute for Culture and Arts claims that the term should be used similarly in the field of culture and arts. In this symposium, circularity is scrutinised under three different perspectives (Nurturing Creative Minds, Socio-Ecosystem of the Future, and After Technology). The three sessions’ common idea was that synergy and novelty are created between different disciplines. This may seem similar to the use of the term ‘fusion’ that was once so popular. However, it is important to understand that circularity is a proposal for creating new outcomes by managing limited resources. It goes further than a simple connection of diverse technology or human resources―it also includes the conveying of messages to society through the arts, and the creative actions of the people moved by that message. In this respect, circularity may be the inevitable path for humanity in a world of limited resources.
Recreating Knowledge
The first session, ‘Nurturing Creative Minds’, looks at how creators, businesses, or organizations circulate to recreate knowledge. Compare ZER01NE, established and operated by the Hyundai Motor Group, and NEW INC, established by the New Museum in New York. NEW INC is the first cultural incubator founded by the art museum in 2014. According to Raul Zbengheci (deputy director, NEW INC), NEW INC is now an organisation of approximately 700 people who belong to and come from, and ranges over contemporary art, design, technology, etc. These numbers and diversity could not have been secured through a normal residency approach, like any other art museum. The secret is in the circulating operation method. 150 alumni of NEW INC participate as mentors to transfer their knowledge and experience. The alumni and current NEW INC members also collaborate in the preparation of exhibitions. In this respect, Raul emphasizes, ‘It is the community which brings NEW INC together, and creativity derives from diversity and interaction.’ The circulation goes further than NEW INC. In accordance with NEW INC’s mission, artworks influence the society by touching upon humanitarian issues such as climate change and discrimination.
On the other hand, ZER01NE has discovered and supported more than 100 creators since its founding in 2018. Approximately 20 teams are selected each year, through the criteria of diversity and openness to collaboration with other fields. Business sponsoring is common in the field of arts. However, ZER01NE is different in that it goes further than social responsibility and aims to promote the circulation of business and creators. According to Noh Kyuseung (team lead, ZER01NE), the Hyundai Motor Group believes ‘creativity’ to be a crucial factor in new business plans, and that this can be gained through cultural arts. One example of this is the IVAAIU City (refer to pp. 126 – 131), the collective group between urban designer Lee Agos Donguk, architect So Hancheol, visual artist Shin Yangho, new media architect Park Sungsu, sound designer Hiroto Takeuchi, and product designer Yoon Jiin. The Spot-Ecosystem (2021), which they collaborated on with Hyundai Motor Group, was initiated by imagining the city in 2030 with the question of how cities will look like with the advent of four-legged robots. Infrastructures such as roads exclusively designed for robots and wireless charging pads suggest physical changes to the city. The team predicts that unlike PCs and smartphones, which triggered the transformation of the virtual world, robots will bring forth bigger changes due to our physical interactions in different areas of the city. Noh mentioned that collaboration with different artists helped Hyundai Motor Group to gain perspective on how robots and human society can coexist.
©Daniel R. Small
Circulation of Resources, Human, and Issues
In the second section, speakers specializing in various fields such as food, design, architecture, and urban planning demonstrated how resource, human, and issues should circulate within each field. Jung Soik (principal, Urban Mediation Project) presented ‘Preparation for ‘2086: Together How?’’. Korean Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale (covered in SPACE No. 663), which will be unveiled on the 20th of May, ponders on how we can live together in 2086, the point when paradigm shifts are predicted. There are two large circularities to the exhibition. One is the circulation that occurs between the participating artists while preparingfor the exhibition, while the other is the circulation of issues between the artwork and the audience. With the exception of a video by Jung Jaekyung, a visual artist, the other three projects are each prepared by a team of an architect and community researcher. Through collaborative research and design, each team presents a future scenario. The exhibition will conclude with participatory games. The audience chooses an action to take in response to a question that appears on the screen, and the future is shown as a result of their choices. This will effectively convey the message that ‘choices of the present’, reforming our lives and thought, will improve our future.
Jung Soik introduced her own background as a key influence upon her work. Her activities in a wide range of fields (public art, exhibition planning, publishing, etc.), along with degrees in Architecture (B.Arch), Interior Design(M.A), and Urban Design (Ph.D) contributed to creative results through circulation.She also achieved her master’s degree in community practice last year. During her studies, she was able to recognize directions to improve education in architecture and urban planning. She believes that if curriculums of such studies focus not only on design theories but also partially cover social science and welfare, this will increase the possibilities of connection in practical fields such as urban regeneration after students graduate from university. Furthermore, she anticipates that joint studies with areas such as humanities will contribute to the expansion of the architectural industry field.
Fresh Stones (2020) ©Unmake Lab
The Sisyphean Variables ©Unmake Lab
The third session dealt with how artistic thought transforms technical practice. Visual artist Daniel R. Small explained ‘At a time when thinking holistically is difficult, the perspective of animals, plants, or even other alien species may be required in order to develop more ambitious and original thinking.’ His project, which explores ancient ecosystems with scientists at 5000m under the sea, demonstrates that this may be true. In the project, the scientists scanned dozens of emerging fish species on camera from the deep-sea Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). Daniel put this data set through machine learning, and asked the artificial intelligence to imagine and visualise what species may exist in these deeper areas of the ocean.
Choi Binna (media artist, Unmake Lab) made the ‘Sisyphus’ series, using broken stones as the guiding theme. A performance featuring the ascent of a huge sand mountain created by the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project like Sisyphus; The Sisyphus Dataset (2020), which documented the delivery of broken stones from the mountain; Fresh Stones (2020), which made artificial intelligence recognise broken stones as fresh stones; and The Sisyphean Variables (2021), a video that deconstructs the narrative of Sisyphus through GPT-3. At this time, technology was mobilized as a driving force for various creations. This last piece, The Sisyphean Variables concludes with a scene in which the main character happily dances around with a stone on his head. This scene was created based on GPT-3’s answer to the question of how a stone can always be at the top. Its answer was: ‘Put the stone on your head.’
There was a heated discussion of the technical advancements made by artificial intelligence. Lee Taekgwang (professor, Kyung Hee University) noted that in the past technology was used as means for improving one’s living conditions and was the result of craftmanship, by which he meant a mixture of technology and art. He argued that if we place modern technology as equal to rather than superior in relation to art and human beings, greater creativity will be fostered. On the other hand, Roh Soyeong (director, Art Center Nabi) opened her argument by stating that, ‘Technology is no longer weak. It is us humans that are fragile.’ At the same time, she expressed regret that the workof many artists using artificial intelligence does not appear to prioritise creativity.
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