“NIGHT SCHOOL NY INSIGHT” Vol. 41
Topic: “Reimagining Stories with Technology”
Lecturer：「Korea」Eunsun Choi
Host: Zeng Jie
Time：June 20, 2024（Thurs.）
19:30-21:30
Sponsor: UP-ON Performance Art Archive
Voice of God ( 2022 )
KoNLP, Animation generated by disco diffusion, Sound generated by real time vo ice cloning, Zine, Website, Arduino, Kinetic sculpture
“ As the moon shone brightly on a silent night,She sat in the living room letting out tears, sighs, and words no one could understand “
This work started with my grandmother’s story. My grandmother was obsessed with going to church. Since I went to college in Seoul, I had to live with her for a year. She always brought people from church to home. I hated what they were doing at home. They sang a song and prayed loudly.
One night, I tried to drink a cup of water, and I saw her in the living room. It was very dark, and there was only a faint moonlight coming through the window. She was crying and speaking in tongues. I was so scared and traumatized. It feels like almost a dream to me now. I cannot forget that night.
For many days, I have wondered why she was so crazy about religion. I want to understand her even though she passed away 10 years ago.
My grandmother was a refugee from North Korea, forced to flee to the South during the Korean War. She longed to reunite with her family, but her efforts were unsuccessful. She even participated in the family reunion program, which was a lottery system run by both the North and South Korean governments, but her chances of reuniting with her dispersed family were too slim.
In this work, I use AI to recreate the traumatic experience I went through, along with my grandmother’s fear of war and her yearning for reuniting with her family. Though this story is personal, it is one that resonates with many Koreans due to the country’s complex history.
Swing ( 2022 ~ ongoing)
Raspberry PI, Metal Chain, Metal Rod, DC Motor, Website
I have been working on an upside and down swing. The swing will be moved by visitors’ answers on the website that I created. I grew up in a rural area and there are a lot of ghost stories based on the school building and facilities. One of the stories was about the playground. At midnight, in the playground, the swing, seesaw and other equipment moved by itselves. And when people get a lot of stress they see abnormal things. I would like to generate the moment that people encounter what they have believed in. It takes time to figure out the system to communicate between a physical object and a web server. Later, I will make a more complicated system with many objects. And I would like to make people control my work anywhere.
I feel an earthquake everyday( 2017 )
In “I Feel an Earthquake Everyday”, a room-sized, site-specific installation, I invite viewers into an environment that allows them to experience my everyday train earthquakes. For my this recurring experience evokes feelings of instability so fundamental it recalls all the other anxieties, uncertainty and tension we face in our everyday lives in society.
It induces not only physical shaking but also the psychological shaking that we all suffer.
I once experienced a real earthquake. I felt it as more of a sinking than a shaking sensation. In this new piece I try to deliver a similar feeling by covering the floor with sponge material.
I have also installed LCD monitors that present current social and political issues in Korea and the US. These images are fabricated and manipulated through digitalization.
Some of them also depict my daily life dealing with my everyday earthquakes.
For example, while I am washing dishes or eating food, as the train passes, my startled or anxious responses to the train earthquake are recorded on surveillance cameras.
Other objects included in the installation relate to childhood memories that provoke anxiety and discomfort: a metronome associated with my piano lessons and teacher that hated, a Coo Coo clock that scared me – “the thought of a bird jumping out of a clock!”
A spinning Cassette tape player that is hysterically noisy has to do with my mother endlessly playing English lessons. Also included is a drawing machine that will measure the strength of the everyday earthquakes. The sounds from my apartment have also been recorded and play during the show.
Additionally, a personal microphone and amplifier have been installed so visitors can listen to the #6 train which passes by within a few feet of the Project Space.
Eunsun Choi
Eunsun Choi is a multidisciplinary and conceptual artist based in Seattle, New York and Seoul.
She is a graduate of the Hunter College MFA program. She is currrently pursuing her Ph.D at the University of Washington, Seattle in the DXARTS.
