Technoimagination, the theme of the Korean Media Arts Festival 2019, introduces to New York the unique situation and characteristics of media art in Korea, as a leader of IT, in a post-media or post-digital contemporary art era. Presented at The Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery (SWPK) are the exhibition sub-themes Technoimagination: Memories in Time and Space and Technoimagination: Living Data, featuring works by Chan Sook Choi, Yoon Chung Han, Haru Ji & Graham Wakefield, Eunsu Kang & Collaborators, Hahkyung Darline Kim, Beikyoung Lee, and Cheol-Woong Sim.

The Korean Media Arts Festival 2019 is organized by the Donghwa Cultural Foundation, sponsored by the Korea Foundation, and presented in collaboration with SWPK and Harvestworks.

More information online at www.kmaf.us

Space limited, RSVP required

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Presented in the exhibition Technoimagination: Living Data, Yoon Chung Han's Eyes is an interactive biometric data art installation that transforms human iris data into musical sound and 3D animated images. In this interactive installation, Han seeks to allow participants to explore their own identities through the unique visual images and sounds generated from their iris patterns using iris recognition techniques and sound synthesis. In the process, aesthetically beautiful and mesmerizing artwork, derived from the human body, is created through individual experience and multisensory interaction.

Biometric data reveals fascinating stories not only through the genetic information it provides, but also in its potential to explore narratives in relation to others, culture or society. While the body of biometric patterns provides a way to assess and distinguish individual identity, the techniques used to measure such patterns allow for standardization and loss of identity. Sonic interpretations of iris data could lead to new systems of measurement through the creation of one’s own “sonic signature,” possibly triggering new methods of interaction in the fields of art and science.

Eyes has featured in major international conferences and exhibitions including ISEA 2019 Asia Culture Center (Gwangju, Korea), ACM CHI 2019(Glasgow, UK) and Currents New Media (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA).

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Yoon Chung Han is an interactive media artist, award-winning interaction designer and currently an assistant professor in the department of design at San José State University. Over the past 10 years, she has created a wide range of interactive 2D/3D audiovisual art installations including biologic art, data visualization and sonification, generative art and audiovisual interface design. She earned her BFA and MFA at Seoul National University, her second MFA in Design | Media Arts at University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a PhD in media arts and technology from University of California, Santa Barbara. Han regularly participates in international media art exhibitions and symposiums including ISEA 2017 (Colombia), ACM CHI 2017 (Denver, USA), IEEE VIS 2016 (Baltimore, USA 2016), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany 2015), ACM SIGGRAPH 2013 (Anaheim, CA), and Geumcheon Art Space (Seoul, Korea, 2014).

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

DooEun Choi is an independent curator and art consultant based in New York. Choi has recently worked as co-curator of Aurora Biennial 2018 in Dallas, art director of Da Vinci Creative 2015/2017, and chief curator of Art Center Nabi in Seoul. Since 2000, she has also curated numerous international media art exhibitions in Kyoto, Beijing, Madrid, Geneva, Enghien-les-Bains, Istanbul, Montreal, San Jose, New York, Linz and many other cities across Korea. Choi’s previous projects include Han Youngsoo: Photographs of Seoul 1956–63 at ICP MANA (2017); Why Future Still Needs Us: AI and Humanity at Art Center Nabi, QUT Art Museum in Brisbane (2016–17); BIAN (INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL ART BIENNIAL), at Arsenal Montreal (2016); Mediacity Seoul 2012 Biennial, at Seoul Museum of Art; and ZERO1 Biennial 2012, at Zero1 Garage. DooEun Choi is currently working on Quayola: Asymmetric Archaeology touring exhibition and BIAN (INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL ART BIENNIAL) 2020 in Montreal.