[Apr. 29-May 10] Seven Futures by Taeyoon Choi and Christine Sun Kim

Harvestworks in partnership with the Downtown Arts Culture Walk will present Seven Futures by Taeyoon Choi and Christine Sun Kim. For this installation, the artists came up with seven potential futures and gave form to them as wind chimes with electronics and motors.  As each wind chime creates sound in various speeds, they will gradually become one collective and intersectional future, in both controlled and abstract senses.  For this installation, Taeyoon Choi will install the wind chimes and drawings.

In the traditional sense of time, a bell-ringer notifies the hour of the day and notifies people to attend religious or public services. In a different sense of time, the wind chimes make the passing of time noticeable. It renders time as abstract rather than a series of numeric marks. However, contemporary time is now controlled by Network Time Protocol (in other words, the Internet time) which synchronize the clocks of computers and phones around the world. This time is the new territory that constructs our sense of place. The concept of Future has become the perpetual Present.

Artists’ notes

Christine Sun Kim and Taeyoon Choi (we) created seven wind chimes in the summer of 2016 for a lecture – performance Future Proof. We collaborated in conceptualizing the piece, Christine took the leadership in designing the wind chimes and Taeyoon focused on the software and hardware. We worked with Small Studio Semi to fabricate the wind chimes in Seoul. The performance was a commentary on the concepts of technological future. Each time we completed one of the seven chapters, we activated an additional wind chime. We also invited the audience to activate the wind chimes by connecting white strings across the gallery space. During an hour-long performance, we were able to stimulate sensorial experience though text on the screen (in English and Korean), Korean and American Sign Languages and movement and sound of the wind chimes.

In Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York, we are presenting the wind chimes as part of an installation titled Seven Futures. The installation is intended to slow down the viewer’s sense of time. Slowness comes in a mix of calmness and anticipation. Slowness opens a chance to notice the subtleties in desynchronization and discordance. One of the seven wind chimes is installed in Christine’s studio in Berlin at the moment. Instead of the missing wind chime, Taeyoon’s pen plotter drawing of binary numbers that represent ‘Absence’ is taking place. There is a small painting by Taeyoon based on the inner workings of software. Each floor in the architecture depicts ‘classes’, as in object-oriented programming, which controls the wind chimes simultaneously.

We recommend viewers to find a comfortable place, relax and think about their time and language. The movement of the wind chime is as important as the sound, the sound is simply a manifestation of the movement. Each wind chime operates in different speed with a distinct intervals, increments, and range of randomness. The self-regulating systems in the piece do not attempt to mimic nature. Instead, it an exercise in creating a multiplicity of time through chance and repetition. For us, this installation is an attempt to give form to multiple senses of future. This exhibition is space for people to come together and form a community. We may have nothing in common, but our sensitivity to time.

Credit

Taeyoon Choi and Christine Sun Kim

Future Proof was commissioned by SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2016

Video by Raya and Yonggi Joe, Edited by Thomas Dexter

Wind chimes fabricated by Small Studio Semi, Fletcher Bach and Gwylim Johnstone