Stays in: 2011
Genre: Visual Arts
Profile:
2011 The Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia and Film, Chung-Ang Unversity, Digital Art, The Doctor’s Course
2009 The Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia and Film,Chung-Ang Unversity, Digital Art, M.F.A
2007 Sunchon National University Dept. of Image Design, B.F.A
Group Exhibition
2011 Korea Science Festival, EXCO Daegu
More plant, More planet, Hanbit Media Gallery
2011 The Sociological Imagination of the City, Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON, Seoul, Korea
2010 The Return of Techné, Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON, Seoul, Korea
Ceramic art & technology, Yangjae AT Center
Digital Playground in Island, Digital New Media Center, College Yayasan Sabah in Malaysia
The Special Exhibition of Trick Art Works, Ilsan KINTEX Exhibition hall 3
Korea Media Art Global Exhibition In France, France Le CENTQUATRE,France
Korean Culture Content Global Exhibition, Dukwon Gallery, Solomon Law
Park, France Le CENTQUATRE
World Photonics EXPO 2010 GwangJu, Korea, Light Urban Living Center
Award
2009 Feelux Light Art Festival Bronze statue
Residency
2010 Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON 2nd-term residency artist, Seoul, Korea
Works:
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| <Pudding Building>, computer, arduino, webcam, DVcam, projector, gel wax, dimensions variable, 2008 |
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| <Record of the Capsule>, PCB, speaker, microphone, TS2, coinbatery, 100x5cm, 2010 |
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<Emotional Display>, Video Installation, 100x80x60cm, 2010   |
Lee Su-jung(Curator of Art Center Nabi)
"Do you know people did in the old days if they want to keep a secret? It is said that they went up to a mountain and found a tree to bore a hole in it. Then, they would whisper the secret into the hole and cover it up with mud. Then, the secret is buried in the bottom of the heart."
This is a line in a film, <In the Mood for Love>, told by Chow to Li-zhen. At the end of the film, Chow tells the story of his memories into a hole of a stone at Angkor Wat. The conversations in our daily lives are exchanged with a particular person. But, like Chow who leaves his secrets at Angkor Wat in order to seal the secret in his heart, there are times when we have to tell our stories to nature as in the fairy tale where the secret story is told to bamboo trees. In nature or at historical places, the people who have once lived there tell their stories to us. We also end up adding our stories to the place. On the other hand, the network in the cyber space made possible by modern science technology has created a space where we can bury our stories. We can get answers to our stories at a later time, or give answers to the stories left by others. Time delayed conversation is taking place among multiple strangers.
Record of the Capsule (2011) by Kim Dong-jo, is expressing the moment of such time delayed conversation. Objects with recording functions are lined up like small and delicate trees. As if you would jostle your way through a field of reeds, visitors can walk among the objects and when visitors press the button and record their story, the sound is saved with an image of the visitor as well. When the next person comes along and touches or shakes the object, it displays the stored image and plays the recording. The person can listen to the story of those who passed by before, and they also ends up leaving his or her image and story to another stranger. The process of conversation with unspecified number of people and time delay might seem like a non-daily event, but in a broader perspective it might rather be more similar to how our lives appear. This is because our lives consist of coincidences, past heritages, and remnants of people we aren't aware of, and we are also handing down lots of coincidental things to our descendants. The Record of the Capsule, like white and fluffy dandelion spores swaying in the wind is reminiscent of an artificial forest where secrets can be buried.
In another work, Signal Capsule, a buzzer makes a chirping noise like insects as people move through them. The interactivity of media art is getting a lot of attention in the art world as a new attribute, but nature is in itself a living interaction. In Kim Dong-jo's art, there are various attributes of nature mixed in the cold and hard machines and media objects. They are mixed with softness of plants swaying with the motions of people, silkiness of dandelion spores ready to be carried off by the slightest winds, and sorrowful sounds of the insects' cry.
The challenge of Western artists to create a phantasm reminiscent of nature on a two-dimensional canvas was completed at the end of 19th century after the creation of countless schemes and correction processes over many centuries. A lot of experiments and adjustments are also going to be needed in order to recreate the feeling and phantasm of nature in his media art. For example, in the case of Record of the Capsule, the ‘field-like’ space can be more effectively organized if the scale of the work were to increase. His study and experiment process of new techniques stands out as he worked on single channel video to media installation art using mechanical devices and optical fibers. I am curious to see what other new dimensions of nature he will display by combining nature and media in the future.
