You Jin Chung's Dead Wood

You Jin Chung's exhibition, entitled “Dead Wood”, was inspired by a quote from the Chinese Philosopher Laozi. The show is centred around the concept of how society judges an object’s usefulness. It includes a kinetic sculpture and a video game, the latter was particularly inspiring in my case.

Untitled Kinetic Sculpture Featured at Exhibition

The untitled video game is of the first-person exploration/sandbox genre. The player is placed in a monochromatic world populated by objects which can only be described as amalgamations of organic and inorganic creatures. An example of said creature can be seen in the photo attached below. Furthermore, it was evident that the creatures were designed to violate the golden ratio, making them look even more jarring to the observer. In addition, the landscape is depicted with dark colors, giving the virtual world an eerie vibe. However, the most noteworthy part of the exhibit was when players try to interact with any object. Doing so, resulted in the destruction of said object. Additionally, the demise of any object impacted the virtual world, with the color tone of the world shifting towards magenta, a color associated with glitches. Moreover, the game would also start to purposefully glitch out, with the screen distorting. Upon the destruction of all objects, the game would crash entirely and restart. 

Objects Featured in Interactive Exhibit

The cyborg like objects in the video game reminds me of artificial intelligence and robots. Given the recent advancements in robotics, androids that were once a figment of imagination are starting to become reality. Ergo, questions like robot rights and what defines humanity are going to need answers as we face the brave new world of androids. This idea has been explored in multiple works of art like “I-Robot” or “Ex Machina”, each with their own take on robots and their role in society. Personally, I think anything that is self-aware should be granted rights and be treated accordingly. Moreover, views posed by Mr. Benjamin Walter, in his book entitled "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" will become increasingly relevant. If the androids were to produce unique art works, would it be fair to recognize it as such. In which case to whom should the art piece be credited to, the android or its programmer. More importantly, if the android is able to continuously produce unique art pieces based off predefined code, would that lead to a loss in originality and hence a stagnation of the field of art? Such questions will certainly end up as talking points as artificial intelligence progresses. Nevertheless, one should watch the progress of the field of robotics keenly as its impact will reverberate through society. 

In my opinion, Ms. Chung’s interactive exhibit highlights the destructive tenancies of humanity. As a society, we classify everything base on their usefulness. Our ability to shape our surroundings means that we often manipulate objects to suit our wants and needs without considering their purpose. An apt example would be how early settlers in the United States of Americas build roads and carved out trees in many of the now treasured national parks. However, this behaviour is not limited to just natural surroundings. Growing up in Singapore, an undeniably materialistic society, art is considered a hobby and never a career. Given that the sciences often produce tangible results while arts are usually confined in the intangible domain, many perceive art to be useless and non-contributing. Thankfully, public perception is changing in part due to the government’s effort to promote the art scene in Singapore. 

In relation to our class, the show highlights how our modern society is obsessed with usefulness. It also serves as an example of how science is expanding the medium in which art is created and delivered. In addition, the exhibit is testimony of how artist use math in their art, as the code behind the video game is based off logical structures encompassed by the field of mathematics. 

Group Photo Featuring Artist You Jin Chung (2nd from the left) with fellow DESMA 9 students

Event Web Link:
https://dma.ucla.edu/events/calendar/?ID=1003

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