Joowon Jung

For a very long time in history, art has existed mostly in integration with space. The concept of power diversifying from the royal family and the church to nobles and individuals, and the concept of owning and selling paintings began. As the canvas was created and the technology of paint medium developed, the painting was gradually separated from the space as it became possible to store and move to an unfixed place.

The artificial light has evolved into a light that illuminates the space and a monitor that contains screens and images. And technology has been developed so that people began to control light freely. A new form of art called Media Art has appeared. The first media art started in the monitor, but as technology evolved, it began to sprinkle out of the monitor and into space. Now, wherever light can reach, it can be a canvas.

What meaning does my canvas(space) have, and what message does the light that spreads there?

Party toilet

Shared studio does not allow me to spread or enjoy my inner abundance. There is no genuine private space allowed. Those who pass by me can easily recognize what I am doing whenever they want to know. And as soon as I close the bathroom door about 30 seconds from the studio, I find the narrow physical space quite emotionally expansive. The space that each person wants will be different, but the effect will not be much different. The reason for wanting such a space is not merely to need a place to hide or to avoid problems. Because such a space kindly explains; What type of person I am and what type of person do I wanted to be, what kind of emotions and qualities do I responded to, what kind of life do I pursue, and what kind of problems do I have.

I wanted to convey my feelings about this space to others. And, luckily, that opportunity came. January 30, 2019, Visit to StuKa fest location: Nieuweekekhof 34a, on this day, I found my canvas. A toilet in the form of an under-the-stairs attic, not a typical square type toilet, I wanted to paint this space with pleasure with colorful lights.

Light is a medium that cannot be defined but can only be interpreted differently according to people's mental philosophy.

As I thought the light was a good medium to transfer my subjectivity. I wanted to paint the wall with this subjective material to convey my meaning of the space and feeling.

A surrealistic existence of space, disconnected from the outside

Space is a place occupied to some extent exclusively through clear defensive means or some form of communication by an individual or group. Also, space is a cosmological image, which is limited by natural elements, and also acts as a boundary element between regions and zones. This domain may be limited by some human activity, or it may be determined by social conditions. In addition to moving from one reality to another, the space has a different meaning and experiences a transition in a space. For example, with walls, columns, and doors. If so, can you say that it is a space only if you stand on both feet? Or can it be called a space only if my body belongs entirely somewhere? Can I move the audience to another place through the two eye holes?

The starting of this work was from Theory workshop with Roland Schimmel.

When I first read the article, I wanted to research about why and how my body reaction doesn't well-connected to my brain. Reach to a question like 'Why can't I directly aware of the pain?'. There was a sense of shame, but on the one hand, I was wondering about, could there be several cases that deviated from this logic? Does the sense work at any time, simultaneously synchronized? I wanted to experiment in my own way. And is this experience valid even in a non-physical space? I wanted to create an experience without this other sense experience. Using the element of kaleidoscope.

* Originally, Brewster created a kaleidoscope from an academic motive to explore the reflection of a mirror from a mathematical and optical point of view. However, people were more attracted to the brilliant aesthetic effects produced by kaleidoscope than to hard math or optics. Thanks to this, the kaleidoscope has become a playful equipment. In that sense, it was walking the opposite path of the microscope or telescope. (David Brewster, a Scottish physicist, patented the kaleidoscope in 1817).

The kaleidoscope has two faces. One is the face of function (math). The patterns in the kaleidoscope are mathematically multiplied and geometrically distributed without error. The other is a cozy fairy tale face. The hole instantly takes the viewer into a fantasy world. A strict mathematical order creates a dreamy effect. This harmony, of those which look so opposite make, is the charm of the kaleidoscope.

I was working with a small prototype of an LED kaleidoscope. I do believe that the time of everyday stops for a person who is devoted to 'play'. The hole in the kaleidoscope takes us out of our daily lives and allows us to live in new time zones. The elements of the kaleidoscope are finite, but the 'situation' of their combination is infinite. I found that it is interesting that the separation of space can be seen as a symbolic use of time discrepancies. By concentrating only on the visual part, I tried to break down the boundaries of the notion of actual space that people have.

Then I came up with questions like 'What is a sense of vision?', 'What if I put totally different input to each of eyes?', 'Then, how does our brain interpret the information?'. My previous prototype was only for one eye, but I made another hole for another eye. My eyes and brain have struggling to digest totally new information and experience. It was a bit dizzy experience gazing both colorful LEDs (but at one point, I realize that my fixating eye is my left eye). The experience, along with separating myself from the kaleidoscope world to actual space, separating visual information from each eyes took a while to adjust.

Where did I exist at that moment? Was it in a space that I was facing through the hole? Or was I in the space I was standing on?