Interactive, the combination of aesthetic view and technical practice - MiHyang Kim

Sookyung Kong's work starts from our trivial habits. The unconscious behavior that tends to avoid something with a keen edge leads to the more underlying question regarding human beings. The artist's sensitivity may attribute to the special nature that artists normally have: she has caught the aspects of our lives which can ordinarily flow so that no one could have concentrated on. Sookyung Kong has devised several digital equipments that can derive the interaction between her works and audiences, to have the audiences face the change of their mentality according to the environment surrounding them. Each of her work shows various responses according to the distance of audiences and the work: the input and output of the information is done by the system. The same purpose of the various responses is to arouse the sphere of our lives that cannot be sensed. Sookyung Kong's work is not a completed art work of herself, but an organic identity that constantly changes due to the participation of audiences.

The exhibition titled as 'The HABITUAL' is completed by the interaction among the computer's controlling system of her work, the artist herself, and the audiences appreciating as well as taking part in the work.

Within the organic interaction, human body functions as an important part of the 'Interface'. Interface is a sphere of a machine that contacts the human body: 'Interactive Art' can be understood as a group of artistic works that mainly utilize the contacting spheres, which is among the various ranges of art that make use of digital technology as a media. Sookyung Kong has expected every cause and effect and planned her work, but the audiences' movement finally sets the change within the environment they are exposed. Sensors enable the audiences appreciate and participate in the works, by operating as the sensory organs of the system, which makes the human body respond to the works. Outputs are continuously reconstituted by the unlimited circulating feed backs according to the results audiences' inputs. The creation within the boundary of 'Interactive Art' is to design the relationship between 'Objet' and audiences, which is somewhat different from the normal meaning of creation in art (Generally, the creation is regarded as a process of producing an 'Objet' consists of materials.) In that way, audiences not only appreciate the completion of artistic works but also share the process of creation. Thus, the interaction between audiences and the artistic works can be regarded as a new component of the artistic output, which can add aesthetic value to the responding environment.

To Sookyung Kong, 'Fear of needls' has become the source of her works. The vague fear toward sharp things is the basic emotion our body unconsciously remembers and responds. Like this, she creates her art works to think about human beings habitually living within the cognitive frameworks they have unconsciously made. Finally, our bodies are the basic frameworks that make us exist in the physical world, as well as the functional tool that arouse our awareness of the world. A face of her art work with a hexahedral silhouette is surrounded by elastic cloth. When the audiences come to a certain point, a hidden machine under the cloth soars upwards as if it pierces a flat face. Various physical changes according to the interactions between audiences and the works stimulate our mentality, so that they trigger the inner fear and objectify the emotion. The accommodation of the digital technology that alternates the two different attributes mixes the dualistic view of the world such as body and soul; rationality and sensibility; contemplation and behavior; subject and object.

Every facet of our lives can be changed to the information that is needed by art, thanks to the advance of digital technology. This indicates that the world we live in consists of formless information, as well as physical materials. New messages can be created according to the analysis and expression of artists. Among them, Interactive Art, especially within the sphere of Media Art, is based on human body and experimentally shows the way how artistic outputs and audiences; artists and the audiences; also the technology and human beings interact. It cannot simply be regarded as a way of appreciating artistic works that interrelates them and audience by contingence. Sookyung Kong tries to break down the boundary of awareness that is trapped in human body due to one's habit, which is possible since she has completed her works within the space where her artistic output and audiences coexist.