MMCA Performing Arts 2021: Multiverse

“The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries.”
—Jorge Luis Borges, The Library Of Babel  
 

Artists: Kwon Hayoun, Seo Hyun-suk, An Jungju/Jun Sojung, Kimchi and Chips, Jeong Geumhyung, Hoonida Kim

MMCA Performing Arts 2021: Multiverse is an attempt to bring in various forms of art and technology as a means of questioning and pondering upon the radical changes of today’s society propelled by technological development. By actively utilizing or critically approaching some of the latest technologies, the project will experiment with key issues of contemporary art, such as visuality, temporality, physicality, and spatiality. The six artists taking part in the project―Kwon Hayoun, Kimchi and Chips, Seo Hyun-suk, An Jungju/Jun Sojung, Jeong Geumhyung, and Hoonida Kim―will present new productions adopting various technologies; immersive technology (VR) that offers a perceptive experience close to the reality; robots that substitute the kinetic capacity of humans; artificial intelligence (AI) that surpasses a human’s learning and reasoning abilities; and self-driving technology (LiDAR sensor and self-driving algorithm) that recognizes the driving condition and thereby plans and controls the drive by itself.

This year, the keyword of the MMCA Performing Arts program is “Multiverse.” After it was first introduced in the field of physics, the multiverse theory, which postulates the actual existence of multiple universes besides our own, has become a term frequently used in science fiction novels and films. The theory’s supposition of every possible universe leads to the question of “reality,” and suggests a change in our perspective of the world. As the word “universe” already contains the idea of “singularity” and “totality,” the term multiverse is in and of itself a contradiction. However, contemporary physics and advanced technology reveal that the universe as we know it is by no means the whole, it is only one component of a far grander, perhaps far stranger, and mostly hidden, reality. Quantum mechanics provides an explanation for the possibility of a parallel universe, implying that identical universes with different historical trajectories can coexist, or various universes can overlap or be out of joint. Even “multiples of myself” can exist at the same time. The development of technology testifies that artificial consciousness (possessing a different set of subjectivity and perception) or a perfectly simulated environment (the simulated universe) are no longer absolute impossibilities.

Art is very much alike, in the sense that it has for a very long time invented multiple universes, experimented with the possibilities and impossibilities of new perception and cognition, and raised doubts about fixed subjectivity. Unfolding as monthly presentations of these six artists, the project aims to create a parallel universe in an attempt to summon the virtual to the actual, to reveal the limits of our reason by presenting matters that can only be perceived through sensory organs, to create a connection between different worlds, and to bring down the notion of “reality” from its abstract and idealist world to the concrete world of technology and art. The multiverse is a pluralist’s universe. Here, art and technology function as the joint that connects different worlds. As joints, technology and art will not only connect but also reveal the gaps between the worlds, each filled with its own deficiencies and anomalies.