Ghost Out of the Machine

Ghost Out of the Machine is a group media exhibition featuring both newly commissioned and extant work of eight emerging and mid-career Korean artists: Heecheon Kim, Minha Park, Yunju Park, SANGHEE, Sojung Jun, TZUSOO, Chan Sook Choi, and Jihyoung Han.

The exhibition centers around extra large-scale media work and multi-media installation distributed across the largest South Korean international transit hub, the Incheon International Airport. Each artist comprises a constellation of internationally exhibiting South Korean artists working today in media art exploring the various and interrelated themes of identity, transience, migration, and virtuality in today’s hyper connected digital landscape.

The title, Ghost Out of the Machine, is a reference to the phrase “ghost in the machine” coined by the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle as a dual critique and description of the Cartesian mindbody problem. It is also a reference to the 1995 Japanese anime classic, Ghost in the Shell. Set in 2029, this anime portrays an uncertain future of cyborgs embodied by human consciousness, thereby blurring the boundary between humanity and the artifice that results from the technological advancements that figure as the material extensions of human activity and even identity.

The hyper networked setting of the international transit hubs of today is multi-fold: The movement of people and physical matter overlap with the smooth flow of logistical control mechanisms, commercial messaging, products, and even human identities. Data, energy, and even organic processes find knotted and entangled expression in uniquely focused ways at these nodes that comprise a network of global interconnectivity, both digital and physical.

Heecheon Kim (b.1989) introduces a newly commissioned work, Double Poser, produced with video gaming software. Previously having exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, London; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Kim explores the themes of compliance and trust as features of digital identity and interaction.

Minha Park (b.1985) shows new editions of her on-going projects Shadow Planet and A Story of Elusive Snow. In Shadow Planet, Park renegotiates the archival footage of NASA’s Mars mission, thereby highlighting the ever-presence of “phantoms” that lurk within the capture of data. Park has previously exhibited solo at Cylinder 2, Seoul and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

Yunju Park (b.1985) presents Epimongzero, a 4 minute, three-channel video of an architectural dreamscape exploring the themes of ritual, afterlife, and “place” as they configure in the conscious and sub-conscious psyche. Working primarily in digital media and simulated architecture, Park is also the founder of a media studio based in Seoul and Berlin.

SANGHEE (b.1994) exhibits Oneroom-Babel, a three-channel color video of 3D scanned living spaces of young Seoul residents. SANGHEE questions transience, belonging, and attendant human attitudes through the interchange between the digital and the physical. SANGHEE’s work has been featured by Ars Electronica, San Francisco and Venice Immersive 2024.

Sojung Jun (b.1982) shows Syncope, a high resolution video produced via an app wherein participants “propagate” digital “seeds” that grow into data-centric “vegetation” across virtual spaces, continuing the Jun’s interest in migratory patterns and its pace within digital environments. Jun has exhibition credits including MMCA, Seoul, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and MACBA, Barcelona and others.

TZUSOO (b.1992) explores human identity across artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and physical space through a multi-media installation, Dalle’s Aimy. TZUSOO is based in Berlin and Seoul and has previously exhibited at Museum Folkwang, Essen and Hessel Museum, New York.

Chan Sook Choi (b.1977) shows two works, The Tumble and Tumble To Tumble, the latter from her work as part of the artist collective, Proxymass. In The Tumble, Choi renders digital tumbleweed that that continues to tumble into a constantly changing landscape. In this work and others, the artist explores themes of narrative storytelling through the overlooked fragments of meaning.

Jihyoung Han (b.1994) shows the multi-channel video, They Cannot Touch Her. Han explores the physical markers of warmth, accommodation, color and even scent through seemingly inhospitable digital processes. Han has recently had solo exhibitions at Foundry, Seoul and drawingRoom, Seoul and has participated in numerous groups exhibitions internatinoally.