How social media is used as art

The Seventh Seoul International Media Art Biennale presents media art that is approachable, accessible through social media


Media has become a very important part of our lives, but when it comes to art that involves different media forms, it still seems too distant to ordinary people.

But at the Seoul International Media Art Biennale, people may be surprised to know how much media art can seep into everyday life and how much it enriches our lives.

“People think media art is difficult. But if an audience realizes how it affects our daily lives and how important it is, it deserves much more attention and interest from people,” said Kim Hong-hee, director of the Seoul Museum of Art.

The 7th media art biennale in Seoul offers insights into the world of media art and how the recent technological advances have influenced the lives of people and art. It also reflects on the recent global shifts that have taken place as a result of technological developments in social media, including the Arab Spring.

“This exhibition will re-consider the social, cultural and political shifts that have taken place as a result of major technological developments in new social media,” said Yoo Jin-sang, the artistic director of the event.

The 2012 biennale features more than 49 artists from 20 countries and brings together a wide range of media art including installation, film and interactive media under the theme “Spell on You,” a metaphoric phrase that sheds light on the overwhelming spell of technology on people’s lives.

Of the wide range of media art forms, social media makes up a significant portion, reflecting the latest social media trends. Some works use the social media concept as a theme and some actually invite the audience to experience social media in an artistic way.

On the first floor, Korean artist Koo Dong-hee’s video film “Under the Vein: I Spell on You,” depicts a character in search of the origin of a small stream holding dowsing rods in the way that people today search for Wi-Fi networks.

But the character discovers that the origin of the stream is actually a tap controlled by a district office, which leaves the it feeling betrayed.

Akram Zaatari, a Beirut-based artist, creates a dialogue titled “Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright” between two men who haven’t met in 10 years that expresses intimacy and a desire to meet again. The video showing only a dialogue typed on a piece of paper with clicking sounds from an old typewriter seems to remind of the dialogues that people have on Twitter and other social networking channels without revealing themselves.

Japanese artist Seiko Mikami takes the technological experience further by installing a special chair equipped with a device that visualizes every movement of the eye of the viewer. The participants can interact with the 3-D space in the front where linear lines are drawn in real time as they move their eyes.

In David Bowen’s “fly tweet,” flies inside an acrylic sphere send tweets. They trigger the keys of a computer keyboard inside the transparent box whenever they fly over it. When 140 characters are accumulated and a fly triggers the “enter” key, the message is tweeted.

New Media Art Group project presents an interactive work that encourages the audience to express their feeling through Twitter and show their emotions on a video screen.

Everyware, an artistic duo of Bang Hyun-woo and Heo Yun-sil, transfers a virtual world into the real world. Participants purchase paint balls, which are shot onto a wall inside the exhibition hall. The result is a colorful painting.

The exhibition continues through Nov. 4 at Seoul Museum of Art and DMC Gallery in Sangam-dong. For more information, visit www.mediacityseoul.kr.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)