Installation, 2021
Post territory Ujeongguk, Seoul
Chambers, installation view, Post territory Ujeongguk, 2021 / Photo: Byeonggon Shin
The project 'Chambers' examines the complex interrelationship between laboratory rats, wild rats and machine learning.
There were animals before humans and machines. Before humans created and experimented with machines, they used and experimented on animals. Much as it seems their relationship is inextricably entangled, they are, in fact, each other—partially or entirely. Based on this complex ontology, humans have inevitably anthropomorphized animals and machines to understand them and the human self, shaping an intricate ecology of empathy. This project examines these ecologies and aims to create a new type of nonhierarchical coexistence.
The project focuses on rats (rodents, generally). Within certain cultures and histories, rats are often despised and considered dangerous and harmful and are, therefore, killable. Conversely, in science laboratories, rats are one of the most popular subjects; they are considered useful, highly productive, and also killable. Machines, existing between humans and rats, play a crucial role in revealing their complex sociopolitical implications through categorizing and pattern making.
'Chambers' consists of 3 individual works, Bare Life(film), Arbitrary Radius Circle(3 channel video), and The Fall(Machine Learning generated moving image).
Funded by
Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul Metropolitan Government
Society for informatics(GI), German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Supported by
Air Rifle Pest Control, UK
Research inspired by
Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal
Science of intelligence, Germany
Arbitrary Radius Circle, The Fall, installation view, 2021 / Photo: Byeonggon Shin
Untitled, installation view, 2021 / Photo: Byeonggon Shin