How to Make the American Flag
This performance consists of two parts. The first consists of a video clip on the iPod, which shows the American flag and plays the American anthem at the same time. The second part consists of a photomontage of two flags: the Korean national flag and the American national flag. First of all, I divided the American flag into a 10×10 grid of multi-screens, and synchronized them with the American Anthem, which is made up of 101 keys, and the final key makes the spatial montage gain more contrast in order to show a more powerful image. My performance follows the same logic: When I listen to the American anthem, I try to play simultaneously the correct key on the midi keyboard. If it is successful, part of my Korean flag is replaced by the corresponding part of the American flag. If not, that part of the Korean flag remains. The performance’s goal is getting the perfect American flag after playing the American Anthem. To get a decent image, I must concentrate on holding the iPod hung towards the ceiling since a video camera records the part of the American flag in real time. As I practice the American National Anthem, I get an increasingly flawless American Flag, erasing my original national flag. This work juxtaposes practicing the American anthem with becoming a conformist to American globalization. In this work, the use of multi-screens shows my national identity and American globalization at the same time.
Diligent Typist: A Restraint Experience about Mass Games and an Obsession of the English-centric World
Diligent Typist is an interactive media, which consists of a Mac Book Pro and its keyboard on a white wall. The screen of this laptop shows nothing; instead, over the laptop, the screen shows the moving keyboard image by masking its backlight. Without any physical interaction, this screen shows a simple repeat image from left to right with typing sound. A man’s voice says, “Press big A, press big B, …” in alphabetical order. When viewers press the same letter, according to the man’s command, the screen shows the big shape of that same letter by using diverse letters, and this big letter multi-screen scrolls or marches across the image. Thus, each letter loses its original meaning, and through monotonous commands becomes a part of another, larger letter. This work explains the relationship between tiny screens and a whole image by using one of the most elementary factors, the letters of the English alphabet.
Finally, this political interactive media explores the relationship between the mass performance of following the rule and making an English alphabet letter. Diligent Typist reveals the bureaucratic tyranny in society by showing mass performance. Losing our identity, we rapidly devoted to be a useful part of a whole system. The devotion is based on the English-language system, and it blurs our national identity. We are just diligent typists.
Bio
Byeongwon was born in Busan, South Korea. When he was in elementary school, he used to catch a little crab near a river. He experienced with the natural hapticity. This is a fundamental idea of his projects with the theory of the phenomenological architecture. He studied Film, Television and Multimedia from SungKyunKwan University, South Korea. After receiving his BFA, he created interactive media and experimental films in the graduate study of Media Art from Yonsei University, South Korea. With the thesis project award, he also received an MFA in Digital+Media from Rhode Island School of Design. Now, he is pursuing his PhD degree, the Media, Art and Text program in Virginia Commonwealth University. Based on his interdisciplinary academic experiences, he creates diverse algorithmic films and interactive installations. He exhibited his works in Seoul, Providence, Montréal and Singapore.