Guns and Flowers
2017
Horn speakers, speaker stands, amplifier, sound, drawings
4-minute loop
Dimensions variable
This work examines the DMZ loudspeaker wall's transmissions from the South Korean border into North Korea and the bizarre sensation underlying the transmissions. According to several reports, the transmission of propaganda had been heard as far as 24 km from the loudspeaker wall. This action by South Korea disgruntles the North, instigating the latter to demand respect for its distressed soldiers. Furthermore, some reports quoting defectors state that the broadcasts were ineffective and simply annoying. The contents of the broadcasts included promotions for South Korea, the realities of North Korean society, weather forecasts, and popular South Korean songs. Many of the songs broadcasted are love songs, which are far removed from ideological propaganda.
I focus my attention on the fact that everyday, popular love songs here can be engineered for use as an anxiety-inducing weapon against people elsewhere. I also reflected on the mechanisms of listening: vibrating air is perceived as a tactile sensation with its source of energy working remotely to beat one’s eardrum—just as a bullet shot from a distance has a physical effect on its target. What interests me is the use of song as a psychological, auditory, and tactile device that reveals this sensory network by means of fear, while simultaneously embodying a contradiction between their purpose and method. This led me to consider ways to recreate this sensory experience through listening and sculptural methods.
The dominant frequencies of audible sound are heard intermittently or felt as vibrations to distant listeners. These resemble a dense mass or sharp thorn when represented visually on an acoustic spectrogram. I gathered the shapes that emerged out of a particular love song and used them as a basis for carving rhythms from white noise and pink noise. These fragmented sounds, in contrast to the full emotions of love songs, kindle a scorching tactility.
Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2017 SongEun Art Award
(KR)
2017
Horn speakers, speaker stands, amplifier, sound, drawings
4-minute loop
Dimensions variable
This work examines the DMZ loudspeaker wall's transmissions from the South Korean border into North Korea and the bizarre sensation underlying the transmissions. According to several reports, the transmission of propaganda had been heard as far as 24 km from the loudspeaker wall. This action by South Korea disgruntles the North, instigating the latter to demand respect for its distressed soldiers. Furthermore, some reports quoting defectors state that the broadcasts were ineffective and simply annoying. The contents of the broadcasts included promotions for South Korea, the realities of North Korean society, weather forecasts, and popular South Korean songs. Many of the songs broadcasted are love songs, which are far removed from ideological propaganda.
I focus my attention on the fact that everyday, popular love songs here can be engineered for use as an anxiety-inducing weapon against people elsewhere. I also reflected on the mechanisms of listening: vibrating air is perceived as a tactile sensation with its source of energy working remotely to beat one’s eardrum—just as a bullet shot from a distance has a physical effect on its target. What interests me is the use of song as a psychological, auditory, and tactile device that reveals this sensory network by means of fear, while simultaneously embodying a contradiction between their purpose and method. This led me to consider ways to recreate this sensory experience through listening and sculptural methods.
The dominant frequencies of audible sound are heard intermittently or felt as vibrations to distant listeners. These resemble a dense mass or sharp thorn when represented visually on an acoustic spectrogram. I gathered the shapes that emerged out of a particular love song and used them as a basis for carving rhythms from white noise and pink noise. These fragmented sounds, in contrast to the full emotions of love songs, kindle a scorching tactility.
Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2017 SongEun Art Award
(KR)
#1-5 Installation View at SongEun Art Space, Seoul (Photo by Jaebum Kim & YoungEun Kim)
#6-7
Guns and Flowers : Sculpted two love songs #19
2019
Horn speakers, amplifier, sound
Sound: 5 min (2:45 min playback, 2:45 min silence)
15” x 15” x 13” for each
Dimensions variable
Installation View at Visitor Welcome Center, Los Angeles (Photo by Ruben Diaz)
1 min 23 sec Video Documentaion