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PEOPLE

PhD STUDENT

SUNGBAEK KIM

Personal Website: sungbaekkim.com

EDUCATION

2024 MS Culture Technology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST)

2021 BFA Seoul Institute of the Arts, Digital Arts

RESEARCH AREA

New Media Art, Speculative Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Data Visualization

Sungbaek Kim, born during the transition from analog to digital, grew up as a digital native. Amidst South Korea's rapid economic and technological growth, faster than anywhere globally, and amidst its accelerating decline, he longed for the 'ideal' future brought by overwhelming technological advancement. In this context, he indulges in 'Retro Futurism,' a fascination with a brilliant but bygone future. This has led to his deep enchantment with Sci-Fi. To him, Sci-Fi is not just fanciful pop culture or a means to predict the future, but an act based on speculative methodology, creating futures by setting crossroads and milestones at the juncture of the present and future.

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He draws inspiration for his artistic creation from his childhood experience of looking directly at a solar eclipse, which led to vision damage. The act of trying to observe the astronomical phenomenon, which was beyond human capability, proved futile and resulted in him experiencing the strange and painful phenomenon of seeing the world tinted in red due to eye damage. Similarly, during his military service, he recalls spending hours gazing at the moon, falling into the illusion of hearing the wind from the moon and feeling a connection with it. He senses the extreme scale difference between cosmic entities and humans through his body, seeking to twist and interpret this perception. Therefore, he extends material interactions based on the body into space, within various philosophical contexts. His work aims to stimulate imagination about the future through the clash of perception and sensation caused by the scale difference between celestial bodies or astronomical phenomena and humans. It seeks to create a speculative space in the physical realm, bridging fiction and reality, and the future with the present.

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He is particularly focusing on exploring ‘emergent phenomena’ in spaces where context, data, and experience entangle and emerge in increasing density. In the context of emergence, he unfolds futuristic imaginations on various themes such as artificiality and nature, humans and AI, through Sci-Fi works. Ultimately, he contemplates the role of media art can play for humanity as a species. Since starting his media art activities with 'Digital Wonderland' in Los Angeles in 2017, he has participated in various projects, including the Hyundai Motor ZER01NE Residency in 2018, exhibitions at Seoul Arts Center and Osnabrück, Germany, in 2020, and his solo exhibition 'Three Portraits' in 2021.

Graduate School and Culture Technology at KAIST

Since 2021

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