Thinking of the stars

13.5 x 13.5 x 13.5 inches / each piece (Various and Adjustable)

Analog Portable TV, 1.5” LCD Screen, Micro SD Card, Raspberry Pi, Stand, LED, E-Parts, USB Power Adapter + NFT Art from the Internet

2021

When I came to New York City in 2008, it was a year before the broadcast transmission system went digital in the U.S.A. Since then, I have observed lots of abandoned technology, including analogue TV, which was expensive and the icon of new technology in the period of Nam June Paik, on the street. With my artistic practice, not only did I want to give them new life, as a form of artwork, but I also want to talk about the direction of technological development, sustainability, and probability.

Everything is going digital in our lives. I am looking for an invisible, formless creature born out of a gap of radical change. I call it, Digital Being, some of them work interactively and some of them are randomly working based on the characteristic and the original function of the machine.

Digital Being: Thinking of the Stars, a pile of digital code merges from abandoned technologies to be born into a new life. The beings think about Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? imagining the sun, planets, and the tele-stars. The spinning stars on the screen are streamed over the internet from the NFT collection (https://opensea.io/collection/thinking-of-the-stars) like a new soul of the old abandoned machine. With NFT technology each one has a unique identity, and they can float and coexist between the physical and virtual worlds. With NFT and IPFS(Interplanetary File System) technology, the creatures will live with us forever. Through my artwork, Digital Being, I hope to invite you to a world beyond human-centered thinking.

I have been working as one of technicians who is maintaining Nam June Paik's artwork in New York City. I believe NFT and IPFS can be good solutions in the software part of the video art restoration, so I want to share the idea through my artwork, too.

Reference books: being digital - Nicholas Negroponte // Out of Control - Kevin Kelly // The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil // SAPIENS - Yuval Noah Harari

Shown at the group show, “Resurgence” curated by Clayton Calvert & Parker Calvert at NYC Culture Club located in The Oculus WTC.

Featured at Artnet // ArtDaily // New York YIMBY // SIGGRAPH Asia 2022

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