José Vega

Date: April 24th, 2024, 16:00h UTC+2

Speaker: Yeseul Song, Assistant Arts Professor at NYU ITP/IMA (New York University Tisch School of the Arts’ Interactive Telecommunications Program / Interactive Media Arts)

Title: Feeling and Perceiving with New Sensory Languages

Abstract:
Can you trust something that you can’t see? When an object does not have a form but is perceivable, does that object “exist”? How can we collectively perceive something that exists in-between our bodies?

The current technoculture relies heavily on vision, and the dominance has become even stronger with the advent of screen-based digital technologies. On the other hand, our vision is limited—sighted humans can only see a sliver of the whole electromagnetic spectrum (wavelengths from about 390 to 700 nm) and most of the waves around us including radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, and “energy” are completely invisible to the human eye. What are we missing when seeing becomes our foremost sense in how we are perceiving the world

Since 2018, Yeseul Song has been studying the negative space of visual senses and creating artistic non-visual sensory languages that are imaginative and accessible. Based on her research on technology and perception, she has created interactive artwork that inspired people from all over the world. To name a couple, Invisible Sculptures (2018-2021) is a series of sculptures that can be “seen” through senses other than vision. Two Subtle Bodies (2022) is an interactive auditory experience where two strangers experience each other’s peripersonal space through the sound. In this talk, she will share her artistic research in hybrid and alternative ways of feeling and perceiving.