Artist statement on DRAWING SOCIAL BUBBLE

2021

​

PROXEMICS; DRAWING SOCIAL BUBBLE is a machine-vision based interactive projection mapping piece that investigates the spatial dynamic in the age of pandemic.

​

The year 2020-2021 is unexpected to most of us. Due to Covid-19, we were abruptly required to readjust and rethink our way of living, and the dysfunctional spatial logic is one of the critical problems we are facing. For me, an artist who employs space as main medium, the precarious spatial dynamic in particular came as such a big existential threat. We are unable to stay together as we did before, we are prohibited to breathe together in the same space, and therefore, we cannot communicate with each other as we used to. We, as an individual and as a group of human beings, need to cohabit with space, and this simple fact has become doubtful.  

​

Trapped in-between the lockdowns, quarantines and paranoiac social distancing regulations, I desperately thought and felt that spatial dynamics represent the interrelated observations and theories of humans' use of space as an elaboration of culture. ‘Social distancing’, two words that have recently entered the global lexicon are not really new. In 1963, cultural anthropologist Edward T. Hall coined the term proxemics, establishing that the relationship and distance of human bodies to each other determines the range of social behaviours. In The Hidden Dimension, Hall emphasized the impact of proxemic behaviour (the use of space) on interpersonal communication. The study of proxemics is valuable in examining the way people interact with others in their life. 

​

Inspired by this study, PROXEMICS; DRAWING SOCIAL BUBBLE investigates how we share space in the age of pandemics. I employed machine-vision technology to precisely track the audiences’ location to make an interactive projection piece. With AI-trained computer vision, the work responds to the viewers in real-time and generates interactive visualisation on the floor. There are three modes; hopscotch, bubble and co5ntagion. Each mode not only identifies the way we communicate with space but also demonstrates how Covid-19 influences our spatial dynamic. I strictly aimed to premiere this project in the public space rather than art venues as I wish to share this concern with people, anyone who is living in this difficult time.

To do so, I designed an engaging yet simple and playful experience like a game, yet something that is thought-provoking. The large-scale wall projections and the sound even enhances the immersive feeling of the work.

 

Play with you and your family and friend, or with random people who share the space together by drawing social bubbles.

​

​

To read in pdf >>