Thunder Concurrency
This work constitutes an exploration into the holistic perception of thunder as a singular entity, beyond the conventional understanding of its constituent elements. Specifically, it endeavors to examine the concurrent apprehension of thunder occurrences worldwide.
The installation comprises nine metal plates similar to a specialized percussive instrument known as a thunder sheet. The left section corresponds to the Asian region, the middle section to Europe/Africa, and the right section to the Americas.
Real-time climate data streams are employed to synchronize the installation with global lightning activity. Upon the occurrence of a lightning strike on Earth, the corresponding section of the installation emits a synchronized flash of light. Following a short length of delay, one of the three metal plates within the corresponding geographical grouping vibrates, producing a nuanced thunder sound.
The artist's fascination with the dramatic atmosphere generated by the sound of thunder and the phenomenon of lightning started in his childhood. However, his appreciation for thunder remains grounded in its entertainment value, devoid of any worship or fear as a supernatural phenomenon, in contrast to the practices of primitive men. This alignment with the evolving cognitive capabilities of humanity has transformed the perception of thunder from a mystical occurrence to a comprehensible and non-supernatural phenomenon.
He posits that, akin to historical shifts in perception, future advancements in human sensory augmentation through technological progress may prompt a paradigmatic change in the understanding of thunder. This work, therefore, serves as an inquiry into whether the continued extension of human senses will ultimately lead to an aesthetic exploration and a comprehensive understanding of thunder as a global phenomenon, rather than merely as the collection of constituent elements
Period:
2023.11.10-12.13
Place:
UnfoldX Festival
Culture Station 284
Support:
Seoul Arts Foundation
Visualization of lightning data* from Europe and North Africa on December 11th—during the exhibition period—between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM KST.
The dots on the map, ranging from orange to dark red, indicate the locations of the strikes. Orange signifies occurrences closer to the earlier time (2 PM), while dark red signifies those closer to the later time (6 PM).
Triggered by these events in real-time, the central apparatus (among the three in the exhibition space, corresponding to Europe and North Africa) vibrated, physically generating a resonance resembling the sound of distant thunder.
“I can think infinity. But I can’t count up to one hundred thousand.”
-Morton, Timothy (2013). Hyperobjects
Global climate change, quantum fluctuations, the distribution of cosmic rays, and the perpetual looping of numerous digital audio samples worldwide—all these phenomena are continuously proliferating and disseminating in forms that lie beyond our limits of noesis.
While the human mind can conceptualize and grapple with the notion of infinity, there exists a challenge in conceiving 'very large finitude'; it can only be comprehended as a part of it. This conceptual framework is applicable bidirectionally, encompassing both the extremes and the infinitesimal.
Now, the machines endowed with an expansive array of sensors, data, and mathematical formulas are analyzing, normalizing, abstracting, and delivering the entire phenomena to us. Then the pivotal question emerges: Have we commenced the process of perceptually recognizing, albeit in a nebulous state, the extremal and infinitesimal hyperobjects through these advancements?
Within this context, if one posits the hypothetical scenario of an ordinary individual attaining an elevated perspective akin to an overman through technological advancements, can this augmentation also yield revolutionary poetic inspirations?
This multi-faceted project, comprising three distinct artworks, explores the dynamics of hyper-proliferation-distribution and hyper-noesis. The latter arises as a consequence of the perception and recognition of the former, phenomena that have surpassed our conventional thresholds of perception
