In the jury’s
statement, Oneroom-Babel was praised for “turning
a bleak life—too often described in overly abstract terms—into a highly
concrete and immersive experience through simple yet convincing use of the
medium,” and for “successfully capturing vivid interview accounts of young people’s
one-room living spaces in Korea in a simple and efficient way, allowing all
audiences to empathize.”
Oneroom-Babel invites
participants to experience the “one-room” living environment
three-dimensionally through text, sound, and encounters within a fantastical
virtual space. A “one-room” denotes a studio apartment in which bedroom,
kitchen, and living area are not separated. Using a VR headset, viewers dive
into the deep sea to discover the virtual architecture Oneroom-Babel.
They then visit, in sequence, the living spaces of past residents, encountering
both excerpts from interviews with young one-room tenants and lines written by
the artist.
SANGHEE, a
third-year student in the Department of Multimedia at K-Arts’ School of Film,
TV & Multimedia, has been active nationally and internationally, including
selection for the 2022 Unfold X program (Seoul Foundation for Arts and
Culture). With an academic background in sociology and a practice that began in
photography, the artist now works across VR, sound performance, and games.
A
central focus of the photography has been objects and places as extensions of
the human body. In line with this interest, the artist attends to the gaps and
affects that arise when physical inputs from the real world are output into
virtual space—or when, after passing through a virtual realm, they are
re-output into the real.
Reflecting on the
award, SANGHEE said, “I built the VR work within my coursework, and
received essential feedback from faculty at the School of Film, TV &
Multimedia as the project developed—the school was a tremendous help. I would
also like to once again thank the young people who invited me into their
private spaces and shared their stories.”
Professor Cho
Chungyeon, who advised the project, commented: “K-Arts has aligned with rapidly
changing technological environments, enabling students from diverse majors to
become true interdisciplinary creators through programs such as the AT Lab at
the Convergent Arts Center and the Korea Creative Content Agency’s content
R&D talent training initiative. We are delighted that an outstanding
creator nurtured through this future-facing, convergent arts education has
achieved recognition at a leading global competition.”
