Poster image of 《Playing Society》 © ONSU GONG-GAN

《Playing Society》 takes as its point of departure one of the dictionary definitions of the word “play”: “to pretend.” From this perspective, the exhibition focuses on the metaphorical qualities of games and virtual realities that appear to imitate various conditions and structures of society itself.

Through their respective video works, Do-Mo Collective, An GaYoung, Sungseok AHN, Oh YoungJin, Choi Binna, and Sung Rok Choi attempt a convergent mode of thinking about the future of art and technology, while materially and instinctively distinguishing the attributes of gaming media across the realms of the virtual and the real.

Particularly in the context of the pandemic, the exhibition examines from multiple angles the conditions under which virtual space acquires validity, as well as environments accessible from anywhere, while simultaneously raising questions about the “games” operating within social structures themselves.

More specifically, the exhibition investigates the “methods” and “operating systems” of games, illuminating the spaces they construct—spaces that simultaneously exist and do not exist, realities that lie beyond reality itself. In doing so, the exhibition seeks to reconsider the relationship between the individual and society.

The works presented in this screening do not merely pursue realism. Rather, they aim to reveal unseen structures of the world through the systems embedded within games themselves.


Sung Rok Choi, Great Chain of Being, 2019 © Sung Rok Choi

Sung Rok Choi has consistently explored and visualized contemporary landscapes and events through new media technologies such as animation and video technology. Great Chain of Being is a work centered on the structures of the world and the relationships and cycles among the elements that compose it, drawing its motif from the philosophical concept of the “Great Chain of Being,” a symbolic hierarchical order from the past.

In this work, the traditional hierarchy—with God positioned at the summit, followed by angels, humans, animals, plants, and elemental substances—is replaced by robots, machines, humans, animals, and virtual or digital elements. The artist also employs formats and narratives reminiscent of designing and playing games.

In comparison to painting, once considered a dominant artistic medium, where light, color, and tone were manipulated through painterly technique, Choi suggests that contemporary artistic production has shifted toward digital techniques that generate programming, design, and movement. Within the internal structure of the work, the entities appearing in the video are generated, arranged, utilized, and manipulated within a virtual system.

The sequence unfolding within this factory-like mechanical environment—where beings pass through stages of experimentation, disposal, recycling, collision, and defense before ultimately disappearing—reveals that hierarchical structures from the past continue to persist as stable systems within contemporary virtual worlds.

At the same time, the work demonstrates how the constituent elements within these systems are continuously regenerated and extinguished.

References