Originality & Identity

Daewon Yun’s practice begins with a fundamental inquiry into how the body is sensed, perceived, and brought into relation with others at the boundary between the real and the virtual. He understands the body in a digital media environment not as a fixed or stable entity, but as a variable one—edited, expanded, and transformed through technological mediation—and investigates how modes of sensation and perception shift under these conditions. This line of inquiry runs consistently from his early video work Virtual Body Lab no.1 : Microscope(2018) to his recent performance Circle, Chase, Contact(2025).

In his early works, Yun converted his own body into digital signals, editing, fragmenting, and recomposing them to generate movements that depart from the structure of the physical human body. The sense of “uncanniness” that emerges in this process does not stem from unfamiliar bodily forms, but rather from gestures that are perfectly calculated and aligned. This tendency becomes more explicit in his first solo exhibition 《4 and one-half, knuckle》(Art Space Hanchigak, 2021), where subtle dissonance and tension arise from human gestures placed onto quantified coordinates.

The artist later expanded his inquiry to the boundary between the human and the non-human through the ‘Factum Socies’ series, which departs from the hypothesis that future humanoids would seek to learn human imperfection. The performance Birthday(2020) depicts a humanoid imitating the movements of a newborn child, foregrounding a body in a state of immaturity and rehearsal rather than completion or progress. This work can be read not as a critique of technology-driven futurism, but as an attempt to reconsider the conditions of humanity itself.

In more recent works, the sensory gap between “connection” and “contact” has emerged as a central theme. Tactile-Transmission(2024) juxtaposes the sensory differences between humans and artificial intelligence by translating tactile sensations into language and then into AI-generated images, while Circle, Chase, Contact experiments with shifts in relational dynamics and communal rhythm triggered by moments of physical contact. Through these works, Yun continuously reexamines the conditions of bodily existence and modes of relating within a digitally mediated environment.

Style & Contents

Daewon Yun works across video, performance, and interactive installation, yet the core of his practice consistently lies in the body as an act in itself. In early video works such as Virtual Body Lab no.1 : Microscope and Virtual Body Lab no.2 : 100 bpm(2019), he experiments with bodily movement through single-channel video and digital editing, constructing images of bodies that fragment and proliferate within the frame.

As his practice expands into performance, the artist’s body no longer remains confined to the screen but enters physical space, forming relationships with viewers. Works such as Birthday and Empty Dance (共舞)(2024) combine live performance with video and sound to reveal the state of a body in action, emphasizing instability and trembling that resist complete control. In these works, digital technology functions not as a tool for visual effect, but as a device that amplifies performativity.

The media installation Connection(2023) translates the speed and movement of relationships formed on online platforms into a physical environment. Light-based connections that appear and disappear in response to viewers’ movements across LED floor panels visualize the rapid formation and dissolution of contemporary social networks. This exploration later extends into performances that more explicitly address themes of relationship and communality.

More recently, Circle, Chase, Contact takes the form of a large-scale work combining video projection, cameras, lighting, and live performance, in which delayed images projected onto the body intersect with movements unfolding in the present. In its second scene, which appropriates the traditional Korean folk dance Ganggangsullae, audience participation generates a temporary sense of community. Within rhythms that are not perfectly synchronized, a shared sensation of “being together” emerges. Through such formal experiments, Yun has continually reconfigured the relationships between body, technology, and viewer.

Topography & Continuity

At the core of Daewon Yun’s practice is a sustained inquiry into how the body is sensed and how relationships are formed within digital environments. From early experiments with digital editing to participatory performances, he has consistently presented the body not as something subordinated to technology, but as an entity that is continuously transformed through interaction with it.

His work occupies a distinct position within contemporary Korean art by bridging media art and performance, translating technological discourse into embodied experience rather than abstract theory. Solo exhibitions such as 《4 and one-half, knuckle》, 《Quite Time》(GIMYE, 2024), and 《Circle, Chase, Contact》(TINC, 2025) do not seek to critique or celebrate digital technology outright, but instead carefully observe how it reorganizes sensation and relationships.

Over time, Yun’s practice has expanded from individual bodily experiments toward encounters with others and, further, toward collective rhythms. While Self-Letter(2022) focused on intimate bodily sensation, Tactile-Transmission explored sensory differences between humans and AI, and Circle, Chase, Contact examined collective sensation formed through the interaction of performers and audiences. This trajectory reveals the artist’s consistent view of the body not as an isolated entity, but as one constituted through relations.

By persistently exploring the roles and sensory systems of the body at the boundaries between the real and the virtual, the human and the non-human, and the individual and the collective, Yun is extending the field of media performance that thinks through the body into broader and more diverse contexts within contemporary art.