Originality & Identity

Inhwa Yeom experiments with the core question of “becoming other beings” through technology and narrative. Through 3D Performative Apparatus–Environments, the artist designs situations in which audiences can performatively experience the senses and standpoints of others, reconstructing the experiences of historical and social minorities. Early works Chandra X (2021–2022) and Chandra’s Signal (2021) use the gender-neutral character “Chandra” to allegorize contemporary power structures such as planet-scale computing, surveillance/labor, and class intermediaries.

Her concerns then expand toward repositioning bodily and psychological difference not as social “defect” but as “diversity.” Imposter Kitchen (2022) makes visible the network of interests surrounding aging via a fine-dining/service apparatus, prompting the rebalancing of conflicting stakes (《Imposter Kitchen》, Space:illi), while Innerveauty Spa (2023) addresses neurodiversity by having visitors perform the role of attendant and learn care practices such as “tuning frequencies/resonating” (《Planetary Pulse》, Asia Culture Center).

Most recently, ecological and climate agendas come to the fore. SAUNA LAB (2024) critiques the concentration of science-and-technology capital and renames seniors as “climate-crisis survivors,” proposing the possibility of a citizen-participatory research community; Solarsonic Band (2024) turns climate action into a “rehearsal” by having audiences perform and modulate climate data–based scores (UnfoldX 2024 《2084: Space Odyssey》, Culture Station Seoul 248).

The new series ‘Chandra Chronicles: In Neuroverse’ (2025), premiered at the Asia Culture Center, expands the early “Chandra” world into a triple temporality—past/present/after—narrativizing changes in cognition, sensation, and aging (A.C. (After Chandra), B.C. (Before Chandra), C.C. (Circa Chandra)).

Style & Contents

Yeom employs XR to construct stage-like environments, or combines 3D graphics, sensors, AR/VR interfaces, and non-digital objects to build “apparatus–environments,” thereby positioning the audience as co-performers. Chandra X lets participants traverse multiple realities via cross-device networking, while Chandra’s Signal translates data–power structures into narrative through first-person play that makes the loop of extraction/surveillance palpable.

Borrowed formats from service/hospitality drive both content and form. Imposter Kitchen uses an open-kitchen fine-dining setup—course-running routes, theatrical “aging” of steaks, and table-specific role play—to stage shifts among competing interests. Innerveauty Spa organizes a path through VR rooms–tables–tools so visitors can carry out protocols with AR “beauty devices,” weaving clients’ voices into a choral “care soundscape.”

Ecological narratives are realized through the editing of data, sound, and space. SAUNA LAB rearranges the imagined institute’s systems and language via video/seating/text devices, while Solarsonic Band structures VR scenes for the IPCC’s five spheres (atmosphere/hydrosphere/lithosphere/cryosphere/biosphere) and has audiences vary scenarios by manipulating AR scores in real time. Meta-layers—AI voices/small talk, and the environmental costs of technological “performance”—play alongside, problematizing the relations among technology, art, and environment.

Her worldbuilding extends into HMD VR and differentiates temporal structures. The ‘Chandra Chronicles: In Neuroverse’ (2025) series trisects space–time into A.C. (After Chandra), B.C. (Before Chandra), and C.C. (Circa Chandra), introducing interaction rules whereby actions in any one dimension immediately affect the entire Neuroverse. In this way, the practice has evolved into a “procedural narrative” that treats the audience’s cognitive, psychological, and bodily inputs as core variables for content generation.

Topography & Continuity

The practice expands from “performative access to others’ senses” toward seeking “technologies of coexistence” that span body, affect, and ecology. By reframing minority-ness through the themes of aging, neurodiversity, and the climate crisis—and by enabling direct audience intervention—the work converts social imagination into realistic simulations. Formats that foreground “participatory rehearsal,” as in Solarsonic Band, function as tools for public learning and action.

Within this trajectory, the artist’s originality lies in establishing an operating principle of learning/empathy/decision-making via the 3D Performative Apparatus–Environment format, translating minority-ness/care/ecology into a mutually performative experience between audience and apparatus. She moves beyond technical demos or spectacle to structure situations where audience roles, decisions, and bodily actions trigger meaning-making.

Inhwa Yeom offers a practical model within contemporary Korean media art that links engineering, data, and public issues to “accessible interfaces” and “participatory design.” Her work traverses research, industry, and exhibition; while mobilizing data, AI, and XR, it engages them with questions of ethics, environment, and care—aligning with the demands of contemporary discourse.