We recently launched two collections, Abstract Body and Body Movements, by Youngjun Chang and were proud to introduce the artist newly to Sedition.
Youngjun Chang is a scenographer and creative technologist based in London and Seoul. Chang primarily works with digital media based on AI technology focusing on body movements and human-machine interactions.
We asked the artist to introduce himself to Sedition’s audiences and explain his practices. We expected this will be a great opportunity to understand the artist and artworks more profoundly.
Youngjun Chang
Sedition: You call yourself a scenographer or a creative technologist rather than a new media artist or a digital artist.
Chang: I call myself a media artist or digital artist as long as an artist is included (a person) who tells that the new media and digital become medium for my artistic expression. They are used as tools to help me reach final products that express my idea. But, I’m not using technology just as a tool, I’m expressing technology itself, trying to present it as a new form and to give it visual structures and movements.
A still from Reforming by Youngjun Chang
Sedition: Can you give us some background, ideas behind your artworks recently launched with Sedition?
Chang: You might assume from the titles like Morphing, Reforming and Abstract Body, the main subjects that I focused on are movements and the human body. I think it stamps from my background in performance design. I believe performance can be the most effective form of art, it’s multidimensional and multisensorial. The acting body is not just a visual element but it also shows mass, gravity, and movements. I’ve been trying to find a way to deliver these dynamic qualities of the bodies in a way of the spatial platform.
Reforming is a result of my attempt to show data extracted from the tracking body movements. Abstract Body is a result of putting the same data into a digital body. It's a sort of hybrid between a digital and a real body. The data used in Satellite and Morphing is actually from tracking my body while I’m dancing around in my studio.
A still from Satellite by Youngjun Chang
Your works are often interactive-based and involve body movement. What do you expect from your audience's experience with your artworks?
Chang: I always hope my audiences see my work as an extension of performance, not just a digital video. I think the reason why I love using interactive technology is I love the sense of leaving my work as an open book. I think my work becomes completed when the audiences take part in as performers themselves and interact with it.
Click HERE to watch the full Interview on Vimeo
Top image: Body Configuration by Youngjun Chang