The exhibition presented in 2023 by Seoul Express.
Following the performance of the same name premiered a year ago, the exhibition features various new installations, a book of scripts, and a new performance, What I Saw in My Dream.
It is an audience-participatory work that allows you to directly communicate with the Zombie, who is the main speaker in the narrative of I Walk with the Zombie. The background story, characteristics, and tone of the Zombie were learned with AI and implemented as a chatbot. The audience can ask a number of questions to the Zombie using a keyboard provided, and they will meet a cynical answer unique to the Zombie.AI chatbot, software, computer, monitor and customized frame
It is an audience-participatory work to explore the game environment where the Zombie walks. The audience can continue to walk by changing the direction and viewpoint of the open world created infinitely with physical buttons.Unreal Engine game, computer, monitor and customized frame
The Zombie lists what she saw in her dream in images and text. AI generates word combinations and generates images again based on the generated text. These two algorithms generating text and image, give and receive infinite feedback from each other.software based on AI, computer, monitor and customized frame
An installation version of a 5m-long treadmill, which was used as the main stage device in 2022’s performance of I Walk with the Zombie, and it automatically moves by interacting with three images. On the two monitors standing across the middle of the treadmill, the back of the zombie and her words appear as texts, which stop and change according to the speed of the treadmill. The video projected on the screen is a game environment built based on the Unreal Engine, and the first-person view unfolds in line with the movement of the treadmill.customized treadmill, inverter, circuit based on MCU, projector, screen, computers, monitors, software with Unreal Engine and TouchDesigner and customized frame
It is a kinetic sound installation with five sculptures that rotate with a motor while the sound plays. The sound set comprises hate speech and lines extracted from the Internet and zombie movies, and the motor rotates only while each segmented sound is played. The sound spreads in all directions through the rotating speaker, creating reverberation sound effects. The rotation speed varies according to each sound, and sound distortion such as the Doppler effect also occurs in this process. Speakers were arranged like two eyes to make each sculpture feel like a person. It makes audiences imagine the situation of the ‘Zombie’, a socially otherized being in an auditory way.speakers, motors, motor drivers, circuits based on MCU, battery, and customized frame
An installation version of a 5m-long treadmill, which was used as the main stage device in 2022’s performance, and it is interactive mode operated by the audience. The audience can walk on the treadmill and control the walk speed with a switch and a dial. The first-person view of a game environment built based on the Unreal Engine on TV and stop motion animation on a small monitor play in line with the movement of the treadmill.customized treadmill, inverter, circuit based on MCU, projector, screen, computers, monitors, software with Unreal Engine and TouchDesigner and customized frame
It is a text game based on the script of the performance I Walk with the Zombie. The audience appreciates the image and sound together while playing a textual game with a mouse and keyboard.web-based text game, computers, monitors, and customized frame
This is a book of scripts that combine the script of I Walk with the Zombie and the script of Bright Color From Now. It is distributed free of charge during the exhibition.
It is a 50-minute-long performance that premiered twice during the exhibition. A performer sits in a chair with her back to the audience and monologues the words of the Zombie who has become socially dead. A child appears, singing familiar songs with lyrics reinterpreted from the Zombie’s perspective. (Details).
Sir, these are the things I've seen in my dreams, and I've passed through them and gone far away.
You know, gravity is the weakest force, it's fair, impartial, and doesn't play games.
Of course, I've seen the opposite countless times: people who understand the concept of gravity, but live as losers.
I walked barefoot, on a sharp path. All I could do was wait for their anger to subside and their interest to fade.
I was still walking in my underwear. I was ashamed.
I tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter._Linkin Park, 'In the End'
At the edge of the cliff, I stood, with my child, waiting for the Spanish army. They would bring a miracle.
(The audience touring the exhibition venue after the performance)
In this exhibition, the audience, positioned as an observer, is invited to fill in the fragmented narrative by tracing the main character's circumstance and her zombification. Ultimately, this attempt to escape the immersive and intensive environment of traditional theater can be read as a choice of an exhibition format with a relative temporality compared to performance. The elements that emerge from the absolute temporality of the performance and decompose into a non-linear and fragmented narrative are reconstructed by the audience in a form that the artist calls "liberating the narrative timeline".
written by Jaemin Shin, a curator of The WilloW
A woman lists the things she has seen in her dreams to someone who is assumed to be her psychiatrist. She describes seemingly unrelated topics preoccupying her: gravity, the mysterious presence called "The Black Mirror", and her missing pair of pants. She reads a letter she sent to a pharmaceutical company overseas in hopes of curing her child's illness.
| Director | Seoul Express(Minki Hong and Youjin Jeon) |
| Writer | Minki Hong |
| Technical Support | Eunhwa Lee |
| Hardware Design | Youjin Jeon (WOMAN OPEN TECH LAB) |
| Web-based Game Developer | Jimin Yoon |
| Performer | Seyoung Kim |
| Singer | Naram Kim |
| Music Producer | Youjin Jeon |
| Shipping and Installation | Dolyong Ahn and Chulho Park |
| Public Relations | Ginger Choi |
| Photography | Junyoung Hyun |
| Proofreading | Eunkyoung Choi |
| Graphic Design | ALOUD LAB |
This project was supported by the Arts Council Korea's Art and Technology Convergence Support Grant Program in 2023.