You too will soon perish

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

You can never get out

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

What I saw in my dream

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

I walk with the zombie (automatic mode)

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

Hate Speech

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

I walk with the zombie (interactive mode)

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

I walk with the zombie (web-based text game)

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

The book of scripts

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.

What I saw in my dream

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).

Additional Information

Exhibition

Sep 22 - Oct 10, 2023 (Closed from Sep 28 to 30)
12:00 - 18:00
The WilloW(2F, 38 Gosanja-ro 36-gil, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea)

Introduction Article

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

Floor Plans

  1. You too will soon perish
  2. You can never get out
  3. What I saw in my dream
  4. I walk with the zombie(automatic mode)
  5. Hate Speech
  6. I walk with the zombie(interactive mode)
  7. I walk with the zombie(web-based text game)
  8. The book of scripts

Synopsis

The plot of the performance 'What I Saw in My Dream'

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.

Reference Songs

The two popular songs are arranged and used in the performance.


In the End

  • It starts with one.
  • All I know. It's so unreal
  • Watch you go
  • I tried so hard and got so far
  • But in the end, it doesn't even matter
  • I had to fall to lose it all
  • But in the end, it doesn't even matter
Linkin Park, 《Hybrid Theory》, 2001

Smells Like Teen Spirit

  • With the lights out, it's less dangerous
  • Here we are now, entertain us
  • I feel stupid and contagious
  • Here we are now, entertain us
  • A mulatto, an albino
  • A mosquito, my libido, yeah
  • Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Nirvana, 《Nevermind》, 1991

Credits

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.