NEW ECO series: SONGYOON LEE: PAN - A LIFE FORCE at the Gosia Koscielak Gallery

Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery
1646 N. Bosworth Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
http://www.gosiakoscielak.com
[email protected]
T.847.858.1540





SANGYOON LEE: PAN - A LIFE FORCE
interactive electronic installation
Korea/USA

Dates: 01.05 - 01.30.2007

Opening reception: Saturday, January 13th, 2007 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Special event:

Saturday, January 27, at 4pm
Gallery Talk:
Jim Elniski : Interpreting Sangyoon Lee’s concept of “life force”
Artist, clinical social worker, and somatic psychotherapist Jim Elniski will lead a gallery talk Interpreting Sangyoon Lee’s concept of “life force”.

Jim Elniski will talk about the ways Sangyoon Lee’s interactive electronic installation, Pan raises important psychosocial issues related to what Lee identifies as the relational aspects of the “life force”. Elniski will contextualize this work by discussing 19th and 20th century ideas about the “life force” and how this relates to the current uses of interactivity and group participation, including community based art practices.

PAN is a first show from the New Eco exhibition series examining new ecology, human ecology and a new media phenomena in international art, curated by Gosia Koscielak Ph.D. PAN by Soongyoon Lee is an interactive electronic installation that facilitates collaborative performance among multiple participants. The title of this work, PAN, is a Korean word invoking several different meanings, such as: plate, disk, place, stage. On one hand, this word instinctively stands for a plate that corresponds to the interface of this work, but there is more meaning underlying this spatial definition. The Korean people set up public performance space for everyone to share and participate in delightful performances. PAN conveys all these meanings and accommodates these activities by providing a tangible interactive medium. Traditional interactive activities are visually interpreted with softened dynamics. Viewers approach PAN and feel its “life force” and are encouraged to participate in its synthetic movement. Sangyoon Lee's interactive installation PAN was awarded the Digital Art Awards 2006 (DAA 2006) honorable mention in the interactive category presented by Keio Research Institute at SFC, Tokyo, Japan. Sangyoon Lee is a digital media artist who is interested in computer graphics, games, physical interfaces, and virtual reality.
Lee received a Diploma, BS and MS in Architecture from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea in 1997 and 1999, and an MFA from school of Art and Design at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2006. Currently he is pursuing PhD degree in Computer Science at the UIC.
Jim Elniski is an artist, clinical social worker, and somatic psychotherapist whose community-based art projects, in conjunction with various human-service organizations, educational sites, and neighborhood associations, explore the dynamic interplay of the arts, human behavior, and the social and natural environment.