Conceptual Developments
UNIT 1
10th October 2019
Are personal memory and identity are fixed or changeable?
In my previous work, I had painted the forest image reconstructed by my memories on canvas since 2012. I used to recall my specific childhood memories through the forest. Namely, it is the place where I can recognise myself and aspects of the forest can bring up personal memories. I think that memory is a kind of identity with personal history and timeframe. Although the memory rooted in personal memory, it can be represented social and political issues.
As my concept expanded socially, a question came to mind. It was whether personal memory and identity are distorted. I think memory and identity are distorted by various reasons so that I determined to study this phenomenon with my experience. I aim to widen the scope of the forest as a symbolic object. I also want to combine my paintings with objects to create lines and planes in space. In this way, I incorporate new physical constituents into my practice, including chance-effects, to create works of installation.
15th October 2019
Ongoing Theories
I think young people usually look for information via the internet. The identity of our information is established by recognising, judging and accepting it. Algorithm online creates search potentials and sometimes distort information.
The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser
If this information is looked at in detail, we can ask the questions in the search engine, but we cannot have the answers at our disposal. Namely, we maybe receive filtered information through the internet algorithm. For example, when two people search Trump on Google at the same time, they can be faced with different results on the internet. This piled information recognizes for us and then it takes control of our thoughts and identity. 'The Filter Bubble’ by Eli Pariser (2011), chairman of the U.S. civic group 'Move on', warned the information bias in "The Filter Bubble”. It could occur if political and commercial logic is involved in the algorithm to filter information. His concerns are becoming a reality. Internet users are quickly getting customized information through Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Naver. However, the fact that they are using only one piece of information creates prejudice and distorts their values.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s
Youtube TED _ Beware online "filter bubbles" | Eli Pariser
Echo Chamber
An Echo Chamber means that if you listen to people who have the same meaning in a closed room, you think that is all you have. It refers to the phenomenon of strengthening one's faith by only believing and sharing information similar to one's ideas and opinions. It is often held in places where people with similar ideas, such as the Internet community and social networking services, are gathered. In the Echo Chamber, truth is far away, and if it is not the same as one's own beliefs, it is not treated as valuable information. As one of the reasons behind the fake news, experts cite "echo chamber."
30th October 2019
Post-Truth and Social Media Platforms
Personal memory and identity are being distorted in the contemporary world. Because of the acceleration of new technologies and social media platforms, the contemporary society maybe learns and hears most of the information from that. So they can be easily exposed by the information limited by their interest or fake news through Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Namely, the fact is being turned into fiction. We are living in an era of "Post-Truth". This has been my experience in Korea, as certain truth were falsified. This made me realise that the truth is often subjective and can be manipulated by new technologies. Therefore, this issue of ‘fake news’ and distortion of the truth will form the basis of my practice this year. I will use the notion of DISTORTION in order to create combined works between painting and installation that explore this idea. Also, I will make the space where the audience can think and discuss this issue.
31st October 2019
Post-Truth and my Experience
When I heard about "Post-Truth", I felt the need to think about why I am interested in this theory. I think the artist's concept and works begin with an individual, have the individual specific thing, and reflect the sincerity within it. So I felt that I needed to discuss my experience.
I underwent distortion views regarding false facts about me in Korea. This issue is connected to my family. My father's younger brother is a famous politician in Korea. However, he has driven his brother, who criticized the wrongs in his politics, into a madman. He made it the public through social media and lied as if it were true. He also secretly made plans to force him into a psychiatric hospital, using his political power. My family has struggled since 2012 due to this issue. After my father died of cancer from stress, my family tried to uncover the truth in terms of this issue. Eventually, this was brought to trial, and it was revealed in detail that in the court, he attempted to force my father into a mental hospital. At that time, when his lies spread on social media, the public trust him without a doubt. Despite that I claimed the truth, most of the people didn't accept new claim about this.
During my experience related to ‘Post-Truth’ directly in Korea, I had various emotions such as depression, isolation and anxiety. After this issue, I felt the futility but had a sense of security at the same time. To explain in detail, I have come to realise that this issue is happening actively to us and want to share that through expressing this idea.
5th November 2019
Ongoing Theory
Post-Truth by Mcintyre Lee
After the conversation with Geraint, I read the book called 'Post-truth'(2018). 'Post-Truth' is a book that examines philosophy, sociology, and psychology as to why Lee McIntyre, who teaches philosophy at Harvard University and Boston University, is chosen based on emotion rather than rational evidence. The title of the book, 'Post-truth', is a phenomenon where emotions are considered more important than objective facts when forming public opinion.
11th November 2019
As I introduced the theory of 'Post-Truth' into my project, I think it has three methods to express it. The methods are:
1. To study directly symbolic objects and texts in terms of 'Post-Truth'
2. To combine the related issue with my own emotion
3. To introduce other literary works and relate them to my experience
Of them, I selected the first one. In a first step, I need to study symbolic objects and texts as a study of this theory. In order to understand it, I need to find out objects, texts and codes interpreted by different perspectives.
12th December 2019
In terms of the question
After Pop-up show, I felt the need to put the paper of questions in terms of my concept. I want to create works in which the audience can feel individually interactive experience and emotion in front of or in works. So, they can interpret works, using a question as a kind of the quiz. Therefore I think it would be effective to pose a question.
When I went to Tate Britain, there are the above questions per section of the exhibition. I think these questions are an appropriate idea because these offer the audience to participate in the show actively. Also, this method can exchange with the audience's thoughts through social media platforms. So I will apply these question forms into my next project.
17th December 2019
1984 by George Orwell
A relevant novel in which I can see an example of the post-truth is Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell in 1949. The story describes an imagined future, the year 1984 when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism and propaganda. As terms such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, prole, and memory hole used in the novel, it has been drawn between the novel and real-life instances of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom of expression among other themes.
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act."
I think this novel is related to my concept as a distorted view and post-truth. Using the above first sentence, I intentionally changed it like the second sentence to make unreadable and incomprehensible. This artistic visualized sentence conveys distortion and confusion to the audience. It shows a phenomenon that looks at but cannot interpret or does not try to understand so it can eventually be an example of the distorted view we are making today.
UNIT 2
1st January 2019
An alternative fact / An alternative reality
When I finished this work, I felt I have to concentrate on one between the context distortion and the image distortion because two directions are broad. I will select the former to create an interpretable interval. Also, I will focus on more specific ‘alternative reality’ phenomenon of post-truth issue. I will create the metaphorical space distorted due to the belief and emotion as an alternative reality with futurism or imagination. Namely, like George Orwell, I want to depict the alternative reality with my experience rather than dealing with people’s thought and social media.
15th February 2019
About the feedback
After receiving the feedback,
I think the concept and research question for a few weeks. Many classmates and tutors have asked 'what is the truth?' and also told me 'the truth cannot be changeable.'
I searched for the definition of 'truth'.
The truth is
1 the quality or state of being true.
1.1 that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.
1.2 a fact or belief that is accepted as true.
After I searched for the truth, I realised I cannot deal with the truth. So I decided to focus on perception and distortion of the truth.
How we perceive the issues or who makes us distorted about events.
So, I think the news words make us distorted and imprinted perception from a certain point of view. The reasons are we always are offered the information from the amount of news. In the post-truth era, there are coexisting a lot of fake and true news. The news is related to social, politic and culture and includes the present situation. As we enter a news competition society, fake news is rampant by using all kinds of provocative headlines and so-called breaking news. I want to take a closer look at the concept with this point in mind.
7th March 2020
Words of the media
Distortion of the press: Hidden meanings and methods
by Changsik-Park
I realized the distorted methodology from the press after reading this book. Of these, I focused on the main points;
1. Euphemism
The author presented George Orwell's euphemism.
'The defenceless villages are bombed, residents are driven out into the fields, livestock is baptized with machine guns and huts are engulfed in the flames of the incendiary. This is called "peaceful recovery." Millions of farmers are robbed of their fields and sent to trundle away with only their bots on their shoulders. This is called population migration.'
Political language, according to the writer, is designed to make sheer nonsense plausible, to make lies true and to make murder respectable. As shown in the book '1984', the opposite of 'good' was emphasized by the euphemism 'not good' instead of 'bad'. This is what the main character says in the book. "Can't you see that the purpose of the new language is to narrow down the scope of thinking?"
This euphemism is an anecdote that happened even during the colonial period of Korea. Japan implemented 'remove words' during the colonial period, eliminating the number of words that the people could express.
In Korea, the word "normalization" is often used, especially in the media. In a dictionary, normality refers to a state in which it is "state without any particular fluctuation or defect" and, on the other hand, abnormality indicates "not normal." According to him, the media uses the word normalization to express the current situation as if it were abnormal. Therefore, it emphasizes those who make abnormalities normal and emphasizes abnormal conditions. Also, through language that is loosely woven and decadent in meaning, it attracts dichotomous structures.
2. Frame
A frame is a method of sorting out some aspects of an event, highlighting them according to the writer's perspective, inducing specific interpretations, evaluations or answers, and linking different aspects.
Man is originally an 'intellectual miser'.
"Most of us see the issue after we define it first than defining after we see it."
Because of these characteristics, the frame of the press has a lot of influence on us.
The effect of a media frame is to be seen.
1. Manipulation of consent
2. Oversimplify
3. Mohawk Belly Technique: by indirectly criticizing, it creates a negative public image.
After reading this book, I studied the word of the press and then use these elements to my work's main words