THE MOTION ART JOURNAL: HYOJUNG SEO’S CLASSIC ART REDRAW
FEBRUARY 24TH, 2022
Hyojung Seo is a South Korean procedural artist who does mainly motion work. She grew up in Seoul where she now teaches Creative Computation. Very active in the generative art community, she has a fascinating series on Foundation called ‘Redraw with Code’ in which she recreates famous artwork from Old Masters with code, but abstracted and using motion.
This is not a new idea, but her execution is especially engaging and interesting. She is wisely not concerned with how accurate the code draws the artwork. Since the artwork she chooses is so well known that we practically know it from memory, especially works like ‘Mona Lisa’ or ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring.’ We fill in that visual information with our mind while watching how she plays with the display. The representation is interesting and fun because she uses a variety of shapes and colors that are always in motion. For each, she picks a technique and stays with it for the entire work, which makes each piece compelling. For ‘Mona Lisa’ it is circles that change color and thickness over time. For ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ it is thin rectangles broken into different color bands changing color and angle at different times. The entire time we know we are looking at a representation of ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ but primarily we are watching these rectangles and lines change color and angle all at once which adds fun.
Playful and fun, her work reminds me of Paul Klee, who would set a rule for a series of works and then see where that took him. In many ways, Klee was a procedural artist.
Hyojung Seo has several other engaging experiments like this in her LoOP LOoP : Every day is a Code series but so far she has only minted the ‘Redraw with Code’ series on Foundation.
Where are you located? Do you have a day job?
I grew up in Seoul and teach Creative Computation at SADI (Samsung Art and Design Institute) in Korea.
Did you have art training?
I have a Masters degree in Digital Design from IDAS (International Design School for Advanced Studies). When I was a student, I had the opportunity to help my professor make a movie for a dance performance, which motivated me to begin making art. Since then, I have created many media performance works collaborating with musicians and choreographers. I also created interactive installations for exhibitions and commercial events.
How did you start making generative art? What tools do you use to create your work? What artists are an inspiration to you?
At the start of last year, all I could do was worry about the pandemic. I needed to create something to add meaning every day. I was impressed by Zachary Lieberman's daily coding works, so I posted a work inspired by him on Instagram. He advised me not to make something new but to modify it daily to keep it going. So I did coding every day, keeping a record in the sense of shaping my transformed thoughts day-to-day. I would read the image-producing algorithms in surrounding landscapes and objects or imagine new forms and rules in a mathematical sense. Then try to represent these on the screen through code.
I used MAX/MSP/JITTER in my early work, but now I use Nodebox. I chose this tool to teach students coding more easily in Creative Computation class. During the pandemic, the line between class preparation and personal work was blurred so I used it as my main tool.
Why does your artwork always move? Do you think that Motion Art is a new Art form as I lay out in my initial piece?
One of the exciting elements of digital work is dealing with time. Contemplating how to reveal time in a visible form has been the main theme of my work. The change in shape or position proves that time passes on the screen. Everything in nature has its rhythm, and I bring those rhythms into my works. I like the feeling that the heartbeat or breath of the viewer is integrated with the work. People who view my work often say they feel comfortable and relaxed. I think that comfort comes from the integration of the rhythm.
You appear to be involved in a lot of projects this year!
Last year I had a solo exhibition "LoOP LOoP : Every day is a Code" of pen-plotter drawings. Two of my works were published in A.R.E. Book by Generative Hut x Vetro Editions. I am now participating in the special exhibition of 8 artists in ART IN METAVERSE: 1st ARTSCLOUD DIGITAL ART FAIR and preparing the new project with Mars Green.
