IAO

IAO links ancient oral culture with modern neo-oral culture. The new oral culture, which has appeared with social media and various new media transmits information like an incantation. It includes aspects such as the rise of fake news or appeal to emotions than logical questions. This phenomenon is very prominent in South Korea. IAO connects between the ancient magical spell and contemporary South Korean media by the medium of ’talk’ and ‘text’ of spells of the ancient incantation.

Eighteen octagonal rubber plates are installed in a large circle. An audience can feel the strong smell of rubber when standing in front of the installation. On the outside of the installation, an ancient incantation is written from the repetition of three vowels - I, A, O. Inside the installation, the video of the mouth is projected, and the mouth pronounces the vowel written outside. Along with the video, sounds of edited voices from South Korean broadcastings are played for the respective alphabet. The voices were edited from South Korean particular right-wing news channels. Rubber, the material of the work, was a major product of South Korea in the 1960s-1970s.