In 2021, we were invited to choreograph a procession for the opening ceremony of the exhibition “Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning” for Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. Curated by Natasha Ginwala and Defne Ayas and produced by Davide Quadrio, this exhibition was exploring, among other themes, the relation between ancient practices and artificial intelligence, investigating the place of tradition, culture, gender, and technology in this newly emerging world order. South Korea is a fertile ground for this exploration as it itself is strongly connected to its spiritual roots while also being one of the world centers for the high-tech industry.
We decided to choreograph the procession using an AI system that we developed, which integrated the main principles of EightOS — adaptability, variability, and resilience. Every dancer had a sensor (which we developed in-house) that would provide feedback on movement variability through multiple senses: touch, sound, and image. We would use these sensors in the rehearsals to develop a common movement language, which combined swarm-like riot dynamics with ritualistic dance — taking our inspiration from the site of the procession, Gwangju city, which was the epicenter of a popular uprising in 1980.
Together with a team of filmmakers and dancers, we created a 14-minute film making the journey through the exhibition, taking inspiration from artworks, and integrating the physical modalities they propose into our collective dance.
You can learn more about this work and the technicalities behind it on the EightOS website.
Trailer
Technical Background Introduction
Screenshots
Credits
Choreography, Direction, Software
∞OS
Dmitry Paranyushkin and Koo Des
Performers:
Ji Hye Chung
Seungmin Choi
Koo Des
Lyon Eun Kwon
Yunju Lee
Jonghyeon Lee
Dmitry Paranyushkin
Yeji Yi
Fractal Montage
Dmitry Paranyushkin
Soundscape
NSDOS
Cinematography
Swan Park
Camera Assistants
ML, Dongwoo Lee, Donggyu Lee
Sensors
Julien Thomas and Koo Des
13th Gwangju Biennale Artistic Directors
Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala
Producer
Davide Quadrio
Associate Producer
Jinyoung Shin
Associate Curators
Michelangelo Corsaro, Krisztina Hunya, Joowon Park
Works on View in the Procession by
Cecilia Vicuña, Ana María Millán, Candice Lin, Emo de Medeiros, Sangdon Kim, Pacita Abad, Liliane Lijn
Works on View by
Yin-Ju Chen & Li-Chun Lin (Marina), Hyun-taek Cho, Patricia Domínguez, John Gerrard, Femke Herregraven, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Tishan Hsu, Gözde Ilkin, Sylbee Kim, Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, Gap-chul Lee, Vivian Lynn, Min Joung-Ki, Kyungwon Moon, Fernando Palma Rodríguez, People’s Archive of Rural India – PARI, Outi Pieski, Arpita Singh, Tcheu Siong, and Ouattara Watts; loans from the collection of the Gahoe Minhwa Museum, Seoul and of the Museum of Shamanism, Seoul.
Spatial Design
Diogo Passarinho Studio
Stage Manager
Woosup Sim
Stage Crew
Sunwoo Kim
Sound Director
Taesoon Jang
Sound Crew
Saerom Jung
Translators
Min-hyung Kang, Yeri Soh
The Procession: Through The Gates
Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning
Commissioned by the 13th Gwangju Biennale and Arthub
Produced by apparat/US in collaboration with Alcantara
Special thanks to the Embassy of Italy in Korea, the Italian Cultural Institute, and Plastic Product for their support, Anastasia Pilepchuk and Ivan Rubio for their feedback