Just as vibrations of energy are transmitted through the air and can be heard as sound, and objects can be seen through the vibrations and reflections of light, what we appreciate and sense is always in a state of uncertainty. In particular, the works created by GRAYCODE, jiiiiin are determined moment by moment because the sound energy transmitted when their works are performed or played can be influenced by the humidity and temperature of the air, as well as factors such as the specifications of the speakers through which the sound is played.
Their 2017-2018 work, which they created by imagining cosmic events beyond the speed of light, is a fixed media work that seems to be played simply on a computer, and yet the role of the sound-producing device is in fact quite important. Since the absolute unit of the speed of light cannot be experienced by humans as anything more than a mathematical formula, the work is set over a 465-second duration, covering the 46.5 billion light-years of space-time, or the observable universe in its radius, from the Big Bang to the present. It then utilizes musical expressions that overlap the frequency movements of linearly rising and non-linearly rising frequencies within frequencies audible to humans. Therefore, in this work, it is considered an important story in that we are listening to cosmic events, although in a limited way, by fully utilizing the human auditory sensory range, from 20Hz to 20,000Hz.
From 18 August to 8 October 2023, the state of this work at Art Sonje Center’s Art Hall will be determined in another way. Art Hall’s JBL 4648A-8 and JBL 2446H speakers emit frequency responses from 35 Hz to 800 Hz and 500 Hz to 20,000 Hz, respectively. In addition, the environment and conditions here—the intensity of the speaker output in relation to Art Hall’s power, the overtones created by reflections in Art Hall’s space, and the subtle noise emanating from a speaker located to the right of the stage—give the work an absolute nowness from the work’s point of view, which imagines something beyond the speed of light. At this time, audiences meet a site-determined certainty, a particular point in an unfathomable cosmic event that is still expanding.
+3x10^8m/s, beyond the light velocity (2017-2018) + 35 to 20,000 (2023)
GRAYCODE, jiiiiin
GRAYCODE, jiiiiin use electronic music as a medium to explore invisible yet still-present phenomena, such as vibrations that travel through transmission media, wavelengths of visible light, and linear time. Furthermore, they experiment with various ways that allow people to sense the actuality of electronic music’s immaterial properties. In this exhibition, the fixed media work +3×10^8m/s, beyond the light velocity (2017-2018) will be presented in a new composition by overlapping the two-channel audio work 35 to 20,000 (2023).
The speed of light in a vacuum, 3×10^8m/s, is the maximum speed that all energy and matter in the universe can travel. GRAYCODE, jiiiiin’s +3×10^8m/s, beyond the light velocity imagines cosmic phenomena that may exist beyond our current understanding of the space-time continuum and the speed of light, and explores the multi-layered sensation of invisible waves traveling through transmission media and expanding as they touch the body. Taking its title from the frequency range of the speakers mounted in Art Sonje Center’s Art Hall, 35 to 20,000 is a piece of music made from noises of the specific hertz emanating from the speakers. The work embraces and responds to the physical environment of the space, and overlays the existing sound of +3×10^8m/s, beyond the light velocity. The sound vibrations and sound pressure created by the physical collision of two different frequencies are ultimately transferred to the somatosensory senses to materialize the phenomenon of sound, while the abstract image of densely packed blue dots in the video visualizes waves of blue light, shimmering like stars in space.
Meanwhile, the drawings hanging in an aisle of Art Hall are a layering of the individual scores of the two duplicated works and a drawing of their intertwined time. For GRAYCODE, jiiiiin, scores are as much about the body as they are about one’s mindset and form. By placing the scales, which are usually read from left to right, within an intersecting three-dimensional structure, the interaction of musical relaxation and contraction with a person’s body is revealed in the score. In this way, the two artists break away from the conventional notion of linear time, constructing a new time and space within the boundaries of sensation between the material and the immaterial, and reinforcing the actuality of the invisible elements this new time and space appropriates.