공기에 관하여
                Quivering Air




GRAYCODE, jiiiiin is a team that works in the medium of electronic music, where they continue to explore ways of materializing invisible properties such as the vibrations of air and the pressures of sounds, as well as means of presenting them as actual phenomena. The performance Quivering Air experiments with the interactions that arise between the waves of computer-generated sounds emanating from speakers and the musical acts of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin on the stage, along with the venue’s architectural structure, the surrounding objects that reflect sound, and the body’s sensory organs. It focuses on the artistic event that occurs as the physical vibrations transmitting sound expand beyond hearing into a realm of endless mental imagery. 

Quivering Air consists of four works performed in different styles and media. By intersecting the varied temporalities of the vibrations, it draws the listener into the three-dimensional time and space surrounding the sounds. The perception of sounds begins with vibrations of air particles. Those vibrations are recognized as sounds when they encounter the body’s hearing organs. Through the repeated overlapping and disappearing as new sounds arise and previous sounds are perceived, the vibrations take on a unique configuration of time at each moment—encompassing past, present, and future simultaneously. Through the performance, the members of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin trace the simultaneous and real-time nature of vibrations in the air, while activating the subjective senses projected onto sounds in ways that cause these vibrations to be perceived not only in acoustic terms but also in terms of the visual properties.

The performance announces its beginning with No. 1, which conjures associations with the presence and movement of air inside and outside the body through the most basic and ordinary act mediated by air—namely, breathing. The animated video on the screen and the repeated sounds of breaths being inhaled and exhaled function to structure the movements and rhythms performed by the air, leading the viewer to perceive air as matter. The presence of air becomes a condition and potential for the performance’s representation, playing a part in creating the actuality and materiality of an invisible phenomenon.

The second work, entitled No. 2, offers a phenomenological presentation of the changes in sound due to differences in air density. When changes arise in the speed and pressure of vibrations, this varies the time at which the sounds reach our hearing organs, which influences our acoustic and perceptual experience in turn. In other words, when the air density is low, sounds are slowed and perceived as relatively low tones. Conversely, higher densities transmit higher pitches. Using electronic instruments that arbitrarily adjust the playback speech of a tape, No. 2 physically alters the speeds of computer-generated sounds in ways that defamiliarize our universal perceptions of particular sounds. As the members of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin layer unaltered, real-time piano performances onto altered sounds that are played back with unfamiliar physical values, they show invisible aspects of the waves: their compressions and expansions, collisions and fusions, tensions and releases.No. 3, which makes use of analog radio equipment produced in 1975, amplifies the temporal sense of the present by incorporating real-time radio transmission sounds into the performance as it physically captures invisible frequencies. Here, the sounds that emanate from the radio are transmitted and received as dynamic elements that are continually changing in their physical environment. No. 3 also attempts to break with the unidirectional format of the performance as sounds transmitted from a stage to an audience. In No. 3, vibrations of the air appear on the stage and then disappear, only to emerge—and vanish once again—in unexpected ways as if drifting along the sides and back of the audience. Viewers focus on the vibrations and reverberations of the air as they seek out the origins of the sound outputs. Following the position of the speakers beyond the stage, they detect the moving waves and trace the unseen pathways of the sounds.

Finally, No. 4 (2025) goes beyond the space of the stage and the timeframe of the present moment to weave together sounds derived within the three-dimensional temporal and spatial setting of the vibrations. The physical setting of the performance in Art Sonje Center’s Art Hall has an architectural foundation that is fixed and unchanging. But beyond this actual space, the members of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin posit another fluid space formed within the vibrations of the air, leading viewers to encounter a realm of subjective perception and recognition of sound that is guided by their cumulative experiences. As the vibrations of air present in the mediate space are transformed into electronic music performed by GRAYCODE, jiiiiin, the once-tranquil setting is filled simultaneously. In No. 4, the performers and viewers continue to form real-time relationships of creating and extinguishing vibrations, showing them to share the same time and space in and around an actual setting.

As the electronic music sounds created by GRAYCODE, jiiiiin are combined with various material actions related to sound outputs—the noises of buttons operating instruments, the winding of tapes, and the static that is heard when tuning into a particular radio frequency—Quivering Air physically visualizes the invisible phenomenon of listening. The vibrations and reverberations created in the air through the performance are an opportunity to connect with conscious and unconscious personal memories associated with sound, shaping a kind of auditory space while stimulating the viewer’s visual perceptions. The synesthetic images that unfold—from the first vibrations of the air to their physical perception—linger, spread, and disappear in auditory space until the 50-minute performance comes to an end. The vibrations transform endlessly in space, their constant variations assuming elements of unexpectedness and randomness. In each of the four performances, the musical materials are different, and so too are the viewer’s perceptions and mental images as they relate to them. The materiality of invisible elements in the air is something that is constantly regenerated and can never be repeated, seized, or restored. They are like artistic events that happen in an instant. Quivering Air arises and disappears as a phenomenon in auditory time and space through the music of GRAYCODE, jiiiiin—but the emotional response and images that arise in our bodies and our perception resonate on as they encourage us to contemplate the material, spatial, and temporal qualities of quivering air in new ways.



By Heehyun Cho (exhibition team director, Art Sonje Center)