Yeseul Song 송 예슬
Yeseul Song is a New York based artist working with technology, interaction, and participation as art media. She was born and grew up in Busan, South Korea, and moved to the United States in 2014. Yeseul is an Assistant Arts Professor at New York University Tisch's Interactive Telecommunications Program & Interactive Media Arts (NYU ITP/IMA). Her teaching areas span physical computing, interactive art, and sustainable materials.
Her work has been shown at a wide range of venues including Clayarch Art Museum (South Korea), Gansong Art Museum (South Korea), Samsung Leeum Museum of Art (South Korea), Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum (D.C.), New York Live Arts (NY), PASEO (NM), Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (CA), and Art in Odd Places (NY). Her work has been supported and/or funded by Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Mana Contemporary (NJ), More Art (NY), Future Imagination Fund (NY), Magnum Foundation (NY), Wave Farm (NY), Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy (NY), Embassy of the Republic of Korea's Korean Cultural Center (D.C.), Brooklyn Arts Council, DUMBO, GimHae Cultural Foundation, and more. Yeseul’s work won the iF Design Concept Awards and Communication Arts Interactive Awards, and her work was shortlisted for the Creative Capital Award and Lumen Prize.
She has served as a mentor at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and New Museum’s NEW INC—where she was a member artist. Yeseul served on the jury panel for Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Wave Farm, Sound Scene, Queens College, and more. Her many public speaking engagements include The Cooper Union (NY), Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture, De Vinci Innovation Center (Paris), Art Collider Lab (Korea), Maryland Institute College of Art (MD), and Haeundae Art and Culture Center (South Korea).
Her work has been shown at a wide range of venues including Clayarch Art Museum (South Korea), Gansong Art Museum (South Korea), Samsung Leeum Museum of Art (South Korea), Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum (D.C.), New York Live Arts (NY), PASEO (NM), Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (CA), and Art in Odd Places (NY). Her work has been supported and/or funded by Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Mana Contemporary (NJ), More Art (NY), Future Imagination Fund (NY), Magnum Foundation (NY), Wave Farm (NY), Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy (NY), Embassy of the Republic of Korea's Korean Cultural Center (D.C.), Brooklyn Arts Council, DUMBO, GimHae Cultural Foundation, and more. Yeseul’s work won the iF Design Concept Awards and Communication Arts Interactive Awards, and her work was shortlisted for the Creative Capital Award and Lumen Prize.
She has served as a mentor at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and New Museum’s NEW INC—where she was a member artist. Yeseul served on the jury panel for Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Wave Farm, Sound Scene, Queens College, and more. Her many public speaking engagements include The Cooper Union (NY), Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture, De Vinci Innovation Center (Paris), Art Collider Lab (Korea), Maryland Institute College of Art (MD), and Haeundae Art and Culture Center (South Korea).
#1
I use interaction as an art medium to build spaces where people can discover their own sensibilities and creativity, and build new relationships with others and the world. Hence, my work starts its life not when I finish “building” it, but when people experience the work and become a part of it. When I was presenting Two Subtle Bodies (2022)—a participatory performance for two people—at a public space, a couple experienced the piece for about 15 minutes while a crowd surrounding them watched and appreciated their performance. Afterward, the couple came up to me to share their experience with tears in their eyes. There were some others who found themselves crying as they felt deeply connected to themselves and their co-participant through the work. Some of the participants described the experience as a gift. To me, their participation, reactions, conversations, and feelings are the most precious gifts. Since then, I realize that I make art to connect more parts of the world by letting people meet each other through my work. I want my work to be the opposite of shiny, huge, and expensive sculptural objects that overwhelm visitors with their own authority and aura. Instead, I am interested in putting the people who are experiencing my work in the center of the stage to empower them and challenge the traditional power dynamic between artwork and audience. This will enable us to think, converse, and imagine our world and future, collectively.
#2
While the art world is dominated by visual work, I embrace the non-visual spectrum defined in the electromagnetic spectrum theory. I use invisibility as an artistic language to tell the story of invisible existences. By uncovering creative possibilities of non-visual senses and creating new sensory languages using technology and interaction, my work advocates for imaginative and inclusive views of the world. I create unusual experiences that synthesize non-visual senses and encourage people to be more aware of our own bodies and the space in-between bodies. The first series I created with non-visual spectrum is Invisible Sculptures (2018-2021), a series of sculptures that can perceived by senses other than vision.
#3
With the belief that art needs to be accessible to everyone, I explore and occupy non-traditional public spaces as well as public institutions to challenge commonly held ideas about access and accessibility of art. Since I built a cart to bring my work to outdoor public spaces during the pandemic (Invisible Sculptures On Wheels, 2020-2021), outdoor public spaces became a part of my studio where I share work-in-progress and conduct playtesting sessions, as well as a show venue, where I bring finished work and meet diverse groups of people.
I use interaction as an art medium to build spaces where people can discover their own sensibilities and creativity, and build new relationships with others and the world. Hence, my work starts its life not when I finish “building” it, but when people experience the work and become a part of it. When I was presenting Two Subtle Bodies (2022)—a participatory performance for two people—at a public space, a couple experienced the piece for about 15 minutes while a crowd surrounding them watched and appreciated their performance. Afterward, the couple came up to me to share their experience with tears in their eyes. There were some others who found themselves crying as they felt deeply connected to themselves and their co-participant through the work. Some of the participants described the experience as a gift. To me, their participation, reactions, conversations, and feelings are the most precious gifts. Since then, I realize that I make art to connect more parts of the world by letting people meet each other through my work. I want my work to be the opposite of shiny, huge, and expensive sculptural objects that overwhelm visitors with their own authority and aura. Instead, I am interested in putting the people who are experiencing my work in the center of the stage to empower them and challenge the traditional power dynamic between artwork and audience. This will enable us to think, converse, and imagine our world and future, collectively.
#2
While the art world is dominated by visual work, I embrace the non-visual spectrum defined in the electromagnetic spectrum theory. I use invisibility as an artistic language to tell the story of invisible existences. By uncovering creative possibilities of non-visual senses and creating new sensory languages using technology and interaction, my work advocates for imaginative and inclusive views of the world. I create unusual experiences that synthesize non-visual senses and encourage people to be more aware of our own bodies and the space in-between bodies. The first series I created with non-visual spectrum is Invisible Sculptures (2018-2021), a series of sculptures that can perceived by senses other than vision.
#3
With the belief that art needs to be accessible to everyone, I explore and occupy non-traditional public spaces as well as public institutions to challenge commonly held ideas about access and accessibility of art. Since I built a cart to bring my work to outdoor public spaces during the pandemic (Invisible Sculptures On Wheels, 2020-2021), outdoor public spaces became a part of my studio where I share work-in-progress and conduct playtesting sessions, as well as a show venue, where I bring finished work and meet diverse groups of people.
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