Jinah Roh is a Korean artist and AI researcher exploring concepts such as the co-evolution of humans and machines. Her powerful solo exhibition at Culture Tank Seoul, a converted Oil Park, was a fantastically creepy exposé of the fragile relationships that compose the web of life.
With regards to recent rates of technological development and its impact on socio-cultural change: “The Algorithm of Evolutionary Time seeks to reflect on issues that arise between man-machine interfaces, across macro perspectives of the concept of time.” Hosted in the eery grounds of The Oil Tank Culture Park, this space started life as an oil storage facility and was renovated into an environmentally-conscious centre that now holds a number of exhibitions and events. The reservoir tanks remain intact on-site and have been transformed into performance venues, learning spaces and installation halls.
The first work encountered at the entrance is The Triumph of General Ludd (2024), featuring 16 sculptural heads whose soulless singing voices reverberate throughout the echo chamber. Referencing the Luddites, who destroyed machines as a form of opposition to the Industrial Revolution, it connects the sentiments of the 18th Century with the rise of the Neo-Luddite movement. Across the room, Human-Machine Chimera (2024) is a genderless sculpture with infantile features. It is metaphorically linked to the Chimera of Greco-Roman mythology, a creature that’s part lion, goat and serpent. This has come to describe anything composed of disparate parts, perceived as wildly imaginative and implausible. In the figurative sense, it immortalises unrealisable or wild objectives.
The largest sculpture takes centre-stage. Evolutionary Chimera-GAIA (2024) has similarities to An Evolving GAIA (2017). The Gaia concept refers to the Earth as a self-regulating entity composed of dynamic interactions. “In contrast to an earlier Gaia, which yearned to become human but was filled with fear and anxiety about artificial intelligence, the current work faces and embraces the immense changes that have already been encountered.” In the background digital screens expressing the breath and breadth of the ocean, O(log n) II O(2n): From The Beach to the Distant Sea carries an algorithmic title, questioning concepts of time using logarithmic and exponential formulae.
“Humans foresee their own extinction and fear the subjectively rapid passage of time, yet within the framework of planetary symbiosis, all things undergo natural cycles of birth and death across their own scales and timelines. Unlike the brief history of humanity, the earth continues to self-regenerate and to venture on… Every situation and obstacle that we face might be like the raging waves encountered at the beach, while the distant sea is calm and serene. What should we focus on, and what should we fear? The next evolution in time, guided by technology, will eventually present itself as an algorithm.”
Jinah Roh graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Sculpture and earned her Masters degree in Art and Technology from the Art Institute Of Chicago. She then obtained her PhD in Engineering from Sogang University and is a current faculty member of Kyung Hee University. Sourcing a variety of media, Roh creates interactive sculptures and installations that merge traditional techniques with emerging materials, producing distinctive humanoid bots and real-time video artworks that engage with the viewer. Her practice continues to evolve itself, as she continually redefines relationships within this dynamic hybrid civilisation.
