국문/ENG
1. The World of Bitchondria
Since 2019, Suji Han has expanded her exploration of multidimensional concepts through the Bitchondria series. Bitchondria are data organelles existing in digital spaces with four or more dimensions. These hybrid life forms combine the characteristics of qubits, which can process both 0 and 1 at the same time, the properties of superstrings and energy from string theory that link the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, and the energy-regulating functions of mitochondria. This fictional creature appears on the screen, narrating the virtual and real worlds it has traversed. Through this process, it reflects on humanity's development within the dimensions and flow of time it has discovered. Bitchondria intervene in recorded history, aiming to appropriate and solve various issues encompassing the environment and ecology, presenting themselves as saviors.
Han’s universe presupposes that an organelle called Bitchondria possesses absolute knowledge and information about the world. This concept begins with the depiction of non-human entities as the subjects that constitute the world, assuming that life forms, especially at the most microscopic level, can absorb and process all the world's information. Written from a subversive perspective, the world restores the hidden side of history, which has been recorded in a human-centric manner. The full extent of social incidents is discovered through microscopic perception. Accordingly, the story that Bitchondria intends to tell settles on the flattened plane of the screen, and an unprecedented third entity emerges to articulate a narrative that revisits the layers of both the internal digital space and reality.
Why do Bitchondria exist in digital space? Since the 19th century, innovations in media technology have rapidly changed the categories of time and space. From transportation to mass media and long-range wireless transmission systems, digital technology has compressed time and space by accelerating the invention of means to transmit and store information and data.[1] Among these, the advancement of computers has provided units to objectify or reproduce time and space, expanding the concept of 'space.' Now of days, the space representing the external world transcends the stages of movie theaters and TV screens, manifesting within the digital realm of computers. The technological advancement has enabled space as an interface (including both software and hardware) to encode and process complex information through visual symbols. Han’s inquiry into how to visualize the inside of this invisible black box underpins her universe.
The universe operates based on the hypothetico-deductive method, reconstructing a world by editing and reprocessing technoscientific research data to verify scientific theories of hypotheses. Consequently, Bitchondria has evolved by exploring four major dimensions of "paths." The term "path" is used to metaphorically represent both the temporal history from past to present and the spatial journey that the subject has occupied. Accordingly, the four narratives on time, gravity, cells, and data are provided as tools to mark and trace human society.
The "path of time" chronologically clarifies evidence of history and events, while the "path of gravity" enables the movement of objects or organisms and the efficient transmission of data. The "path of cells" allows real-time cognition of neurotransmitter pathways within cells, and the "path of data" makes it possible to trace data within the cloud.
These series of paths intervene in various ways in the future world humanity will face, tracking and reallocating omitted histories. Chronicles of history, faith, the advancement of data technology, and the migration and evolution of organisms are rewritten through the process of concretizing their original trajectorie, thereby visualizing the "object-orientated politics" of non-human entities. Bitchondria, which now allows us to trace "paths" previously invisible to the naked eye, has become the subject of history and follows the chronicle of humanity from the perspective of a third entity. The history of humanity and the advancement of technology, observed through the lens of the microscopic world, capture a fragment of one possible future.
2. Object-Oriented Seeing
The “invisible things” referred to in the exhibition present the system of the world that can only be interpreted from a non-human perspective. The exhibition "Eye See the World - Good After눈[2]” positions the Bitchondria as the subject of “seeing,” aiming to unveil the “invisible” aspects of the world and narrate a world seen through the eyes of objects. The “evolved eye” advanced by technological progress enabled it. Indeed, technology has progressed to allow us to see what we could not see before, revealing countless possibilities of other entities with advanced revolution. The ontological possibilities of smaller objects have become the foundation for organizing the virtual life form, the Bitchondria.
Such advancements, which place the human visual system within the structure of lens technology, have enabled us to sense the world through a technologically augmented third eye and have also transformed information systems and communication. The technical methodology of seeing has reconstructed the history of micro and macro alongside scientific progress and reconfigured the patterns of information and records. Telescopes were devised to look further into the distance, microscopes to peer into the microscopic world, making previously invisible worlds capturable. Conversely, cameras have been used as technologies for capturing, recording, and preserving time.
The camera, which enabled recording and documentation possible, developed its functions to intervene in visual logic. Editing techniques like magnification and reduction, interruption and separation, extension and shortening [3]led to the derivation of conceptual issues regarding recording and representation. Consequently, humanity, deviating from the representation of objects, began to reorganize the form of records and to express numerous political images, challenging the underlying layers that prioritized objectivity. Moreover, as the 21st century arrived, the digitally transformed viewing methodologies fundamentally altered the entire structure of information and communication, creating numerous forms of communication that couldn't be sensed.
While, the Bitchondria, the non-human entity, uses the perspective of the microscopic world seen through a microscope in reverse, urging us to reconsider and see the recorded world in a different way. The visualized records, which seemed to reproduce reality as it is, have crossed the layers of truth and power, and these images have, in turn, organized our history. Bitchondria with a weapon of “technologically augmented eye”, capable of tracing all recorded forms, demand the return of politically restructured history and centralized data to communal resources through a series of pathing processes. So now, being able to see the unseen, how is the path of the world seen by the “invisible” sensed, and what data has it made visible?
3. Augmented Eyes and Evolved Species
The Bitchondria, presented as the most microscopic units of life, propose an experience of "expanded seeing" to humans through technologically augmented eyes. The information received by these augmented visual organs provides a diversified dimension of seeing beyond human perception, revealing the blind spots of digital or multi-space written within black boxes. This evolution of the eye is concretized in three forms: "Fuse Eye," "Square Pupils," and "Monocular Movements Eyes." The mechanism of visual evolution follows a method that combines the primitive eyes of non-human entities like insects with the technologically augmented eyes of cameras, enabling the capture of information in complex dimensions.
The "Fuse Eye," combining the compound eyes, made of hundreds of individual lenses, with the single-lens of single eyes, is presented as a methodology to complexly implement configurations that can be conceived through the eyes of animals. "Square Pupils" are designed to recognize fine depth and secure a wide field of view, while "Monocular Movements Eyes" have emerged to allow independent movement of individual eyeballs. The combination of non-human entities' eyes, like those of animals or insects, with technology is a visual system that is embodied through the eight screens in the work ‹Good After눈› (2024). The technologically and mechanically expanded view is an essential means for the "visualization of paths" and is premised on the interpretation of future species in a changed environment.
However, the non-human perspective, discoverable with human eyes, can only be concretized through structurally reproduced images to understand that visual system. This is represented by using digital technology to shrink, enlarge with grids, or transform images into mosaics. Nevertheless, animals or insects perceive their environment through the unique structures of their eyes. The "seeing" of non-human objects does not rely solely on visual elements but perceives movement and form within the environment in a tactile and sensory manner.[4] Therefore, the images appearing on Han's screen may seem distorted or glitchy, but what these images aim to visualize is ultimately a methodology for absorbing information. These images aim to visualize the ultimate methodology of information reception. The compound eye movements shown on the eight screens reveal the visual systems of different subjects and possibly represent the political collectives of records and moving images enabled by the momentary unification of "object alliances" as non-humans.
Interestingly, a peculiar description suggests that a series of universes pass through the "evolution" of multiple species. This assumes a moment when the diversity of organisms and machines exceeds a threshold, preparing for the translation and misinterpretation of information between the digital world and the real world amid a changed ecosystem. Here, Han, through the work ‹Encyclopedia of New Species› (2024), seems to address the ecological issues that humans and non-humans must jointly contemplate by proposing the appearance of a diversified ecosystem. Each species shows evolved characteristics based on the four paths previously mentioned. Specifically, species like "Space-Time Traveler" or "Space-Time Sovereign" exhibit forms developed to move through time and space, while "Gravitational Adaptive Hunter" are described as having survived by quickly adapting to changes in gravity. "Signal Scavenger" or "Electromagnetic Sensing Snakes" propose bodies developed to embody information from their surroundings, and "Data Protectus Serpens" maintain the security of information from external threats. The paths of time, gravity, cells, and data are represented through the bodies of each non-human entity, invoking imaginations of an expanded decentralized community.
Han's universe goes beyond the narratives of Bitchondria on the screen, depicting a future society where multiple entities articulate by incorporating objects that may exist in future reality. The work that reflects on the history of records and the changing environment with technological advancements ultimately seeks a non-human alliance that will create a narrative about the black box, which future evolved beings will need to restore or intervene in. A world seen through the eyes of the invisible, rewritten records, and data returned to communal resources. The view of humanity mediated by Bitchondria's "eyes" functions as a warning about the environment that will change after the threshold, while also serving as a window to reinterpret the current situation and urging us to see the world in a different way.
[1] W. J. T. Mitchell (2015). Time and space. In W. J. T. Mitchell & M. B. N. Hansen (Eds.), Critical Terms for Media Studies (p. 138). (Yeonshim Jeong, Trans.).
[2] ‘눈’, pronounced [ nuːn ], means ‘eye’ in Korean.
[3] Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Seongman Choi, Trans.; 2007, 2nd ed.), (Original work published 1936).
[4] Jakob von Uexküll, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (Jieun Chung Trans), 2012, p. 41.
The Eye of the Object: Alliances for the Reconfiguration and Documentation of the World
Hyun Jung Moon (Independent Curator)
1. The World of Bitchondria
Since 2019, Suji Han has expanded her exploration of multidimensional concepts through the Bitchondria series. Bitchondria are data organelles existing in digital spaces with four or more dimensions. These hybrid life forms combine the characteristics of qubits, which can process both 0 and 1 at the same time, the properties of superstrings and energy from string theory that link the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, and the energy-regulating functions of mitochondria. This fictional creature appears on the screen, narrating the virtual and real worlds it has traversed. Through this process, it reflects on humanity's development within the dimensions and flow of time it has discovered. Bitchondria intervene in recorded history, aiming to appropriate and solve various issues encompassing the environment and ecology, presenting themselves as saviors.
Han’s universe presupposes that an organelle called Bitchondria possesses absolute knowledge and information about the world. This concept begins with the depiction of non-human entities as the subjects that constitute the world, assuming that life forms, especially at the most microscopic level, can absorb and process all the world's information. Written from a subversive perspective, the world restores the hidden side of history, which has been recorded in a human-centric manner. The full extent of social incidents is discovered through microscopic perception. Accordingly, the story that Bitchondria intends to tell settles on the flattened plane of the screen, and an unprecedented third entity emerges to articulate a narrative that revisits the layers of both the internal digital space and reality.
Why do Bitchondria exist in digital space? Since the 19th century, innovations in media technology have rapidly changed the categories of time and space. From transportation to mass media and long-range wireless transmission systems, digital technology has compressed time and space by accelerating the invention of means to transmit and store information and data.[1] Among these, the advancement of computers has provided units to objectify or reproduce time and space, expanding the concept of 'space.' Now of days, the space representing the external world transcends the stages of movie theaters and TV screens, manifesting within the digital realm of computers. The technological advancement has enabled space as an interface (including both software and hardware) to encode and process complex information through visual symbols. Han’s inquiry into how to visualize the inside of this invisible black box underpins her universe.
The universe operates based on the hypothetico-deductive method, reconstructing a world by editing and reprocessing technoscientific research data to verify scientific theories of hypotheses. Consequently, Bitchondria has evolved by exploring four major dimensions of "paths." The term "path" is used to metaphorically represent both the temporal history from past to present and the spatial journey that the subject has occupied. Accordingly, the four narratives on time, gravity, cells, and data are provided as tools to mark and trace human society.
The "path of time" chronologically clarifies evidence of history and events, while the "path of gravity" enables the movement of objects or organisms and the efficient transmission of data. The "path of cells" allows real-time cognition of neurotransmitter pathways within cells, and the "path of data" makes it possible to trace data within the cloud.
These series of paths intervene in various ways in the future world humanity will face, tracking and reallocating omitted histories. Chronicles of history, faith, the advancement of data technology, and the migration and evolution of organisms are rewritten through the process of concretizing their original trajectorie, thereby visualizing the "object-orientated politics" of non-human entities. Bitchondria, which now allows us to trace "paths" previously invisible to the naked eye, has become the subject of history and follows the chronicle of humanity from the perspective of a third entity. The history of humanity and the advancement of technology, observed through the lens of the microscopic world, capture a fragment of one possible future.
2. Object-Oriented Seeing
The “invisible things” referred to in the exhibition present the system of the world that can only be interpreted from a non-human perspective. The exhibition "Eye See the World - Good After눈[2]” positions the Bitchondria as the subject of “seeing,” aiming to unveil the “invisible” aspects of the world and narrate a world seen through the eyes of objects. The “evolved eye” advanced by technological progress enabled it. Indeed, technology has progressed to allow us to see what we could not see before, revealing countless possibilities of other entities with advanced revolution. The ontological possibilities of smaller objects have become the foundation for organizing the virtual life form, the Bitchondria.
Such advancements, which place the human visual system within the structure of lens technology, have enabled us to sense the world through a technologically augmented third eye and have also transformed information systems and communication. The technical methodology of seeing has reconstructed the history of micro and macro alongside scientific progress and reconfigured the patterns of information and records. Telescopes were devised to look further into the distance, microscopes to peer into the microscopic world, making previously invisible worlds capturable. Conversely, cameras have been used as technologies for capturing, recording, and preserving time.
The camera, which enabled recording and documentation possible, developed its functions to intervene in visual logic. Editing techniques like magnification and reduction, interruption and separation, extension and shortening [3]led to the derivation of conceptual issues regarding recording and representation. Consequently, humanity, deviating from the representation of objects, began to reorganize the form of records and to express numerous political images, challenging the underlying layers that prioritized objectivity. Moreover, as the 21st century arrived, the digitally transformed viewing methodologies fundamentally altered the entire structure of information and communication, creating numerous forms of communication that couldn't be sensed.
While, the Bitchondria, the non-human entity, uses the perspective of the microscopic world seen through a microscope in reverse, urging us to reconsider and see the recorded world in a different way. The visualized records, which seemed to reproduce reality as it is, have crossed the layers of truth and power, and these images have, in turn, organized our history. Bitchondria with a weapon of “technologically augmented eye”, capable of tracing all recorded forms, demand the return of politically restructured history and centralized data to communal resources through a series of pathing processes. So now, being able to see the unseen, how is the path of the world seen by the “invisible” sensed, and what data has it made visible?
3. Augmented Eyes and Evolved Species
The Bitchondria, presented as the most microscopic units of life, propose an experience of "expanded seeing" to humans through technologically augmented eyes. The information received by these augmented visual organs provides a diversified dimension of seeing beyond human perception, revealing the blind spots of digital or multi-space written within black boxes. This evolution of the eye is concretized in three forms: "Fuse Eye," "Square Pupils," and "Monocular Movements Eyes." The mechanism of visual evolution follows a method that combines the primitive eyes of non-human entities like insects with the technologically augmented eyes of cameras, enabling the capture of information in complex dimensions.
The "Fuse Eye," combining the compound eyes, made of hundreds of individual lenses, with the single-lens of single eyes, is presented as a methodology to complexly implement configurations that can be conceived through the eyes of animals. "Square Pupils" are designed to recognize fine depth and secure a wide field of view, while "Monocular Movements Eyes" have emerged to allow independent movement of individual eyeballs. The combination of non-human entities' eyes, like those of animals or insects, with technology is a visual system that is embodied through the eight screens in the work ‹Good After눈› (2024). The technologically and mechanically expanded view is an essential means for the "visualization of paths" and is premised on the interpretation of future species in a changed environment.
However, the non-human perspective, discoverable with human eyes, can only be concretized through structurally reproduced images to understand that visual system. This is represented by using digital technology to shrink, enlarge with grids, or transform images into mosaics. Nevertheless, animals or insects perceive their environment through the unique structures of their eyes. The "seeing" of non-human objects does not rely solely on visual elements but perceives movement and form within the environment in a tactile and sensory manner.[4] Therefore, the images appearing on Han's screen may seem distorted or glitchy, but what these images aim to visualize is ultimately a methodology for absorbing information. These images aim to visualize the ultimate methodology of information reception. The compound eye movements shown on the eight screens reveal the visual systems of different subjects and possibly represent the political collectives of records and moving images enabled by the momentary unification of "object alliances" as non-humans.
Interestingly, a peculiar description suggests that a series of universes pass through the "evolution" of multiple species. This assumes a moment when the diversity of organisms and machines exceeds a threshold, preparing for the translation and misinterpretation of information between the digital world and the real world amid a changed ecosystem. Here, Han, through the work ‹Encyclopedia of New Species› (2024), seems to address the ecological issues that humans and non-humans must jointly contemplate by proposing the appearance of a diversified ecosystem. Each species shows evolved characteristics based on the four paths previously mentioned. Specifically, species like "Space-Time Traveler" or "Space-Time Sovereign" exhibit forms developed to move through time and space, while "Gravitational Adaptive Hunter" are described as having survived by quickly adapting to changes in gravity. "Signal Scavenger" or "Electromagnetic Sensing Snakes" propose bodies developed to embody information from their surroundings, and "Data Protectus Serpens" maintain the security of information from external threats. The paths of time, gravity, cells, and data are represented through the bodies of each non-human entity, invoking imaginations of an expanded decentralized community.
Han's universe goes beyond the narratives of Bitchondria on the screen, depicting a future society where multiple entities articulate by incorporating objects that may exist in future reality. The work that reflects on the history of records and the changing environment with technological advancements ultimately seeks a non-human alliance that will create a narrative about the black box, which future evolved beings will need to restore or intervene in. A world seen through the eyes of the invisible, rewritten records, and data returned to communal resources. The view of humanity mediated by Bitchondria's "eyes" functions as a warning about the environment that will change after the threshold, while also serving as a window to reinterpret the current situation and urging us to see the world in a different way.
[1] W. J. T. Mitchell (2015). Time and space. In W. J. T. Mitchell & M. B. N. Hansen (Eds.), Critical Terms for Media Studies (p. 138). (Yeonshim Jeong, Trans.).
[2] ‘눈’, pronounced [ nuːn ], means ‘eye’ in Korean.
[3] Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Seongman Choi, Trans.; 2007, 2nd ed.), (Original work published 1936).
[4] Jakob von Uexküll, A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans (Jieun Chung Trans), 2012, p. 41.