Minha Yang Funnels Social Discourse Through New Media Art

"I think media art makes people stupid," says Minha Yang. If you consider the power of technology utilized in Meditation 1208~, which makes people flap their arms and jump up and down to trigger the virtual reaction, it's kind of easy to agree.

Many of us have had the opportunity to experience Yang’s audiovisual installation Meditation 1208~ as it traveled to our global events from Seoul and New York in 2011 to this year's opening in San Francisco. Confronting the hybridism of religion and spiritual symbology, he provides his audience with a moment of individualized introspection as radiating orbs reflect movements from people’s arms and bodies.

Fascinated with basic human behavior, Yang designs works that unite technology with an intangible aesthetic that often address various aspects of sociocultural phenomena. He is confrontational and critical in trying to clarify a realistic understanding of the world around him, but the meaning behind his works rarely coincide with how the audience actually interprets them. And somewhat cynically, he prefers to keep it that way.

Although his works have dark and moody undertones, Yang himself is quite personable and endearingly sarcastic. Get to know him more in our behind-the-scenes video above, and check out some doodles and sketches from his upcoming works below.

The Sound of Light

The first sketches of The Sound of Light, a space filled with the infinite interactions between light and sound.

Freak

A page from the artist’s ongoing cartoon comic, Freak

Discontinuous Accumulation

Discontinuous Accumulation, reinterprets glazed traditional Korean pottery goods through digital media. The work expresses the transformation of dirt through the various phases of defragmentation, fragmentation, and accumulation.

@CreatorsProject