The IEA was delighted to have Su Hyun Nam as our visiting artist over the week of December 8th. Receiving her MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Su’s work investigates the underlying disintegration of the seemingly coherent public world into tiny and heterogeneous fragments of experience. Employing digital technology as a tool of mediation to both dissolve conflicts between competing social norms and clashing cultural perspectives, as well as address the separation between socio-relationships and information systems, Su’s use of technology synthesizes the computational process of production with the more meditative process of self-discovery.

Much of Su’s time at the IEA was spent gathering resources, photos, video, and sound recordings, for future works. Starting in Seoul, Korea, and then migrating to Chicago before moving to her current home in Buffalo, Su was enthusiastic to work in a rural setting for imagery and sound that contrasted her previous locations. Visiting nearby sites like Foster Lake in Alfred and Kanakadea Park in Hornell offered ample opportunity to gather images for works similar to Woven Milieu and other projects. She also made use of the video studios for editing and viewing some of the imagery she gathered for these projects.

Below are a sample of images from Su’s time here and some works in progress: