Electric Shock

Artists: Line of Piers, Kim Woojin, Park Yena, Song Yehwan, eobchae

Electric Shock is a report on electricity. Electricity refers to “a fundamental form of energy expressed in terms of the movement and interaction of electrons.” It is an important resource that allows contemporary human society to function. A life without electricity is hard to imagine, for that would mean a life without household appliances, digital consumption, advanced production lines, and logistics systems. What’s more, the recent commercialization of artificial intelligence (AI) and the expansion of Big Tech have exponentially increased the consumption of electricity, putting even greater strain on the power grid. Ensuring a stable supply of electricity has become a question of paramount importance, as it is directly related to how quickly advanced technologies such as AI can be integrated into the competitiveness of a state or an enterprise. This is the age of “electric hegemony,” where endless lust for technological advancement gives rise to attempts that seek to maximize electric power generation with finite resources. It is an age where electricity no longer functions solely as a source of energy that enriches people’s lives: it is now a weapon that determines people’s survival. This ravenous hunger for electricity has led to unrestrained development, turning efforts toward carbon neutrality to naive promises that delay technological advancement. Voices that have called for “sustainable” coexistence, such as post-humanism, reflections on the Anthropocene, and investigations into the relationship between the humans and the non-humans, have been relegated into the pages of history, left behind by the world embroiled in the “war for electricity.” Electric Shock explores the sharp relationship between technology and the environment that is unfolding today, using electricity as a medium to trace this connection.

The exhibition Electric Shock features five contemporary media artists and teams. Media art is often seen as a representation of technological progress, as its very existence is conditioned by its reliance on electricity. This exhibition presupposes a situation of “complete power outage.” At first glance, it seems to be questioning the utility of media art in a disaster situation, but by revealing the limitation of media art in its functionality, the exhibition alludes instead to artistic practices that can be made at the forefront of a crisis. The works presented in the exhibition expose our own portrait, consumed by blind faith in technology and indifference toward the environment, summon beings that have been erased or rendered absent through digital transformation, and revive the self-sustaining organism of technology that does not offer salvation to humanity. They also highlight the “electrical minorities” designated under the hierarchical distribution of electric resource and visualize the human desire to modify their bodies within the new environments brought about by technology. The future depicted by these works of media art leaves no space for humans. Only the disasters created by humans persist. But in reality, technology is elevated as the very savior that will deliver us from this disaster. The fault does not lie with technology. Instead, the fault lies in the lingering belief that technological progress will somehow reclaim its proper trajectory and return the future to humanity. 

Electric Shock does not conclude with a definitive ending as a report on electricity. The ultimate goal of this report is to share the warning signs and invite us to imagine the coming future. What will that future be? Will it take the form of a disaster that, like the numerous predictions that were made and are continuing to be made, could bring an end to humanity, or will it take the form of a fortress of vacuum where nothing happens (or nothing that happens can be seen?). The exhibition ends with a record of electricity that constitutes its form. Electricity will be with us everywhere, in one way or another. Now, it is time to reveal how.

Curated by Han Noori (Curator, Buk SeMA), with Choi Eunchong (Exhibition Coordinator, Buk SeMA).

Mobile Docent for Electric Shock : electricshock.app. Official Trailer for Electric Shock here!