In this soft kinetic installation Chroma, light, sound, material, and machines intra-act, forming a chromatic knot. A 15-meter-long parametric structure with 7 crossings and 320 cells all kinetically linked, its curves, while mathematically generated, are determined by a physics-based algorithm; the topological knot is formed by gravity and the collision modeling algorithm. Each cell, differently shaped, is made of a highly transparent laminated polymer, and fine deformation along with surface friction (shear stress) is kinetically applied to polymer layers, the photo-elasticity (birefringence) of which enables chromatic and optical variations; concurrently, the cellular automata algorithm of the main computer program activates the parameter of phenomenal changes in the knot, the speed, direction and brightness of its light in particular, as shown on its chromatically dynamic surface. The depth of the material is revealed through this iridescent light.  

Chroma creates its own “mattereality” in time-space as “mattereal” events unfold around and through it. So what matters in the knot, a gyrating vortex, is its topological dimensions rather than its size, scale, or our relative distance from it. A kind of hieroglyph that connects non-human elements to humans, this labyrinthine figure that has fascinated us since ancient times appears in strong symbols such as the ouroboros, DNA structures, the motion of Milky Way stars, etc. Chroma, which emerges with a knot generated rather than defined, turns into an eventual subject, the subject of eventuation, pulsating and transmattering through space-time for us.

Courtesy of the artist

Yunchul Kim (KR) is a transdisciplinary artist and electronic music composer who works in installations, drawings, sound, texts, and other media. Dynamically integrating science, technology, music, philosophy, and poetry into his practice, Kim unravels a universe of “mattereal” entanglements, and his transmaterial work has been recognized with the 2016 Collide International Award (CERN) and awards at VIDA 15.0, Ars Electronica and Transmediale, among others. Also an active member of many cutting-edge collaborative research projects such as  Mattereality (KIAS, leader), Liquid Things (Univ. of Applied Arts, Vienna) and Fluid Skies, in 2014 he founded the Studio Locus Solus in Seoul. His current solo show, Gyre, is at the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, 2022.