2022 POSTHUMAN: Stroytelling For Earthly Survival

2022 ACC Residency
2022 POSTHUMAN: Stroytelling For Earthly Survival, 2022

Work Area: Exhibition Poster, Brochure, Banner, Etc.

Client: Asia Culture Center (ACC)

Poster︎︎︎

594 × 841mm

‘The ACC Residency Earth Survival Guide: Posthuman 2022’ offers an opportunity to explore the spirit of a new era, ‘Posthumanism’, amid the pandemic and the crisis of the Anthropocene. The development of vaccines has protected mankind from viruses, but things have now changed with the outbreak of evolved viruses in recent years. The anthropocentric thinking that considered humans as the only capable species revealed its limitations, which became even more evident by environmental pollution, climate crisis, ecological problems, and the rise of new viruses. On the other hand, COVID-19 has made many things that we only saw as possibilities a reality, such as contact tracking on our smartphones, working from home, and video conferencing. The 4th Industrial Revolution took advantage of such a crisis to create new modes of life based on the potential of cutting-edge technology and provided a window into a posthuman reality where artificial intelligence is a world member. The pandemic experience has brought about a rapid global shift to digitalization and provided mankind with an opportunity to explore a new brand of humanism more appropriate for the future society.

This exhibition is based on the thoughts and ideas shared during the four months of the residency program. Each artist will go beyond the anthropocentric humanism concerned with questions about the convergence of, and the boundary between, humans, animals and machines, and about how technological development will change the definition of ‘humans’ to play with their imagination about a ‘posthumanism’ where humans coexist with other organisms on Earth. ‘How is the definition of human changing? What saves mankind? How can we distinguish between plants and animals, humans and machines, and humans and nonhumans? What are the human responsibilities towards the Earth, the environment, and other life forms? And what would the Earth look like without humans?’ Focusing on these questions, we reflect on the following aspects, ‘transformation of sensations and the body’, ‘connection between humans and technology’, and ‘predicting the future and symbiosis.’

Applications︎︎︎

Title Lettering — “Letter to Image”

Transformation of Sensations and the Body
It proposes a new alliance between diverse organisms like humans, nonhumans, and hybrid beings. Rapid advancements in biotechnology have dismantled the boundary between the human body, living organisms, and nonhumans. Technological development, neoliberalism, wars, the outbreak of new epidemics, and environmental disasters all remind us that nonhuman beings are no longer objects to be conquered but part of the interdependent symbiosis that binds humans, different species, and the earth.

The Connection between Humans and Technology
When we try to imagine ‘after-human’, we often think of cyborgs and trans-humans dreaming of improved human beings. The human body is no longer considered as something immutable, but can change at any time through technology. The posthuman, which originated from the expectation that humans may be released from their physical bodies to exist in a digital or highly mental form, dreams of the coevolution of humans and machines based on technological development.

Predicting the Future & Symbiosis
We cannot predict what kind of world we will inhabit in the future, but the crisis we are now facing demands a change in perspective. The works on display will propose the attitude of a critical posthuman, that is, humans and nonhumans working together bound by an inseparable, interdependent relationship. We imagine an open future in which all living things enjoy equal rights and live together in the era of the Anthropocene based on a new relationship of solidarity that transcends anthropocentricism.

This exhibition calls for global coexistence and solidarity in this age of pandemic and climate crisis, as well as an opportunity to share ideas about the practical applications of posthumanism that will lead us into the world of Sympoiesis (co-creation). It's time for us to put our heads together and think about the ‘planet earth’, which shares its right to life with human and nonhuman beings. Earth Survival Guide: Posthuman 2022 will explore the ethics of an era in which humans and nonhumans coexist on the same planet earth, and lead us to a future imaginary world where they try new forms of communication.

Text by Hyemi Oh (ACC Curator)

Graphics are to imagine various 'Anthropocene topography' according to the theme of the exhibition. First of all, the title letters were placed according to the layout of the poster. Afterwards, the space between the letters was interpreted by the program (blending mode), resulting in an atypical shape. In addition to the created terrain (placed from the top to the bottom of the screen), a virtual climate and character were given. In addition to the created terrain (placed from the top to the bottom of the screen), a virtual climate and character were given. For example, it gets colder at the top and hotter at the bottom, or natural and artificial topography.