Young-Hae Change Heavy Industries, TEASER 2010
12 rooms in Media Networks
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries were among the first artists to explore the possibilities of making internet or net art
Following the launch of web browsers in the 1990s, artists began to experiment with the internet as a medium for creating new art experiences. The web allowed artists to exhibit their work without the endorsement of an institution. Then, as now, net art transcended geographical and cultural boundaries, while also challenging prejudice and aesthetic conformity within the art world.
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (YHCHI) is a collective consisting of the Korean artist Young-Hae Chang and the North American artist Marc Voge. They make digital text-based works with original music soundtracks. YHCHI draw on concrete or abstract poetry, narrative literature and experimental cinema. Their work explores a wide range of social and political issues, from the excess and futility of the art world, to the dangers of climate change.
For over 20 years, YHCHI’s primary medium was the multimedia software platform ‘Flash’. This software was often used to create web-based animations. The artists have described it as ‘cheap and easy’. The accessibility of Flash resonates with the open unrestricted values of net art. In the words of YHCHI: ‘All you need is your own website and an Internet connection, and you no longer need things like an artists’ studio. You no longer need to be in London.’
YHCHI continue to adapt their work for different contexts, while also responding to shifts in technology. Today these works can be experienced both online and in a gallery setting. The process of conserving and displaying net art is explored as part of Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum, an Andrew W. Mellon funded research initiative at Tate.
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), THE ART OF SLEEP 2006
THE ART OF SLEEP 2006 is an online artwork, a web-based animation in black and white with sound that lasts eighteen and a half minutes. The animation consists of capitalised black text on a white background set to the rhythm of jazz music, a soundtrack which was composed by the artists using software programmes such as GarageBand and Logic Pro. The animation intentionally cannot be paused or toggled through, thereby denying the viewer control and distinguishing the work from many other contemporaneous works of net art which are typically characterised by interactivity and dependence upon viewers’ active participation. THE ART OF SLEEP was originally commissioned to coincide with the frieze art fair in London in 2006 for presentation on Tate’s Intermedia Art micro site – an extension of the main Tate website which was actively updated between 2008 and 2010 and contains an archive of net art projects from 2000 onwards. The project was dedicated to art that not only ‘engages the use of new media, sound and performance’ but addresses ‘art that comments on the social and political implications of new technology and practices that challenge traditional ideas of the art object; including work that is process-driven, participatory or interactive’ (Tate Intermedia Art, ‘About’, http://www2.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/about/, accessed March 2018).
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artworks in Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), THE ART OF SILENCE 2006
THE ART OF SILENCE 2006 is an online artwork, a web-based animation in black and white with sound that lasts just under fourteen minutes. The animation consists of capitalised black text on a white background set to the rhythm of jazz music, a soundtrack which was composed by the artists using software programmes such as GarageBand and Logic Pro. The animation intentionally cannot be paused or toggled through, thereby denying the viewer control and distinguishing the work from many other contemporaneous works of net art which are typically characterised by interactivity and dependence upon viewers’ active participation. The work is a companion piece to another web-based animation, THE ART OF SLEEP 2006 (Tate T15753) which was originally commissioned to coincide with the frieze art fair in London in 2006 for presentation on Tate’s Intermedia Art micro site – an extension of the main Tate website which was actively updated between 2008 and 2010 and contains an archive of net art projects from 2000 onwards. The project was dedicated to art that not only ‘engages the use of new media, sound and performance’ but addresses ‘art that comments on the social and political implications of new technology and practices that challenge traditional ideas of the art object; including work that is process-driven, participatory or interactive’ (Tate Intermedia Art, ‘About’, http://www2.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/about/, accessed March 2018).
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artworks in Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), TRAILER 2010
TRAILER 2010 is a text-based work that was originally presented as a projection in the exhibition YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010. The narrative texts alternate between English and Korean and are accompanied by a dramatic soundtrack of Jazz-style music composed by the artists. They tell the story of a confrontation between two people, one of whom shoots the other in the wrist before demanding he be shot in the forehead. While the English text tells the story in a coherent manner, the Korean text appears only intermittently, consisting of fragments of phrases and loaded words such as ‘eroticism’, ‘sex’ and ‘attractive proposal’. The title of the work alludes to the dramatic conventions of cinema even though this ‘trailer’ has no images.
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artworks in Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), TEASER 2010
TEASER juxtaposes images and texts with a soundtrack on a tilted LCD screen and incorporates slogans drawn from film advertisements such as ‘THE CONTROVERSIAL NEW MASTERPIECE THAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT’. The title makes reference to the way film advertising catches the viewer’s imagination and promises an exciting experience. It was originally shown in the exhibition YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010.
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artworks in Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES 2010
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES is a text-based work that was originally shown on a tilted LCD screen in the shop window of Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010. It formed part of the exhibition of the same name by the artistic collective Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Both in its positioning on the street, and in the content of its message, the work announced the exhibition to visitors and passers-by.
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artworks in Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Art in this room
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