Exquisite Corpus is a performance installation exploring the feedback loop between bodies — the human body, the machinic body, and ecological bodies.

Exquisite Corpus is a 30 minute performance by Sougwen Chung in which she draws with three generations of her robotic collaborators in a space made up of visual projection and sound. During the performance, Chung’s bio feedback and the environment are linked.

Each thematic chapter showcases an evolving robotic behavior linked to the artist's explorations of art and AI.

Exquisite Corpus is a reference to exquisite corpse, a surrealist drawing game exploring collaborative drawing and corpus, latin for ‘Body’

The work is part of an ongoing series of Drawing Operations projects by Sougwen Chung.

The systemic stories of our linked co-productions of economies and ecologies, of human and non-human, must be relentlessly relational, sympoietic, and consequential.

Chapter 1

SYSTOLE

Chapter 1, Systole begins as textural landscape of eeg and emf recordings, on a backdrop of abstract geometric lines with an image of the dimensional trigrams of the I-Ching.

We use drawing to denote ourselves; our existence within a scene.

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Chapter 2

EPOCH

Chapter 2, Epoch, combines chopped up and textured satellite time-lapse imagery of cities over the past several decades, including Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Toronto, accompanying a dissonant musical score.

#ExquisiteCorpus

Chapter 3

OASIS

Chapter 3, Oasis, is a vibrant landscape comprised of nature inspired visualizations of the artists recorded eeg data over the course of several months. 

Chapter 4

AUBADE

Chapter 4, Aubade, combines elements from the first three chapters, exploring human machine ecological sympoietics. The environment is linked directly to the data from Sougwen’s heart rate, linking the collective experience to the embodied nature of performance.

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Exhbition & Performance

Drawing performances are 30 minutes in length. The collaboration is entirely improvised and showcases a process of human & robotic co-creation.

To learn more about the body of work, please visit the Press section.
For booking inquiries, please contact office@scilicet.xyz
For official press images, go here

CREDITS

Concept by Sougwen Chung
Robotics & Visual Direction: Sougwen Chung
EEG Visualization: Sougwen Chung
Musical Score: Chris Leung
EMF/EEG Sound Composition: Wesley Goatley
 

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INSTALLATION TEAM

AV Technical Direction: Igal Nassima
Sensor Implementation: Superbright
End Effector Fabrication: Charlie Whitney
Fabrication Support: Chris Lunney
Producer: Scilicet

READING LIST

Haraway, Donna Jeanne. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, 2016.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, et al. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

To learn more about the body of work, please visit the Press section.
For booking inquiries, please contact office@scilicet.xyz
For official press images, go here

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Copyright Sougwen Chung