Schrödinger and the Arts as Social System

A Review on <7 1/2 Project>

Hyunjin Shin

Some say cats have nine lives… but some cats still die of curiosity. And a cat, let’s say Schrödinger’s, maybe is both alive and dead at the same time because the cat is in a box in which potassium cyanide is set to be released at unknown time. It is curious to learn whether the cat will be dead or alive especially hearing that the very logic that dictates the life and death of Schrödinger’s cat applies to the everyday objects of our lives. When I first heard the experiment, I simply said, “Well, you can open it. Then you will know.” But quantum physicists argue that the result will vary depending on who opens it because there is this thing called “observer effect.” Maybe that is not as simple as it seemed. What quantum physicists say is that once I opened the box and the cat is alive, its circumstances such as me, cat, and life as we know it become one universe while making other possibility: different me, dead cat, etc. belong to the life of the other, a parallel universe. What? That is all you most advanced scientists have gotten so far? ; ‘your’ universe and ‘my’ universe are different and there is no way of knowing both? Ultimate curiosity of a mankind would be to understand the logic that governs both universes at the same time. Thinking that this is unbelievable, I looked up books here and there only to face other philosophers’ researches that there is no way to confirm their findings on how the world works, either. Does this mean that the principles of the world are determined by men’s (your and my) choices? But how on earth, can I choose unless I learn the principle that governs the world? Shouldn’t I know how the world works first in order to apply the rule to my decision making? If the principle of how the world works is for us to make a choice, should I study how you make your decision, too? I lead my life while breathing, experiencing and making decisions feeling happy, strange, or angry but in clear mind. This is how make my decisions. And I am damn sure that they were right one. So it is very hard to conceive someone else would make decision any different than mine. Then, exploring the difference between ‘you and (the) other’ seems to be the logical, if not only, means that can put the causal curiosity to sleep.

Things that are coming to my mind– after attending the event related to <7 1/2 Project> as well as talking on the phone with Oh Sunyoung over an hour– is that she might be wanting to resolve the same curiosity through the project to figure out what is inside someone else’s head ultimately lead her to understand how the world works. Considering the fact that the title, “7 1/2,” came from the movie title, “Being John Malkovich,” in other word, the space between 7th and 8th floor where you can access to someone else’s head, <7 1/2 Project> is resembled to the origin of ontology to understand the gap between me and the other. Especially now when there is no clear boundary between art and non-art, no normative esthetics that allows to assess artistic value, each of us must set one’s own canon on what is art and what is not. Maybe that is why. Oh Sunyoung, as a curator in such condition, brings in art as a tool that helps her to explore the gap between you and me. In a sense, she is looking in to the map of art defined by each member of the society. For that matter, Oh’s project that explores the gap between art and non-art as well as artist and non-artist is an act of clarifying art as social system.

Her nautical expedition on the ship named art departs from the realm of reason and passes through that of senses. As suggested in the statement, “we lose oh so easily the senses we initially had as soon as we locates arts in the realm of institutions and interpret them with the knowledge the institution provided,” this project has ambition to conquer both the lands of sense and the land of reason. If reasons can be a language of the objective, senses can be a language of the subjective. Since the realm of senses is located within the world of unconsciousness, such realm is considered as something indescribable with language. Though it seems that you might be able to figure out what others are if you can understand the world of unconsciousness, postmodernism considers it a virtue to let others be incomprehensible. Despite that, the <7 1/2 Project> launched a lecture series entitled, “Anthropological Expedition of Art and Unconsciousness” in the year 2014. The impression that I got after attending couple of lectures by Kim Namsoo was that the whole lecture is stemmed from the hope to figure out the gap between a man’s reason and senses. For him, an artist is sort of a Sharman, a potential being to mediate two worlds; one is phenomenological world that can be calculated with math and science and the other is beyond physical world. In what way an artist can either mediate or show the gap between art and non-art, the subject and the other? If we take < Enter Nowhere: Down the Rabbit Hole>, one of the programs from the project as an example, we might be able to see how. It is said that < Enter Nowhere: Down the Rabbit Hole> is an attempt to show a world that cannot be defined. Though the space presented at the project might be one of physical worlds, it is also a strange space where not a rule from reality cannot be applied, often reminds us of the past, or cannot be predicted.

Here, I wonder. From where is this sample of the gap observed? The program had Korean title, different form English one that can be translated to ‘non-existing border’. Thus, my question can be rephrased to if this non-existing middle ground is viewed from the outside or viewed within it? Can it be said it is the crack seen from the world of reason? Or, is it a world of reality seen from the realm of senses? one of the programs from <7 1/2 Project> sounds more promising that would give us some answer. I cannot be certain since I did not have chance to attend the program. However, its announcement states that the organizer requested its participating artists to disarm ‘themselves (art works)’ in order to sense and in order to co-exist with the other. When the gap between me and others can become something that can be explored by how much an artist gives up (self) consciousness or disarms his or herself? <7 1/2 Project>’s first attempt does not seem to be successful. Oh Sunyoung confesses in following project’s announcement that she had experienced an happening in which residents of the performing site, Mullae interrupted performers’ act during the performance of and revealed differences in views on the site. The incident took place when one of the performers called the streets and iron workshops, “something rugged …. waiting while stuck in here with cautious eyes against us.” Such statements provoked some of the workshop workers placing them in a bad mood and a guy rapped out complaint saying “how dare you …” By this, we might want to conclude that the participating artists did not disarm enough. Or we can say that the workers did not agree to the performer’s impression on the site where must have been the sweet nest for the workers. Then, we can also think that this is the matter of to whom we should bestow the authority to have final say on precise expression if no one person can agree to the other’s impression on one place, or if one person cannot agree to the other’s judgment. Nonetheless we learned that disarmament cannot show the gap between ‘you and me’ or across ‘the border at the world of idea that is operated by reason’.

From this time, Oh Sunyoung seems to decide to forget about the idea that the gap is something that can be resolved or conquered by comprehending it. Instead, she embarks a new adventure through creating ‘relations.’ The philosopher, Rancière understands that our world is operated by discontent with its keyword. Agreement for him is another word for violent subjugation to someone else’s idea and not different from totalitarianism. What only left to us is to participate in the table for compromise and such action and intention is ethical. Similar to this idea, later program from <7 1/2 Project> started to present the dynamic occurs when art and non-art collide each other instead of directly showing the gap between them. is an example. This program included Mr. Choi, one of the leading members of Mullae community after the manifesto, “There is no way of knowing how the gap between what each of us expect and what happens would be either narrowed or widened. Adventures are like that.” During the performance, Mr. Choi appeared as himself who is owner of an iron workshop in the area and who advises young artists who are in agony with hardships they face while trying to make it in the art world. His appearance created a site where in which art and non-art intermingle. While occupying portion of an art event, nonetheless Mr. Choi act a role of an artist that he thinks it is, he related himself with the esthetic experience as well as a creation of what esthetic is, and we, art professionals who occupied both most part of the audience and actors listened to him attentively. Though Mr. Choi was not either able to articulate what is art from the perspective of non-art sector or tell the gap between reason and senses, the gap might not be something you can say but perceive anyway. Also the gap between art and non-art might not be easily compromised soon. However, the people total of 20 something more or less perceived the gap between ‘the other’ at least and the experience will affect the universe connected to the box with Schrödinger’s cat that I will open in the future.