Audience-participatory virtual space performance implementing '<Breathing Space(2020)>' in first-person perspective.

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> CREDIT <
Concept: YEODA 
Co-Direction: YEODA, Yerina Lee 
Space Direction: Yerina Lee  
VR Programming/Animation/ Spatial 3D Modeling: Jusin Kim 
Character Design/-3D Modeling: YEODA
Music&Sound Design: Haeun Jung 
Sound Engineering: Seokhwa Jung 
Audience Costume Design: Minseon Jeon 
Graphic Design: Woorim So 
 

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Breathing Space, by the artist Team YEODA, started off from the curiosity stemming from relationships and distance we have between others. The source of their wonder about individuals began from the team working jointly on stage directing, and space design. The artist, who faced conflict, reconciliation, and scars, finds that personal space changes based on the subject she meets.

 

Some people are not as intimate despite being close by, while others are intimate despite being far away. Some make us withdraw when they get too close. There is an abstract space for others in our subconscious. It is known as ‘Personal Space’. This concept became popular in a book published in 1966, ‘The Hidden Dimension’ written by anthropologist Edward Hall. The book claims humans have a physical distance they would like to keep from others, and everyone has their own invisible measure of it. It’s as if everyone is inside an invisible bubble to the eye. Society demands everyone to keep a certain distance to prevent popping each other’s bubble.

 

Despite this, we invade and collide into each other’s space. Our bubbles sometimes grow, shrink and they even pop. The Breathing Space project utilizes viewer participation to show these abstract distances and relationships with VR (Virtual Reality). The research title was borrowed from Robert Sommer, an American environmental psychologist. Our Breathing Space doesn’t reveal itself. However, once it is intruded upon by others, our lives and tempo begin to materialize and clash. There is a pattern for the distance depending on the intimacy, but there isn’t a set rule.

 

Breathing Space features 7 kinds of virtual characters. The characters are familiar beings with maximized characteristics; for example: ‘Snail’ covered with armor to defend its soft body, ‘Vending Machine’, a hikikomori that selectively converses with others, ‘Plastic Bag’ a pure being whom anyone can clearly see through. The audience will wear the Oculus and pre-programmed wearable devices and become the on-screen characters. Each character begins invading the other’s space and will organically change based on their designed tendencies. The space for each character will expand or shrink as if one’s taking a breath. There will also be dangerous situations where the room will fill up with water up to the character’s face.

 

Team YEODA makes the audience recognize this invisible but existing space and asks how we will perceive ourselves and others within society. We not only possess a physical boundary but a psychological one as well. It’s akin to feeling threatened when someone invades our boundaries. All of us have agreed to wear a social mask and not invade each other’s space, but within that boundary, there’s a diversity of emotions and methods for forming relationships. We invite you to Breathing Space, a virtual world where you can experience conflict and reconciliation as someone else while wearing a mask of another. This project will take place as a preview for 3 days, including an artist performance, and audience participation. The will also continue at ‘Punto Blu’ at Seongsu.

 

Written by Sun Mi Lee
Curator, Alternative Space LOOP