The Institute for Culture and Arts (ICA) at the Seoul National University (SNU) presents its first international symposium “Circularity”, taking place at the SNU Museum of Art on Friday, March 3, 2023. This event is organized by Jihoi Lee, Curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Jongseek Lee, ICA’s Director, and Je Baak, Director in Programs, ICA.

The Institute for Culture and Arts is a new initiative at SNU to cultivate a trans-disciplinary, trans-genre, and trans-industrial ecosystem for practitioners beyond the fields of art and technology. Binding with the academic infrastructure, the ICA at SNU seeks to become a platform for creators of various areas by providing spaces for networking and showcasing projects. The ICA’s new building New House is slated for completion in 2026.

The symposium is intended to set the vision for the ICA’s initiative while extending our understanding towards art and culture in relation to technology, the environment, and the market. By recognizing the circulatory structures of resources, relationships, and technology, the symposium is an attempt to capture the ecosystem of practices in various disciplines today—art, design, architecture, philosophy, cosmology, sociology, anthropology, and more—through the lens of “circularity” beyond productivism.

The first track, “Nurturing Creative Minds”, will explore existing models for creators, structures of encouraging networks and entrepreneurship for further sustainability, and will examine how generational circularity reinvents knowledge through such structures. Raul Zbengheci (Deputy Director of NEW INC of New Museum in New York), Keith Kyuseung Noh (Team Lead & Creative Director of ZER01NE by Hyundai Motors Company), and Ute Meta Bauer (Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore) will share their experiences in incubating and supporting creative projects in the sectors of art, commerce, and academia.

The second track, “Socio-Ecosystem of the Future”, will explore the circulation of resources, people, and issues across various societal domains, with a focus on food, design, architecture, and urbanism. L. Sasha Gora (Cultural Historian & International Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI Essen)), Soik Jung (Co-Artistic Director of the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial 2023, Director of the Urban Mediation Project), and In-ah Shin (Co-Organizer of Feminist Designer Social Club) will share their research and practices that are embedded in specific communities and how they create greater socio-ecological effects in the world.

The third track, “After Technology”, will address how art can drive the speculative potential of technology through philosophical thinking and visual practices. Alex Taek-Gwang Lee (Professor of Cultural Studies at the School of Global Studies at Kyung Hee University) and Soh Yeong Roh (Director of the Art Center Nabi) will explore how technological circularity can be achieved through art that goes beyond merely responding to transcendental technology. Binna Choi from Artist Collective ‘Unmake Lab’ and Artist and Filmmaker Daniel R. Small will unravel their artistic experiment that stimulates our imagination beyond technology.

The symposium will conclude with a rave party, featuring Sorrow Club, which will take place at the Power Plant of SNU immediately after the event. The Institute for Culture and Arts hopes that the symposium “Circularity” will foster new relationships, inspire new research, and circulate new narratives for the arts and beyond.

Pre-registration is required for in-person attendance and the event will be live-streamed, both at circularity.kr. Inquiries: admin [​at​] circularity.kr.

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