GMU:Sustainable Aesthetics/Dahye Seo

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you shows the process of melting snow as a video signal. This work poetically represents life consisting of infinite cycles of yin and yang through a process in which two substances with opposite properties affect each other, such as ice and water, water and fire, and natural being and machines.

눈이 불에 의해 녹는다. 불은 눈과 접촉하는 순간 꺼진다. 이 작업은 눈과 불, 극의 성질을 가진 두 물질이 서로 영향을 주고 받는 과정을 통해 음과 양의 무한한 순환으로 이루어진 생을 시적으로 재현한다.

Technical solution

1. put birthday candles in snow (snow cake)
2. Install the camera facing the snow cake and monitor
3. connect the camera to the monitor.
4. cut the video cable connecting the camera and monitor.
5. put the two cutted cables into the snow cake
6. Snow has little conductivity, and water has a high conductivity. As the snow melts into water, the amount of active electrons between the cutted cables increases.
7. The snow cake appears on the monitor affected by the process of melting the snow cake itself.

Snow melts by fire. Fire goes out the moment it meets the snow. This work poetically represents life consisting of infinite cycles of yin and yang through a process in which two substances with opposite properties affect each other.