J. PARK infers the meaning of the world from signals that make the digital world work and from the sounds that are classified as noise or considered a surplus product that hinders communication. Collecting, magnifying, and reorganizing the noise that occasionally occurs in computation, the artist attempts a philosophical subversion of the hierarchy between values that are welcomed and unwelcomed. Noise, manifested as a phenomenon belongs to the realm of the negative. Yet when magnified, it can sufficiently fulfill the terms presented by the aesthetic norms such as rhythm, rhyme, order, and orderliness. The presence of errors (noise) in computation means that humans are still in control of and managing computation. Noise is, therefore, the remnant of humanism.
PARK says that our age is characterized by digital virtuality. In reality, our substance is being sucked into digital virtuality. We can neither analyze nor define the substance of its power. The artist uses the term “phantom” to define the symptoms of our times. Here, phantom does not simply refer to ghosts; it refers to a life in which one is carried away by aimlessness and conformity without even knowing the identity of the impetus that drives the times. PARK states that while it is irresponsible to look at such a period optimistically, it is also cowardly to look at it pessimistically. Rather, he says, we should endeavor to occupy the middle ground (zhongyong) between the two. According to the artist, this transitional period, with hurdles that are bound to appear whenever moving on to a new phase, is necessary in order to advance a better direction of history.
