Enablers of Newton, Installation view, 2018, ISOTOP exhibition, Stockholm (© Iden Sungyoung Kim)
Enablers of Newton explores what kind of relationships between big science and society has been established and how this invisible connection could be made visible through artistic practice. The work simultaneously detects the role of artistic media, specifically photography and cinematography, in society and asks how artistic practice is dependent on social context.
All images from the archive collection that show the signing of contracts and even contract documents between institutes and companies or other laboratories have been selected, photographed and reproduced as slide film images (Dias) by the artist. They are presented as a photo-cinematic installation, which lets us reflect on how scientific knowledge or even the natural laws are somehow always tied to social boundaries and, following that, whether these can ever be perceived as value-neutral. This work provides a time-based narrative recited by three projectors with different viewing times. Located within the R1 Reactor, which is now used as a public space, the installation combines the spatial background with its cinematic aspects, thereby adding a diachronic layer to the historic space.
This project was realized in cooperation with KIT Archiv (Karlsruher Institute of Technology) and with support by the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg – Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.
Following a Bachelor of Arts in painting and teaching professions in Seoul, South Korea, and participating in exhibitions in South Korea, China and Germany as well as working as a concept artist and art educator in a hospital, Iden Sungyoung Kim (*1991) started studying Media Art at Karlsruhe University of Art and Design in October 2016. She focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations in artistic research, mainly working with photography and film in spatial installation.