HAN GIL JANG
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2021
Indexical Constellations addresses the abuse of detained asylum seekers in South Korea in September 2021, where a detainee was hog-tied for over four hours at one of the immigrant detention centers. The performance is reading of a transcribed version of the statement issued by the detainee after the incident, which was delivered by an activist supporting him at a press conference.
The vibration of the performer's voice is captured beneath the vocal cord by a band of piezo-electric transducers she is wearing, which at first it goes through a series of modifications via granular synthesis. The granular effect gradually wears out as the performance proceeds, and in the end the audience is left with only the vibrational trace of the performer's voice—its speech content is gone, whereas the prosodic elements remain. The sound interacts with the audio-responsive visual generated by a Max patch that responds by creating lines—whose threshold is determined based on the amplitude—on a point-cloud image of the sites where the very first refugee camps in South Korea were established (1975). The entire project is based on a year-long fieldwork that consists of such site visits, interviews with an asylum seeker on a temporary release, and the activities of International Waters 31, a group of activists formed in response to the abuse of detainees at Hwaseong Immigrant Detention Center.
Audio-visual performance
Duration: approx. 55 min.
Premiered at Theatre Sinchon (Seoul, KR)
Dates: Sunday, Dec. 5 – Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021
Credits:
Created by Da Eun Lee and Hangil Jang
Video: Da Eun Lee (right), Hangil Jang (left)
Sound: Hangil Jang
Reciter: Hyunjin Kim
Dramaturg: Jae Wook Song
Technical Assistance: duruphil
Written Descriptions: Minkwan Kim
Documentation: Da Eun Lee, Yohan Choi
Sponsored by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
Special Thanks to Yamoudou Traore and Minkwan Kim