Deep in the Forking Tanks is the fiction about the simulation training program for divers in a ‘sensory deprivation tank.’ The work consists of three parts, starting with reading the user manual of the tank, which “extremely expands the body in a situation where the senses are deprived.” In the work, which follows the training log and simulation video of the deceased female diver Song Yeoreum, the narrator experiences a situation in which his senses are paralyzed, where “the body becomes water, and the water becomes himself.” Afterward, he suffers from memory loss during the simulation. As the past, future, and present points of view are compressed and the past that escapes his memory is recorded as a video and appears in front of his eyes, the artist falls into a confused state of senses and time. The third part tells the story of a cult in Mexico that tries to ‘automate’ their bodies by dancing automatically with K-pop choreography embedded into the bodies. It shows a similar connection to the bodily sensations experienced in a tank.
The sensory deprivation tank is a metaphor for contemporary life in which we experience mixed temporality and loss of senses in the digital environment and walk a tightrope at the boundary between death and life. The artist has combined digital media, GPS, VR, face swap, game images and footage, and video recordings into images and narratives. In this work, he questions whether the manual works in our lives to escape the ‘Mode-Confusion’ as in the ‘tank.’
- Artist
- Kim Heecheon
- Date
- 2019
- Classifications
- video
- Medium
- 1-channel video, color, sound
- Dimensions
- video 42min
- Collection No
- 266