Our second day in Seoul Jay & Jiwon took Rūta and I to MMCA the Modern Art Museum of Seoul. This is my second time here, the first being on my inaugural trip to Korea a couple years ago. if you click the audio below you can step into the space. As this is the first post here on my blog, much of it will be either photos, or field recordings inviting you to step into some memory of mine, this is the first. so press play, and listen while reading the text below…

You can hear people shuffling by, and just off to the left in muffled tones you can hear Jay speaking in Korean, all these sounds take me right back. When I recorded this we were sitting on benches just to the side of an exhibit we were waiting to take place, Jay and Jiwon off about 15 feet to our left, while Rūta and I sat watching and listening as people pass by. Near the end of the recording you can hear Jay ask Rūta what symbolic meaning Crows have in our culture, explaining briefly that in Korea they are very Bad luck adversely in Japan they are the opposite.

There was much wandering which didn’t get recorded, obviously I don’t record sound the entire time, but I kinda wish I did. Below is the recording made while we all watched this very particular exhibit, in fact it’s the one we were sitting on the benches waiting on, and one you may recognize from Instagram. So, click play, wait, and after a bit you’ll begin to hear a high pitch mechanical sound, that is the sound of the mechanical straw people moving in harmony to roll the ball in a circular pattern atop the platform on their backs.

You can make our a high pitched mechanical ringing, and a creaking, those are the mechanized legs of the straw people. The platform begins slowly, lifting one edge causing the ball to roll toward the opposite edge. Then, before it fall off, the mechanical people below that portion of the platform raise themselves to sufficient height, keeping the ball from falling. Eventually they create a circular rotation of the platform which keeps the ball tumbling in a similar fashion up top. Thus, the exhibit. As simply as I describe it, the piece was actually quite fascinating, and undoubtedly hypnotizing.

I could tell you about more things we found in that huge space, but since I can’t quite show you (this is where my photos from the museum end) I think I’ll leave it there for now.

thank you Jay, Jiwon, and Rūta 🙂