Living in Space - Kenny's show

This is a student show titled "Living in Space" by Kennith Kim. In Part 2 of the exhibition, the artist utilizes all basic element of art and the most generic materials, to demonstrate the dynamic between architecture, space and audience. Among the artworks displayed, I'm intrigued by this experiment on ants' space, to simulate the behavior-driven performance and to explore the dynamic between space and behavior. Too often when we think about space in terms of performance, we code on the users' behavior, rather than the space per se. Whether the relation between space and performance is a causality or interaction remains ambiguous. However, in this experiment, the ants contribute to demonstrate the purity of this ideally interactive relation, that the tunnel space of ants accurately reflect their behavior in return. At least what can be perceived is that ant-space is the result of the interaction that the ants have conducted in the space. What fascinates me is the engaging element of the space, in a sense that ants' tunneling creates the space, and the space effects the ants' behavior. In other words, ants create spaces while they are using it. Without any doubt, the symbolism of architecture goes beyond this.

When it comes to the space of human beings, the idea of this experiment echoes that of the Japanese architect Isozaki Arata, who never stops promoting the intimate relationship between the architecture and its audience. Unfortunately, human beings do not reserve the autonomy on their living space, which most likely happens to be designed and fixed. Another thought will be relating to Foucault's dilemma. On one side, people become more and more attached to all those multi-layered, specified and functional space, to gain a larger degree of mobility and convenience, since that is what the spaces is designed to be; on the other side, the space-users trade for these "goods" with freedom, private information and even safety, to be subjected to power. There is really no more "innocent space", since the ones are all interwined with economical and social attachments, with technologies as the stepping-stone in this case. Another inappropriate metaphor would be the microcosm represented in theater. With "the power" as the audience around us, we seemingly are the center of the world, subjected.