H/U/M/A/N M/A/C/H/I/N/E: Exploring How Technology Affects Us

The dawn of technological development is still inchoate. This long and lasting cultural aspect that we eat, breathe, and most dependently survive with has inspired varied questions of controversy. Where, when, and how does man demonstrate his autonomy vis-à-vis the accelerating momentum of technology? It’s what Thorstein Veblen conceptualized as technological determinism—is technology a phenomenon beyond our control? Multimedia artist Takahito Irie presents his take on this monumental predicament in his exhibition: H/U/M/A/N M/A/C/H/I/N/E.

From Beijing to Tokyo and now Seoul, this young artist invades major cities throughout Southeast Asia with his explorative endeavors. An idea sprung from observing the exponential growth in the modifications of human desires through technological development, H/U/M/A/N M/A/C/H/I/N/E interprets how the unnatural proceeds to evolve into the natural as technical innovations continue to penetrate even the most organic corners of human existence.

Irie takes a deeper look at this diverging rift between the mind and the physical body and tackles what it means to be living in the advancing information age. By honing a motif of the robot as a metaphor for the post-human effects of technology and deciphering these ramifications on human development, the artist examines the experience of man and the machine.

As his exhibition is taking place now at Platoon Kunsthalle in Seoul, we had a quick chat with Irie after the opening performance.

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