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System Art: Rebellion to the System

4/15/2025, 5:52:50 AM | Jeanyoon Choi

Original Notes (Pre-LLM)

From the slave of the system to the master of the system.

Contextual Change

교양의 화려한 복권

Why is System Art relevant?

The system is a big simulacrum. It marks humans as slaves. We’re living in the biggest slavery ever. Slaves, doing manual jobs, and being proud of doing that manual jobs, calling it ‘professionalism’. Now those professionals will be unemployed - thanks to AI. RIP professionals. Now it’s the time not to stay in the field but to overcome the field and go vertically. System Art helps to do this.

System: A field. Inside a system human is a slave. Sometimes a happy slave.

Vertically navigating through the system: A unique capability of (free) humans. We can overcome the a priori, going beyond the existing field, and navigating vertically and freely. We no longer are bounded by the system - Ratherly, we create a system.

System art is about creating a system. It’s not only about depicting the system dynamics -- although those approaches (Hans Haacke, ANT, 니콜라 부리오) were relevant (and although none of these had ACTUALLY succeeded in depicting the system) -- It’s not about simply making the system interactive/dynamic. It’s about allowing the audience to CREATE the system, to create a bunch of systems, within an exhibition setting, right there, and acknowledge that the system they were bound to was just a simulacrum. Well, now bye-bye simulacrum. Now it’s up to us to CREATE bunches of simulacrums on our own - Yes, we are the god. And good system art delivers this role so successfully.

Contextual Change: Given the system, now user can actively & profoundly change the system’s context and thus re-create a bunch of systems in a matter of seconds. Well, we can start from obvious ‘sub-systems’ like texts, and websites, but it’s not only about these simple stuff - these texts, and sites are the ‘unit’ of the bigger system that we can optimise. As now these units are easily generatable, the matter is about combining these different units to create smth bigger - to generate its inter-relationship, to collage these units, to define new relationships, to actively generate its units, and thus re-create, re-define the system. Rebellion to the existing system. Create and redefine new systems. All are powered by contextual change.

What are our ingredients?

1. Typographical/Graph Design-oriented: Packages, Graphics, Typographies, Live changing texts. Jenny Holzer perhaps?

2. Number aesthetic: Timer, clock, big gigantic numbers. Yes, I’m talking about On kawara. And hanne darboven.

3. Grid layouts: Notorious grids. With multiple units. All units are independent, yet holistically emerging new patterns - again, state-based approach?

4. Dashboard Visuals: lots of dashboards. Currently showing the ‘status’. ‘Ranking Society’. Viva competition! Pressure! Pressure! Pressure!

5. Data Visualisation: Plottings, line graphs, time series, dot graphs, rhizome. So much things to do, so much things to discover. Data is smth which we can feel - data emotionalisation. So many way to plot the same thing. How will user change/alter the dataset? Ups and downs. And booms! Always combine graphs with different visual states! Jolly data visualisation. Strict data visualisation. Dynamic magic data visualisation.

6. Map. Abstractive Map. Again, so many things to explore. Or also, how to design a mobile interface -- which interacts the as same asa map (zoom, pan, rotate) -- but not a map? 3D Interface? Smth more? Sm kind of a speculative interface?

7. Image/Video Collage - Classic. Grid layout vs. Chaotic Layout? Time to go back to Basquiat?

8. Brutal Three.js → No descriptive scene, but minimalistic/brutal three.js - just like sota, just like pow grace. Squares. Items.

9. Brutal Data: Sort of data vis, related to three.js - but brutal. No additional layer. Just shows data brutally. Anti-infographics. Anti-decorations. Sort of like Ryoji-Ikeda? Pretty much, but more brutal, better, interactive, and semantic. Reference to Judd perhaps?

10. Marclayian: Christian Marclay - Clock, War Videos, Telephone. Repetition, exaggeration of user interfaces/outputs. Grid, line/axis layout. Multiple sliders. 100 Elevators. 100 Light switches. 100 Togglers. 100 Sliders. 100 Buttons. 100 Text Input. 100 Rotators. 100 Hamburger Buttons. 100 Alarm Clocks. 100 Watches. 100 Players. 100 Status bars. 100 Audio bars. 100 Selectors. 100 Plus buttons. Amplify. Amplify. AMPLIFY UI ELEMENTS. BE MARCLAYIAN. BE WARHOLISTIC.

11. State-based approach & Markov Chains: No more progressive storytelling. Just a state-based approach. 100 different states. Moving across as Markov chain: time-dependent weight. All providing a sort of ecological view from bird’s eye pov -- What a multi-device web artwork!

Automation aesthetic: Now we’re auto-generating the automated system. Automated aesthetic - the feel of aesthetic when you ask GPT and they generate a million lines of code - is the aesthetic of the contemporary. This aesthetic will emerge a lot, but system art will capture its very essence.

PLAY: Play in a Nietzschean sense. You are no longer a camel: You are no longer a lion: You are a baby. Thus you play. You play with your mobile, you play with your digital device - you play with your instrument. Now mobile phone is a percussion instrument. You play, you tap on it, you touch, you scroll through, you swing through, and thus the output system is amplified, adjusted, transformed, reacting, and its mechanism is no longer the same as before. You play with your phone, and the output - the surroundings, the system, the notorious system, which seemed first like it’s controlling you, and which it seemed like it will always superior you - is smth that you just play with now. You play, you torture, you exemplify, you tilt until the very end. Remember Temple Run. Remember Angry Bird. Those touches are embedded under the visual screen.

English Version (LLM-Generated)

From Subordination to Mastery within the System

Contextual Transformation

The Splendor of Liberal Arts

Relevance of System Art

The concept of System Art emerges in response to an overarching social and cultural simulacrum: the system. This system, a vast ersatz construct, effectively renders humans as subjugated entities—modern-day laborers performing manual jobs under the guise of “professionalism.” As technological advancement, particularly through artificial intelligence, threatens to render traditional professional roles obsolete, the call for transformation becomes ever more urgent. System Art offers a paradigm shift: it enables individuals not merely to exist within the confines of the current system but to transcend and redefine it.

Transcending the System

Within the established field of the system, human beings are often relegated to the role of obedient participants—sometimes even content in their subservience. However, humans possess a unique potential to navigate this system in a vertical and liberating manner. Rather than being confined by preexisting boundaries, we have the capacity to overcome them, thereby creating new systems that reflect our evolving aspirations. System Art is fundamentally about the process of creation—a transformation from passive observers into active system architects.

The Essence of System Art

System Art is not limited to illustrating the dynamics of existing structures. While previous approaches by figures such as Hans Haacke, proponents of Actor-Network Theory, and Nicola Buri have attempted to capture these dynamics, they were rarely successful in encapsulating the entire systemic framework. In contrast, System Art empowers its audience to break free from the simulacrum of the current system and to generate multiple new simulacra within an exhibition space. This process represents a repudiation of the old system—an invitation to exercise creative autonomy. Ultimately, System Art succeeds when users become co-creators of various dynamic systems, in effect assuming the role of the ultimate architect.

Contextual Change: Reimagining the System

At its core, the potential for contextual change lies in enabling users to actively and profoundly modify the prevailing system’s context, thereby facilitating rapid re-analysis and reconfiguration. It starts with deconstructing simple "sub-systems" such as texts and websites, which serve as fundamental units within a larger structure. Once these units become easily generable, the challenge shifts to recombining them into a more complex, interrelated whole. This process involves creating novel relationships, collaging disparate units, and redefining the entire system. Such a recontextualization embodies a form of creative rebellion against the established order, where new systems are both imagined and implemented through the power of contextual change.

Key Ingredients of System Art

1. Typographical and Graphic Design: Utilizing packages, graphics, and dynamic typography to create live-changing textual displays—drawing inspiration from practitioners like Jenny Holzer.

2. Numerical Aesthetics: Incorporating elements such as timers, clocks, and prominent numbers, reminiscent of On Kawara’s work and Hanne Darboven’s methodologies.

3. Grid Layouts: Employing robust grid structures composed of independent yet interrelated units, which together generate emerging holistic patterns—a state-based approach to design.

4. Dashboard Visuals: Crafting interfaces that display real-time status updates, rankings, and competitive pressures, thereby creating a sense of urgency and engagement.

5. Data Visualization: Exploring varied graphical representations such as scatter plots, line graphs, time series, and rhizomes. This approach seeks to evoke an emotional response to data, combining different visual states and interactive dynamics.

6. Abstract Mapping: Designing speculative interfaces that resemble maps—featuring elements like zoom, pan, and rotate—while transcending traditional cartographic conventions, potentially through 3D interfaces.

7. Image and Video Collages: Experimenting with both rigid grid layouts and more chaotic, Basquiat-inspired arrangements to challenge conventional perspectives.

8. Minimalistic Three.js Execution: Utilizing the Three.js framework to produce stark, brutal digital environments, focusing on simplicity and precise arrangements reminiscent of contemporary minimalism.

9. Brutal Data Representation: Developing data visualizations that eschew decorative layers in favor of raw, unembellished displays—the antithesis of traditional infographics—parallel in spirit to the work of Ryoji Ikeda and influenced by the minimalism of artists like Donald Judd.

10. Marclay-Inspired Interfaces: Drawing from Christian Marclay’s work to exaggerate digital interactions through repetition and variation. This includes the deployment of multiple user interface elements—buttons, sliders, toggles, and clocks—each reinforcing the ubiquitous presence of interface-driven interaction, echoing the pop-cultural legacy of Warhol.

11. State-Based Approaches & Markov Chains: Transitioning away from linear storytelling toward state-based models that feature multiple dynamic states. These systems, weighted by time-dependent variables, offer an ecological, bird’s-eye perspective across multi-device web artworks.

Automation Aesthetics

The current era is characterized by the auto-generation of automated systems, where the “automated aesthetic” emerges as a defining facet of contemporary design. This aesthetic, which embodies the experience of receiving voluminous lines of generated code—akin to the outputs from systems like GPT—captures the very essence of our time. In System Art, this aesthetic is not only documented but also harnessed as a fundamental creative tool.

Embracing Play

In a Nietzschean sense, the transformative process of play allows us to cast aside traditional roles—the burdened camel and the ferocious lion—and adopt the unburdened, curious nature of a child. In this state of playful engagement, our digital devices become instruments; a mobile phone transforms into a percussion instrument, inviting users to tap, scroll, and interact. Through these gestures, the system, which once seemed to dominate us, is reconfigured toward an interactive, responsive, and mutable existence. We recall the dynamic immediacy of interactive games such as Temple Run and Angry Birds, whose touch-centric mechanics have now become deeply embedded in the digital visual landscape.

Conclusion

System Art, in its multifaceted approach, champions the potential for human creativity to confront, deconstruct, and reconstruct the prevailing order. It appeals to the modern user’s capability to reclaim agency, pushing beyond the static constraints of the traditional system. In this light, System Art serves not merely as a form of aesthetic expression but as a dynamic toolkit for reimagining and remolding the systems that define our lives.

Korean Version (LLM-Generated)

시스템의 노예에서 시스템의 지배자로

맥락의 변화

교양의 화려한 복권

왜 시스템 아트가 중요한가?

시스템은 하나의 거대한 모의(real simulacrum)이자 재현물이다. 이 시스템은 인간을 노예로 규정한다. 우리는 역대 최대의 노예 상태 속에서 살아가고 있다. 수작업에 종사하며 그 일을 ‘전문성’이라 자부하는 사람들이 지금의 노예이며, AI의 등장으로 이들 전문가는 실직 위기에 처하게 된다. 이제는 물리적인 분야에 머무르기보다는 그 분야를 극복하고 수직적으로 도약할 때다. 시스템 아트는 이를 가능하게 하는 매개체이다.

시스템: 하나의 분야. 이 안에서 인간은 노예로 존재하며, 때로는 기꺼이 노예의 역할을 한다.

시스템을 수직적으로 탐색하기: (자유로운) 인간만이 지닌 독특한 능력이다. 우리는 기존의 전제 조건을 넘어 새로운 영역을 개척할 수 있으며, 시스템에 얽매이지 않고 오히려 새로운 시스템을 창조할 수 있다.

시스템 아트는 단순히 시스템의 역학을 묘사하는 것을 넘어서 시스템 자체를 창조하는 행위이다. (한스 하케, ANT, 니콜라 부리오와 같은 접근 방식들이 당시에 주목받았으나, 실제로 시스템을 온전히 구현하는 데에는 한계가 있었다.) 단순히 시스템을 상호작용적·동적 요소로 표현하는 것을 넘어, 관람객이 전시 공간 내에서 직접 다수의 시스템을 창출할 수 있도록 하며, 자신들이 얽매여 있던 시스템이 단지 모의물에 불과했음을 인지하게 만드는 것이다. 이제 그 모의물과 작별할 때다. 우리 스스로가 수많은 모의물을 창조할 수 있는 존재로 거듭나는 것이다. 우리는 곧 신이며, 훌륭한 시스템 아트는 이러한 역할을 성공적으로 수행한다.

맥락의 변화(Contextual Change): 주어진 시스템 내에서 사용자가 능동적이고 심오하게 시스템의 맥락을 변화시킴으로써 단 몇 초 만에 다수의 새로운 시스템을 재창조할 수 있다는 점이다. 물론 텍스트나 웹사이트와 같은 명백한 ‘하위 시스템’부터 시작할 수 있지만, 이는 단순한 구성요소에 불과하다. 이러한 구성요소들을 조합하여 더 큰 의미를 창출하고, 상호 관계를 형성하며, 새로운 연관성을 정의함으로써 시스템을 적극적으로 재창조하고 재정의할 수 있다. 이는 기존 시스템에 대한 반항이며, 새로운 시스템을 창조하고 정의하는 행위로 귀결된다. 이 모든 과정이 바로 맥락의 변화에 의해 촉발된다.

우리의 구성 요소는 무엇인가?

1. 타이포그래피 및 그래픽 디자인 지향: 패키지, 그래픽, 타이포그래피, 실시간 변화하는 텍스트 등. 제니 홀저(Jenny Holzer)와 같은 사례를 연상케 한다.

2. 숫자의 미학: 타이머, 시계, 거대한 숫자들. 온 카와라(On Kawara) 혹은 한네 다보벤(Hanne Darboven)의 작품처럼.

3. 그리드 레이아웃: 여러 구성 단위로 이루어진 악명 높은 그리드. 각 구성 단위는 독립적이면서도 전체적으로 새로운 패턴을 이루는 상태 기반 접근법을 연상시킨다.

4. 대시보드 비주얼: 다양한 대시보드를 통해 ‘현재 상태’를 보여주며, ‘랭킹 사회’와 경쟁의 압박, 그리고 긴장감을 재현한다.

5. 데이터 시각화: 플로팅, 선 그래프, 시계열, 점 그래프, 리좀 등 다양한 방식으로 데이터를 표현한다. 데이터는 감각적으로 느낄 수 있는 요소로, 사용자에 의해 다양한 방식으로 해석 및 변형될 수 있다. 서로 다른 시각적 상태를 결합하여 다채롭게 변모하는 데이터 시각화의 마법이 존재한다.

6. 지도: 추상화된 지도 디자인. 모바일 인터페이스와 상호작용하며, 지도처럼 확대, 축소, 평면 이동, 회전이 가능한 인터페이스, 혹은 3D 인터페이스 등 새로운 형태의 사변적 인터페이스 탐구.

7. 이미지/비디오 콜라주: 고전적인 그리드 혹은 무질서한 레이아웃 구성. 바스키아(Basquiat) 스타일로 돌아가 보는 시간.

8. 브루탈한 Three.js: 서술적 장면 없이 미니멀리즘과 브루탈리즘을 결합한 Three.js 표현 방식. 단순한 사각형과 아이템들로 구성.

9. 브루탈 데이터: Three.js와 연계한 데이터 시각화로, 추가적인 장식 없이 본질을 드러내는 표현 방식. 인포그래픽이나 꾸밈 없는, 라이오지 이케다(Ryoji Ikeda) 스타일에 가까우며, 보다 브루탈하고 상호작용적이며 의미론적인 표현. 조드(Judd)를 연상시키기도 한다.

10. 마클레이안(Marclayian): 크리스천 마클레이(Christian Marclay)의 시계, 전쟁 영상, 전화기 등 반복적이고 과장된 사용자 인터페이스 및 출력물. 그리드, 선/축 레이아웃, 다수의 슬라이더와 다양한 UI 요소들—100개의 엘리베이터, 스위치, 토글러, 슬라이더, 버튼, 텍스트 입력, 회전기, 햄버거 버튼, 알람 시계, 손목시계, 플레이어, 상태바, 오디오바, 선택자, 플러스 버튼 등. UI 요소들을 증폭시키고, 전통적인 전쟁과 소비문화에 도전하는 Warholistic한 접근.

11. 상태 기반 접근 및 마르코프 체인: 점진적 스토리텔링을 넘어 100가지 서로 다른 상태들을 마르코프 체인처럼 시간 의존적 가중치를 두고 전개하는 방식. 이를 통해 새롭고 생태학적인 조감도를 제공하며, 다중 기기 웹 아트워크의 가능성을 열어준다.

자동화 미학: 자동화된 시스템을 자동으로 생성하는 현실을 담아내는 미학. GPT가 백만 줄의 코드를 생성하는 순간의 미학, 이는 현대 미학의 본질을 포착한다. 이 미학은 여러 방식으로 등장하겠지만, 시스템 아트는 그 핵심을 담아내고자 한다.

플레이(PLAY): 니체적 의미에서의 놀이. 이제 당신은 더 이상 낙타도, 사자도 아니다. 당신은 이제 아기와 같다. 그러므로 놀라라. 당신은 모바일 기기와, 디지털 장치와, 자신의 악기와 함께 놀 수 있다. 이제 모바일 폰은 하나의 타악기가 된다. 당신은 두드리고, 터치하며, 스크롤하고, 휘둘러 그 출력 시스템을 증폭, 조정, 변환시킨다. 그 결과 원래 당신을 지배할 것 같던, 우위에 있던 악명 높은 시스템은 이제 당신이 즐길 대상으로 전락한다. 당신은 끊임없이 장치를 가지고 놀며, 비틀고, 극한까지 기울인다. 템플 런(Temple Run)과 앵그리 버드(Angry Birds)를 기억하라. 그 터치 하나하나는 비주얼 스크린 아래에 깊이 배어 있다.

이와 같이, 시스템 아트는 현대사회에서 우리가 스스로의 한계를 극복하고 새로운 질서를 창조할 수 있는 도구이자, 기존의 제도와 구조에 도전하는 혁신적 표현 방식으로 자리매김한다.