Interactive karaoke installation
Thursday, November 1st, 2018
Starting at 8 pm
At Xangle (4001 Berri, 1st floor)

Artist: Ahreum Lee

Bun Shin Sa Ba is an interactive audio/visual installation that takes the form of a karaoke performance. The audience is asked to sing along to the melody of the popular song “My Heart Will Go On” with new lyrics generated by predictive auto-typing applications. By singing these words, we fill the public space with sound provided by data collected from private conversations. Predictive algorithms collect this data and suggest the most commonly used word combinations across a large network of users. The piece asks the audience to speak aloud the words which reveal patriarchal hierarchies embedded in the algorithms. The title of the piece refers to a mantra chanted during a traditional Korean shamanistic ritual. In Western culture, it could be compared to a seance. The video accompanying the karaoke combines imagery from this ritual with images of a typical type of female ghost found across East Asian folklore.  

Image: Ahreum Lee, Bun Shin Sa Ba