Artists Statement

Keywords: Mindfulness, Virtual Reality, Interactive art, Game, 3-dimensional sound, Experimental art game, Breathing, Meditation, Meditative game, Motion graphics, Simulation

“Suum” is a virtual reality art game about mindfulness navigated by breathing. It is a virtual environment in which people can experience the basic human ability to be fully present via inhalation and exhalation. While the audience is wearing a virtual reality headset, they can view and interact with the 3-dimensional space, environmental elements, simulation, motion graphics, objects, and adaptive music. In order to take a step beyond the conventions of virtual reality, there will also be a respiration belt set up to measure participants’ breathing. The virtual setting and sound will be designed to create a lucid and relaxed environment that feels comfortable and can adapt the technology in order to focus on the user’s presence and surroundings. As a result, based on the length and strength of their breathing, users can experience the interaction between their respiration, the virtual atmosphere, and their own being.

• Heejoo Gwen Kim (University of Connecticut, USA) works as an experimental/ documentary animated filmmaker and new media artist, currently creating projects focusing on social issues, such as microaggressions, feminism, elder abuse, and psychology in experimental narrative film structures. Her films and installations have been internationally presented at festivals, conferences, and galleries in Germany, UK, Lebanon, Mexico, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Philippine, India, Latvia, Canada, Korea, Italy, Ecuador, Australia, Romania, etc. and throughout the United States. Her films have received awards including Best Animation, Best Experimental Film, and Best of Show at several international film festivals and conferences. She had been a director, a curator, a coordinator, an adjudicator for International Animation and New Media Art festivals, conferences, and shows.
• Simon Hutchinson is a cultural omnivore who synthesizes disparate ideas: traditional European art music and creative electronics; acoustic musical instruments and digital video games; East Asian Folk Traditions with American jazz, rock and funk. Through these combinations, novel musical works emerge, engaging with the relationships between technology, society, and the human experience. Currently, he teaches in University of New Haven, USA. In 2008, Hutchinson received the “1st Young Composers’ Competition of CMEK” (Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea) award, and, since then, his work has also been recognized by the Yamaguchi Opportunity Fund, the Sasakawa Young Leader’s Fellowship Fund (SYLFF), the Ruth Close Musical Fellowship, and a Porter Associate Fellows Arts Research Grant. simonhutchinson.com/biography.
• Kenneth Thompson worked in the game industry for eight years as a Game Designer and Lead Designer before coming to the University of Connecticut, USA. His responsibilities included directing game projects from start to finish, programming unique scenarios using game development tools, and working with publishers such as SEGA, Electronic Arts, and Activision. He worked with Blockbuster franchises such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Madagascar, Shrek, and over a dozen others. His work in the video game industry has received Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Award for best video game, Indie Game of the Year, and Innovation Awards from industry publications.

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