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30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025

Kahee Jeong’s Silent Engine wins the V2_ x IFFR media arts residency

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Through visual and auditory experimentation, the winning project asks: who truly benefits from technological progress?

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media are happy to announce the outcome of their open call and congratulate Korean-born artist Kahee Jeong, the winner of the hybrid media arts residency. Her project, Silent Engine, will take part in the residency from November 2024 until 9 February 2025 and will culminate with an exhibition at V2_ as part of the festival’s Art Directions programme at the upcoming 54th edition of IFFR.

About Kahee Jeong

Among 153 talented applicants for the V2_ x IFFR residency, the selection committee chose the inovative vision of Korean-born Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist Kahee Jeong. Jeong’s practice is a combination of neuroscience, philosophy, and digital media within environmental settings. The stigma and anxiety deriving from the struggle to adjust to environmental demands is the main focus of her work. She believes that these underlying emotions of despair have a severe impact on psychological balance and have the power to disrupt societal behaviours and norms.

Jeong studied Fine Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin and Media Art in Korea. She recently finished a residency at Rijksakademie and completed the Digital Transformation program at MIT. Her work has been featured internationally at Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Science Gallery Dublin, Rijksakademie, and Vorspiel Transmediale & CTM.

The winning project: Silent Engine

With online platforms becoming increasingly vital for basic services like banking, healthcare, government aid, and social interactions, the risk of digital marginalisation is lurking. Silent Engine delves into the narrative of the digital divide caused by rapid technological accelerations, working as a fertile ground for the perpetuation of societal inequalities. Vulnerable populations like the elderly, physically impaired, and those with limited access to education are especially facing the fear of exclusion and loss of cyber security.

Inspired by Bernard Stiegler’s theory, the project opposes the fact of digital technology reshaping human cognition and directing people to passive consumerism. According to Stiegler, contemporary humans are like “two-legged arthropods” sacrificing their individuality on the altar of technological conformity.

Winning artist Kahee Jeong stated: “Silent Engine draws on biological concepts like population bottlenecks and genetic drift to illustrate the loss of diversity in society as the digital world expands. A population bottleneck reduces variation, leaving behind a smaller, less diverse group, while genetic drift causes the gradual disappearance of traits. In the digital realm this mirrors how marginalised voices are gradually silenced, weakening the resilience of both digital and social ecosystems, resulting in a less inclusive future.”

Who truly benefits from technological progress? Through visual and auditory experimentation, Silent Engine will create a space for reflecting on how the digital gap is alternating society and paving the way to an increasingly exclusive future.

  • About the V2_ x IFFR Residency

    The residency is an initiative that encourages the crossover between filmmaking and media arts and invites media artists interested in film and filmmakers interested in media arts to explore what lies at the intersection of these disciplines. Jeong will check-in remotely throughout the months of November and December, after which she will come to Rotterdam for a mid-January public tryout and build-up towards the exhibition of her project at V2_ in the Art Directions programme at IFFR 2025. She will receive an IFFR Pro accreditation that allows industry access to the festival and guarantees various networking opportunities. A budget of €16,500 will be provided to cover fees including travel, accommodation, production and subsistence.

    Jury: Vanja Kaludjercic (IFFR), Florian Weigl (V2_), Sanneke Huisman (independent curator), Katarina Jazbec (visual artist), Leo Scarin (multimedia artist).

  • About V2_

    As a Rotterdam-based interdisciplinary centre for art and media technology, V2_, Lab for the Unstable Media presents, produces, archives and publishes research at the interface of art, technology and society. V2_ promotes art and design as having an essential role in the social embedding of technological developments and creates a context in which issues regarding the social impact of technology are explored through critical dialogue, artistic reflection and practice-oriented research.

  • About IFFR and Art Directions

    Through visionary programming and forward-looking initiatives, IFFR creates a haven for the plurality of voices, audiovisual formats, and diverse storytelling. The Art Directions programme of the festival champions this mission, as a space where the festival steps out of the screening room and pushes the limits of what cinema can be, crossing boundaries and merging with immersive media, performances, live music, and visual art. Silent Engine will take part in the mind-expanding dialogue promised by the Art Direction’s programme, and can be explored during the festival at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media

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