EUNJO LEE is a London-based artist and filmmaker whose work explores the ecological interconnectedness of various entities, ranging from humans and nature to objects and concepts. By drawing on theoretical frameworks that integrate ecological consciousness with relational vitality, she employs mythological elements to reevaluate human ontological positioning, emphasising the unique role of digital art in depicting these complex relationships.
Utilising software such as Unreal Engine and Blender to create 3D films and Virtual Reality experiences, she aims to experiment with the spirituality of digital media. The concept of spirituality, aligns with the new materialistic worldview, the sensation of connectivity where the category of ‘self’ expands to encompass the entire universe, and the perception of all entities as active agents. This perspective seeks not to frame digital media and AI merely as societal issues that either maximise human convenience or pose threats to jobs and impart harmful stimuli to mind but rather to propose, through art, a sense of life that can expand when human ‘consciousness’ is infused into machines and objects.
In the current era, when the notion that everything capable of creating, receiving and utilising information can essentially function as consciousness in a broad sense is beginning to receive scientific support and awareness, her goal is to actively remind us that not just humans but also animals, viruses, DNA, machines and objects all have the credentials to create reality. She intends to craft stories, particularly through digital content, that envision a world realised when all things resonate as one consciousness. To achieve this, Eunjo plans to create narratives using 3D films and extend these worlds into first-person experiences through virtual reality (VR) or games. In these spaces, entities imbued with ‘consciousness’ through AI will interact with the audience, offering experiences that broaden their perception of life. If totem symbols once served as mythological foundations that reminded us of our cosmic sense and continuous intimacy with the earth and life, then why should our current machine civilisation, which surrounds us with merely processed nature, not be able to establish a global worldview?
She is keen on utilising these three prominent digital components and actively incorporating story structures to produce a ‘contemporary mythology’ that suggests a cosmic worldview to people. Introducing characters and narratives that establish worlds is crucial because stories are exceptionally effective at allowing people to identify with those worlds and internalise specific experiences. In her stories, which can be experienced through 3D, VR and AI, objects that blur the lines between life and death may sometimes become the protagonists. These objects, which are traditionally ignored in daily life as lacking the concept of life, will be repositioned by endowing them with the choices of life and death. Recognising their human-centric limitations through their humanity, protagonists will willingly conduct funerals for these objects.
