온도, 거리 같은 과학의 언어로 사람 사이의 관계를 돌아보는 작품들
참여작가ㅣ김다움, 김승영, 백정기, 심아빈, 정성윤, 리즈닝미디어

‘미술관 경험(Museum Experience)’ 중 관계성을 주제로 일년간 전시를 만들어온 블루메미술관은 관계의 크기에 대한 이야기, 상대를 잘 관찰하는 것에서 관계는 시작된다는 메시지를 전한 전시에 이어 올 가을 차갑거나 따뜻한 ‘온도’, 멀고 가까운 ‘거리’의 개념을 통해 사람 사이의 관계를 돌아보고자 한다. 인간의 관계성을 측량가능한 요소로 읽어보고자 하는 이 전시의 출발점은 ‘온도는 측정 가능한 것인가?’라는 흥미로운 질문을 다룬 <온도계의 철학>이라는 책에서 비롯되었다. 이 책의 저자인 과학철학자 장하석 교수는 사물의 뜨겁고 차가운 정도를 재고 기록하는 도구가 만들어지기까지 과학의 역사는 매우 주관적인 것에서 시작했다고 말한다. 사람에 따라 다르고 수시로 변동되는 ‘혈온(사람의 체온)’을 온도 측정의 고정점으로 사용한 뉴턴을 비롯하여 17-8세기 서양의 여러 과학자들이 제시한 기준점은 ‘첫번째 밤 서리, 손을 넣고 견딜 수 있는 가장 뜨거운 물, 깊은 지하실’과 같이 가히 문학적이라 할 정도로 객관과 표준의 과학 밖 이야기처럼 보인다. 이같이 개별적이고 주관적인 인간의 감각이 온도 측정의 기준으로 사용되었던 것은 온도를 관계의 언어로 보았기 때문이다. ‘찬 온도’란 다른 것 보다 더 ‘차가웠던 경험’과 일치한다는 전제를 두고 만들어진 온도경이라는 정성적인 측정장비에서 정량적인 수치를 보여주는 온도계가 나오게 되었다는 것이다. 이렇듯 온도계라는 객관적 수치와 측정의 도구가 발명되는데 주관적이라 여겨지는 인간감각이 제1표준이 되었다는 의외의 사실을 두고 이 전시는 다음의 질문을 던진다. 사람 사이의 관계는 측정 가능한 것일까? 맞닿아 있는 살갗의 온도값으로 당신과 나 사이의 관계를 정의할 수 있는가? 그 깊이와 너비를 재어 수치화할 수 있는 것일까? 0도라는 온도가 어는 점이라는 기준점이 되기 위해 ‘차갑다’라는 너와 나의 촉각적인 체험이 먼저 바탕이 되어야 했듯 이 전시는 보이지 않고, 만져지지도 않는 추상적인 상호작용으로서만 존재하는 듯 보이는 인간의 관계성을 거리와 온도 같은 측량가능한 기준점을 가진 요소들을 통해 볼 수 있고, 느낄 수 있는 경험치로 가늠해보고 소통해 볼 수 있게 할 것이다. 작은 틈을 사이에 두고 끊임없이 닿을 듯 말 듯 움직이고 있는 기계장치가 보여주는 위태로운 관계의 거리, 앉으면 인간의 체온과 같은 따뜻한 온도를 느끼게 해주는 철제 의자, 누구와 어떻게 서있느냐에 따라 켜지고 꺼지는 빛과 그 빛의 온도를 전달하는 작품 등을 통해 이 전시는 측정불가능한 개별적인 이야기로서만 존재할 수 있을 듯 여겨지는 인간 관계에서도 누구나 소통가능한 고정점을 찾을 수 있을 것이라 말한다. 때로 심해처럼 그 깊이와 너비를 헤아릴 수 없고 손안의 수은온도계로 그 뜨거움과 차갑게 식는 속도를 감히 측정하지 못하리라 생각하지만 당신과 나 사이의 거리, 그 거리에 오가는 호흡의 온도는 사실 손바닥 안 누구나 가진 감각 안에서 모두 읽혀지고 말해질 수 있는 것인지 모른다.

기획ㅣ김은영
진행ㅣ김소영, 이회남, 박진희
교육ㅣ김미란
사진ㅣ박현욱
디자인ㅣ엄진아

Artworks that reflect on human relationships using the language of science, such as temperature and distance
Participating artistsㅣDaum Kim, Seung Young Kim, Reasoning Media, Jungki Beak, Ah-Bin Shim, Sungyoon Jung

Is it actually possible to measure temperature? In Inventing Temperature, a book addressing the invention of the thermometer and its history, author Hasok Chang states that science rested heavily on the very subjective before an instrument to measure the degree of hotness or coldness of an object had been invented. The fixed points presented by many Western scientists like Newton who used “blood heat” (human body temperature) as a fixed point of thermometry seem far from scientific objectivity and standards and more closely resemble a host of literary expressions such as “frost on the first night," "the hottest water temperature the human hand can withstand," and "the temperature of a deep basement.” In ways such as these, the individual and subjective human senses were used as the criteria for thermometry. It is important to note that the modern thermometer gradually evolved from the thermoscope, a device that displays changes in temperature. A thermoscope has the ability to indicate which things are warmer than others despite being unable to numerically depict accurate measurements of temperature. This device relies on the principle of seeing temperature as a sort of relational language. This is based on the sensory experience in which liquids tend to expand when their temperatures increase and conversely contract when their temperatures decrease. Is it possible to gauge human relationships? Can we define the relationship between you and me using the temperatures of our bodies when they come into contact with one another? Can we measure and quantify its scale? Can we discover a fixed point with which anyone can communicate with anyone else using human relationships that may be distinct for each person, just as all scientific devices based on objective figures have come from the subjective human subject? Similar to how our tactile experience of coldness should be a prerequisite for understanding 0°C to be the freezing point of water, in this exhibition we are able to elucidate human relationships that are invisible and untouchable so that they seem to exist only through interactions with measurable fixed points such as distance and temperature. The distance between you and me and the temperature of our breaths exchanged across such a distance can perhaps be understood subconsciously using our senses even though we think we would not dare to measure their depth, width, hotness, and coldness. Artist Jung Sungyoon makes mechanical devices whose designs are based on figures. His devices with fixed gradations move and work on the basis of arithmetic calculations and figures. To the artist this machine’s calculated movements represent human relationships that are deemed to be unpredictable and invisible. When seen from a distance, black billiard balls look like little circles placed close to one another in a row but when seen from up close, they quickly spin in different directions as if to touch one another. The two color-field mechanical devices that move as if shaking up and down while widening and narrowing a chasm between them hark back to human relationships in which some emotions such as precariousness, regret, futility, and stability are shared. We come to understand the minds of those with body temperatures and distances that are engendered by the heart through their mechanical movements. While Jung’s moving devices let viewers feel distances and gaps between machines, Vaseline, a material Jungki Beak uses to make his devices draws attention with its actions of covering up such gaps. Beak utilizes Vaseline to create helmets and armor and to fill in cracks on a building by applying it thickly to the surface of the building. Vaseline thickly applied to the skin, both an ending and starting point from which we encounter the world, works to protect us and heal our cuts and wounds. Its physical property that works as a moisture insulator in a state of solid matter represents the cycles of water permeating through cracks on a barren land or a conflicting environment among humans, conveying a meaning of recovery. His scientific devices reminiscent of instruments used in a laboratory seem to be tools for objective measurement. Given how an art critic once defined his scientific devices as “machine to the heart,” his works seem to communicate with viewers through visible devices with which we are able to perceive energy filling up gaps and the dynamics of relationships. Placed by Beak’s photographs capturing the yellow hue of Vaseline, Kim Seung Young’s red chair is apropos of our memories. This worn-out steel chair facing Jung’s black mechanical device beckons people to sit on it, reminding viewers of their presence. As soon as one sits on this seemingly cold chair, he is surprised by its warm temperature approximating that of the human body. The normal human body temperature of 37.5°C invokes a completely different space-time that is associated with each individual viewer’s past experiences, moving beyond an objective, physical fact. This pertains to human existence which is conveyed by all types of contact and this contact is associated with relationships with others. Kim’s chair allows viewers to read into all the different relationships that are first perceived by the human body, capturing floating memories in the air as it does so. The meaning behind Ah-Bin Shim’s work can be uncovered when viewers move their bodies. Her three pillars cause viewers to move alongside ladders, mirrors, and other devices resembling holes. A cylinder invites viewers to peer down into it, a triangular pillar to look into it, and a square pillar to look up at it. When viewers move in these ways, however, they actually encounter unexpected situations: when one uses the ladder to climb to a higher place, he is placed in a deeper site like in the water; when one tries to look up at the upper part of a pillar, he sees the bottom instead; and when one tries to peer inside a pillar, he comes face to face with his own appearance. Spatial cause-and-effect relationships are overturned in Shim's works. Such viewer movement that mixes up the front and the rear, above and below, and inside and outside lead us to meditate on the distance and status of human relationships interpreted and gauged in memories of different spaces and times as in a Mobius strip. Shim’s geometric pillars present a reference point to interpret relationships as lumps with volume, whereas Reasoning Media alludes to relationships as invisible interactions through light with no volume or form, emptying space. Eleven stairs set in the middle of the venue slow the step and thinking of viewers who ascend and descend on them. When one passes through a point on the stairs like an empty space, lighting turns on and illuminates the post where they stand. The bright light unveils the distance between viewers and its warmth serves as a contact point where viewers share. The phenomenon of a ray of light turning an empty space into a tactile, psychological space reminds us of the fact that an invisible relation can be newly illuminated when we face unexpected situations and a minor opportunity can be the key to making connections. While in Reasoning Media’s work light enables us to interpret the relations between you and I as an empirical element through a physical space, Daum Kim refers to the idioms of the relationships formed through scenes on a computer monitor or virtual spaces generated with flickering light. Are conversations exchanged in compact phrases via a social networking service being gathered or scattered? The weight of relations shaped through the words of faceless people seems to float, defying gravity. A narrator enters into a monitor and starts talking. Through this, the artist compares an online encounter to a relation in the exhibition space, conveying a person’s narrative. Inside in a virtual space in the monitor is texture in an actual space and movements altered in accordance with time. This work seems to symbolically show that an online encounter is at times loose and at times close, as in an actual meeting where touches and looks are exchanged. And, there is the texture of relations like the sleek coldness found in metal or the warmth in clasped hands. As the interface of relations has diversified, aspects of the relations among people have also multiplied. A myriad of stories are interpreted and addressed in each respective way. This exhibition argues that we are able to gauge the distance between or closeness of hearts even though we cannot measure it accurately. It also clarifies that we can look back on our bilateral relations through the temperatures of a warm or cold relation. We cannot measure the weight of our hearts and cannot fix the ever-changing relations among people with one figure. Even in an evanescent relation, we may feel its form and thickness with our bodies and hearts. The exhibition suggests that a multitude of relationships can be figured out through works of art that enable us to see and touch the fixed points of such sympathy, displaying the possibility of their measurement.