Halo main image
HALO
2018. Somerset House Edmond J. Safra Fountain Courtyard, London UK
2021. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul KR
99 robotic mirrors, mist, sun, wind
18,500mm x 4,800mm x 8,100mm

99 robotic mirrors continuously move throughout the day to follow the sun like sunflowers. These mirrors, arrayed across two 5 meter tall towers and one 15 meter long track, each emit a beam of sunlight into a cloud of water mist. The beams are computationally aligned so that together they draw a bright circle in the air. Dependent entirely on the presence of the sun for its completion, the work explores the possibilities and limitations of technology to capture what is out of reach, to harness nature and bring the sun down to earth. Collaborating with the natural fluctuations in the climate, Halo appears only for moments when the wind, sun, water, and technology coincide, creating a form which exists between the material and immaterial.

The installation superimposes diverse timescales. The sun is beyond humanity’s timeline; as the solar energy interacts with the earth, it creates the clouds which occasionally pause the installation as they shadow the mirrors; The daily passage of the sun across the sky is traced out by the mirrors moving in tandem; The sun forces the wind which, second-to-second, catches the mist and chaotically carries it into the focused sunlight, drawing the halo. The moment that Halo emerges in the air, it briefly superimposes the transience of momentary experience with the immutability of the sun.

Halo’s open source navigation system uses Bayesian inference machine learning developed in collaboration with London's Improbable Worlds Limited. It is the first project where studio Kimchi and Chips worked with natural light as a material and collaborated with the unpredictability of the weather.

<헤일로>는 김치앤칩스의 실천적 개념 'Drawing in the air'가 가장 극적으로 표현된 작품으로 물성의 거울과 비물성의 태양빛을 이용하여 태양을 시각화한다.

로보틱 시스템을 장착한 99개의 거울들은 태양의 궤도를 따라 움직이며 물 안개가 고인 허공으로 태양빛을 반사하고, 정교하게 정렬된 99가닥의 태양빛 줄기들은 허공에 커다란 원을 그리며 태양을 땅 위로 초대한다.

김치앤칩스의 그간 일련의 작품들이 철저히 계획되고 제어 가능한 구조 안에서 표현되었다면, <헤일로>는 우연과 필연이라는 구조 안에서 자연과 기술의 조우를 통해 발현된다. 태양과 바람, 기술과 관객의 기다림이 한 지점을 관통할 때, 헤일로는 삶의 찰나처럼 나타났다 영속처럼 사라지기를 반복하는데, 모든 것들이 각자의 자리에서 제 역할을 하며 마주칠 때 그려지는 원은 우리가 순응하는 삶의 이치와도 같다.

작가는, 예측할 수 없는 자연 현상을 시각화하기 위해서 재료에 대한 연구 및 로보틱 기술, 수학과 천문학 등 다양한 실험과 학문을 엮어냈으며, 특히 기술이 예술의 재료로 사용될 때, 또는 기술이 자연과 동등한 협업을 이룰 때 발생하는 기술의 가능성과 한계를 프로세스를 통해 발견하게 되었다. 이는 예술, 기술, 과학, 자연 등 모든 학문이 하나의 점에서 시작되어 종국에 다시 한 지점에서 만나게 됨을 실천을 통해서 다시 한번 발견하게 되는 철학적 성찰이기도 하였다.

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Installation view. Somerset House 2018
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bring the sun down to earth
Halo was presented in the public square of Somerset House allowing the work to have a continuous public relationship with the people of London in the month of the Summer Solstice. The square metallic structures of Halo are activated by the colour of the sunlight in the courtyard echoing reflections from the surrounding building and sky helping them to disappear. The surrounding buildings create an isolated volume of calmness, natural light and wind, which offers visitors a moment of meditation in contrast to the heart of London beyond the walls.
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First idea sketch. September. 2016
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Sketch of reflected beam's arrangement. 2017
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Sketch of tangent lines to draw a circle. 2017
2018. Somerset House Courtyard, London
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Halo at Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court Somerset House. June. 2018
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2021. MMCA Seoul
Halo was presented in National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul 2021.
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Installation view. MMCA 2021
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Making of ↓
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Simulated data visualisation of sun’s movement in Somerset House. August. 2017
Somerset House Scan. 2017
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Computer simulation 2017
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Acknowledgements

Co-commissioned by
Arts Council Korea and Arts Council England Joint Funding
2017 Gwangju Design Biennale

Presented by
Somerset House
Korean Cultural Centre UK

Fabricated by
Studio Sungshin

Mathematical modelling in collaboration with
Improbable

Photography by
Peter Macdiarmid
Kimchi and Chips

Videography by
Somerset House
Kimchi and Chips