new TOWN NEW WAVE
HD | COLOUR | 2 CHANNEL | 20min | 16:9 | STEREO | KOREAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | SOUTH KOREA, SCOTLAND | 2018
VERSIONS: Installation (1 & 2 Channel versions available)
Two-channel film
Sound installation
Three framed photographic prints
Overall display dimensions variable
Namwon Broadcasts, Sound installation
Overall dimensions variable
WAV file, stereo, headphones, duration 20min
SYNOPSIS
New Town New Wave is a compelling work by filmmaker and sound artist Mark Lyken, developed following the Namwon Sound Art Residency that he undertook in November 2017 at the former KBS (Korean Broadcast System) building in Namwon, South Korea. The installation includes Namwon Broadcasts, 2017, a 20-minute soundwork recorded during an improvised performance in the KBS basement machine room, comprising sounds and field recordings gathered in and around the building during the residency.
New Town New Wave includes a two-channel film installation and related three-part photographic work. The film installation comprises two screens, each showing a fixed camera shot of 20 minutes duration. The first shot frames a high window situated on the stairs leading up from the basement level of the KBS building and through which a Korean Maple sways in the wind. In the second shot, afternoon light tracks across the foyer leading through to the empty KBS theatre. Although the ambient sounds of the building can be heard, the primary sound track comprises a reel-to-reel KBS archive transmission called New Town New Wave (The Deullorae of Imsil), which was originally aired at 10:45pm on August 23rd, 1976. The broadcast introduces a Nongyo or Deullorae (Farmers’ Song) called Imsil Dulnorae from the village of Duwol-ri in the county of Imsil-gun. The related photographic work shows the open reel tape itself – the only archival example of a KBS broadcast to be located in the building during Lyken’s residency.
Set against Lyken’s shots, the broadcast is an anachronistic presence. The now decommissioned KBS building has a quiet air that is disrupted not only by the propagandist editorial direction of the 40 year old transmission but by the sheer communal vocal effort and collective energising it features.
Supported by Cample line, Namwon Culture City Committee, Cryptic Glasgow, Producer Group Dot, Afternoon Pictures
INSTALLATION AND PROJECT STILLS
Installation photography by CT Productions. Performance photography by Producer Group DOT.
