Feedback #7: Seoul
Marshall McLuhan and the Arts
Elsie & Marshall
Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, South Korea
30.11.2024 — 21.12.2024

‘Feedback #7: Elsie and Marshall’ is a project that relates the work of Canadian thinker of technology and media Marshall McLuhan to the artistic practice of his mother, Elsie McLuhan, a professional elocutionist. Under Elsie’s influence, Marshall ‘heard’ texts before he read them, and learnt to explore the creative and informative tensions between written and spoken language. In 1962, Marshall McLuhan's book The Gutenberg Galaxy discussed the change in human consciousness brought about by the invention of the printing press. In his 1964 book Understanding Media, he explains that all technology is an extension of human capabilities which, as they extend and accentuate certain parts of our sensibility, numb and amputate others.

‘Feedback #7: Elsie and Marshall’ seeks out contemporary Elsies who have engaged in progressive artistic practice in media, on the frontiers of written and oral, visual and aural cultures. 6 months before the opening, we held an introductory drum-up meeting with interested people from contemporary art, academia, and other communities in Korea to explore how our understanding of our project resonated with the current state of affairs in Korea. This informed how we developed new curatorial approaches, including how we commissioned new work for the exhibition. This has resulted in a unique exhibition where a playful and provocative composition of works by contemporary artists correspond with an archive of McLuhan's radical publishing practices, media performances and documentation on Elsie’s and his lives, presented with Korean translations prepared specifically for this project and presented for the first time.

Artists: Julia E. Dyck, Jiyoon Heo, Sanja Iveković, Bokyung Jun, Dow/e Kim, Hye Jung Kim, Naomi Klein, Yung Bin Kwak, Jinshil Lee, Seok jung Lee, Seulgi Lee, Yeonsook Lee (aka Rita), Paula McDowell, Christof Migone, Ye-eun Min, Colby Richardson, Kyungtaek Roh, Sarah Sharma, Hito Steyerl, Ji in Yang, Hana Yoo and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries

The opening program of the exhibition will feature a keynote by Sarah Sharma on techno-feminist refusal followed by a roundtable with Korean feminists and participating artists, and culminating in three performances. The duration of the exhibition will be accompanied by a rich public program including Paula McDowell’s lecture on Elsie McLuhan, Hito Steyerl’s new lecture-performance, artist talks, concerts and performances. Featured work in the exhibition include Sanya Ivecović's ‘General Alert (Soap)’, a soap opera broadcast by Croatian public television at the moment the last missile was fired towards Zagreb during the Croatian War of Independence and Seulgi Lee’s ‘BIANE Hanging Board Project’ is a series of painted onomatopoeia on wooden planks.

The project ‘Feedback #7: Elsie and Marshall’ at Alternative Space Loop, Seoul (2024) is the seventh station of the recursive exhibition program, which includes presentations in The Hague (2017), Leipzig & Berlin (2018), Karlsruhe (2018), Windsor & Detroit (2019), Frankfurt (2020) and Montreal (2022).

‘Feedback’ is conceived by West Den Haag and curated by Baruch Gottlieb. For the seventh edition he collaborated with Ji Yoon Yang.

Supporting Partners: Fonderie Darling, Goethe-Institut Korea, The McLuhan Institute, West Den Haag, Arts Council Korea International Partnership in Support of Arts Creation, Canada-Korea partnership fund, Canada Council for Arts, Flanders State of the Art, University of Toronto Kelly Library Collection, Michael Darroch and marshall-mcluhan-speaks.com.


Live Event Schedule

Symposium
Date and time: 1 pm — 5 pm, November 30th, 2024
Keynote Speaker: Sarah Sharma
Roundtable Participants: Julia E. Dyck, Baruch Gottlieb, Yung Bin Kwak, Jinshil Lee, Yeonsook Lee (aka Rita), Colby Richardson, Ji Yoon Yang

Opening Performance
Date and time: 6 pm, November 30th, 2024
Performer: Julia E. Dyck, Dow/e Kim, Colby Richardson

Online Lecture
Date: 8am (EST) / 10pm (KST) December 5th, 2024
Lecturer: Paula McDowell

Lecture-performances
Date and time: 2 pm, December 14th, 2024
Performance: Dow/e Kim, Ye-eun Min
Lecture-performance: Hito Steyerl

Theatre Performance A-da-da
Date: December 20th & 21st
Performer: Dow/e Kim

Lecture & Concert
Date and time: December 21st, 2024
Lecture: Hye Jung Kim
Concert: Ji in Yang, Seok jung Lee