# MBA (Medium-Based Approach)

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/experiments/mba-medium-based-approach
Type: experiment
Artist: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Year: 2022
Medium: Multi-Device Web Artwork
Context: Multi-Device Web Artwork

## Summary

MBA (Medium-Based Approach) is a 2022 multi-device web artwork by Jeanyoon Choi, made as his representative project for Term 1 at the Royal College of Art. It connects two mobiles, two PCs and a screen over the internet and minimises external context to focus on the medium itself. It runs in three stages: an alienation (Verfremdungseffekt) stage in which phone buttons seem not to work, a causality perception stage in which screens respond logically, and a chaos stage that distorts the interaction-audio and interaction-visual relationships.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤의 『MBA (Medium-Based Approach)』(2022)는 휴대전화, PC, 스크린 등 다섯 대 이상의 기기를 연결한 멀티 디바이스 웹 아트워크로, 소외 효과·인과 인식·혼돈의 세 단계로 매체 자체를 탐구합니다.

## Concepts defined

- **Medium-Based Approach**: Jeanyoon Choi's minimalist approach to Multi-Device Web Artwork that minimises external context and builds the work from consideration of the medium itself.
- **Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA)**: An artwork made of several internet-connected devices, such as mobiles, PCs and screens, in which interaction on one device produces responses on others.

## Questions this answers

### What is MBA (Medium-Based Approach) by Jeanyoon Choi?

MBA (2022) is a multi-device web artwork of at least five connected devices that presents Jeanyoon Choi's medium-focused approach to MDWA (Multi-Device Web Artwork). It was his Term 1 project at the Royal College of Art.

### What are the three stages of MBA?

MBA moves from a Verfremdungseffekt (alienation) stage, to a causality perception stage where screens respond predictably to button clicks, to a chaos stage where those relationships are reversed and distorted.

### What is a medium-based approach to multi-device web art?

In Jeanyoon Choi's MBA, it means minimising external context and building the work from an understanding of the multi-device medium itself, emphasising its physicality through performative language.

Topics: multi-device web artwork, mdwa, medium specificity, alienation effect, causality, minimalism

References: [Royal College of Art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_College_of_Art), [Distancing effect (Verfremdungseffekt)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distancing_effect)

## Description

Medium-Based Approach on MDWA (Multi-Device Web Artwork)

MBA is an artwork made of five(or more) devices, consisting of two mobiles, two PCs, and a single screen, all connected through the internet. This Medium-Based Approach is designed to show and present my approach to the MDWA(Multi-Device Web Artwork), following the minimalist approach of minimising the external context blended into the artwork, aiming to purely create and implement the artwork based on the understanding and consideration of the medium itself.

Created as the representative project of Term 1 in the Royal College of Art, MBA follows the performative language, customised to emphasise the physicality of the MDWA format. MBA consists of three stages, presented in chronological order: 1) Verfremdungseffekt(Alienation Effect), or V-Effekt stage, 2) Causality Perception Stage, and last, 3) Chaos Stage.

Participants interacting with the artwork first encounter the alienation effect, as the button presented within their mobile phone will not be working, or at least, does not come out with a certain kind of effect, which is normally expected in every digital interaction. This alienation might be slightly diminished over time as other screens of MBA might now start to respond to the participants’ interaction, coming with visual and audio reactions which might look somehow logical, as the numbers of the screen for instance will increase linearly upon the participants’ button click interaction. Thus, within this phase, participants expect some causal relationship to be built between the mobiles and other screens, as our brain is capable of creating causal relationships for new or unfamiliar environments, substituting such unfamiliarity with familiarity.

However, such an adjustment toward a causal relationship will be soon transformed into the form of boredom within a postmodern hyper-consumeristic culture. That’s why the third stage, of reversing such causal relationships and creating chaos is needed. Within this stage, both of interaction-audio relationship and the interaction-visual relationship is distorted again, creating a more massive amount of stimulus which induces a chaotic experience.

## Images

- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/mba-medium-based-approach/1.webp — MBA (Medium-Based Approach) (2022), documentation image 1.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/mba-medium-based-approach/2.webp — MBA (Medium-Based Approach) (2022), documentation image 2.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/mba-medium-based-approach/3.webp — MBA (Medium-Based Approach) (2022), documentation image 3.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/mba-medium-based-approach/4.webp — MBA (Medium-Based Approach) (2022), documentation image 4.

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Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤) is a Korean computational artist and researcher (b. 1999), PhD candidate at KAIST XD Lab, making multi-device web artworks. Profile: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/en. Index: https://jeanyoon.ch/llms.txt.