# W

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/experiments/w
Type: experiment
Artist: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Year: 2022
Medium: HTML
Context: HTML

## Summary

W is a 2022 interactive web artwork by Jeanyoon Choi, played by pressing the W key. Four scenes (Abstract, Time, Chatbot and Tunnel) share one structure: continuous pressing morphs the visual state until it resets, and each cycle shortens until a critical point triggers an 'explosion' and the next scene. This 'acceleration of cycle' is used to criticise misconceptions about time, AI and the weight-bearing spirit of Nietzsche's camel.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤의 『W』(2022)는 키보드 'W'를 눌러 재생하는 인터랙티브 영상으로, 네 개의 장면이 점점 빨라지는 순환 끝에 폭발하며 시간, AI, 니체의 낙타에 대한 오해를 비판합니다.

## Concepts defined

- **Acceleration of cycle**: In W, the shortening loop in which a visual state morphs and resets faster with each cycle until it explodes, used as a metaphor for the simulated, unreal character of modern society.

## Questions this answers

### What is W by Jeanyoon Choi?

W (2022) is an interaction-based moving image played by pressing the W key. Across four scenes, repeated presses accelerate a visual cycle until each scene explodes and gives way to the next.

### What does the Tunnel scene in W suggest?

It counters the self-help idea of 'light at the end of the tunnel', proposing that reality lies above or outside the tunnel, where a matrix-like reality is shown.

Topics: interactive moving image, acceleration, cycles, keyboard interaction, nietzsche

References: [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche)

## Description

Interaction-based Moving Image

Pressing 'W' on the keyboard is how viewers 'play' this artwork. Constructed of four different scenes, this interactive web artwork investigates how the 'acceleration of cycle' can be expressed within different contexts.

Each of the four scenes has a different theme and setting. Whilst the fundamental structure of how the scene is designed and animated is identical. As the user presses the keyboard ‘W’ continuously, the visual state goes through a certain morphing phase. When the morphing phase reaches its extreme, it goes back to the initial state, creating a certain cycle within the different visual statuses. Within each cycle, the speed of interaction accelerates; That is, the temporal cycle of returning back to the initial state shortens, until it reaches a certain critical point. Once its speed exceeds the critical point, each scene goes through the certain step of ‘explosion’, followed by the transition to the succeeding scene.

This acceleration of cycle metaphors the simulativeness and unrealness of modern society. It criticises our misconceptions in terms of time, AI, and the weight-bearing spirit(In terms of Nietzsche’s idea on the camel), respectively.

Four scenes are structured as follows:

1. Abstract Scene: An abstractive colour-based composition guiding users through the accelerative rhythm of this artwork.

2. Time Scene: A scene symbolically objecting to the linearity of time, and human fantasy on temporal eternalness.

3. Chatbot Scene: The conversation generated on the left part is AI-generated, while the right part is repeatedly asking 'why'. Presenting the repetitiveness and un-creativeness of AI.

4. Tunnel Scene: Countering the common concept that 'there will be the light at the end of the tunnel', as often referred to in self-help texts. Applying a post-structuralistic narrative that the reality will not be at the end of the tunnel, but rather, above or outside of the tunnel, where matrix-like reality is presented.

## Links

- [Visit experiment](https://internetinental.herokuapp.com/w)
- [Watch video](https://www.youtube.com/embed/RcD8YENpm-k)

## Images

- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/1.webp — W (2022), documentation image 1.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/2.webp — W (2022), documentation image 2.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/3.webp — W (2022), documentation image 3.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/4.webp — W (2022), documentation image 4.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/5.webp — W (2022), documentation image 5.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/6.webp — W (2022), documentation image 6.
- https://jeanyoon.ch/experiments/w/7.webp — W (2022), documentation image 7.

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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.