# 3차원의 벽을 깨부수기 Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/banpo-xism-artist-notes-2025-10-27 Type: essay / research note Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤) Date: 2025-10-27 ## Full text Preparing for the lab meeting Banpo-Xism: the present situation, the problems. Uniformity, totalitarianism, desire, fetishism, the Republic of Korea, a frog in a well. Banpo-Xism, signs and vectors "Banpo" + "Xi": a location sign + a brand sign. Desire, individuality, living space and life goals turned into signs, into vectors, made uniform. The same as MBTI. Banpo-Xism = "the desire to be placed on a plane (in a vector space), to squabble there, and to reach a higher point on that plane". The plane is two-dimensional. Seen from three dimensions (a higher dimension), it is pathetic, absurd. Flatland Common sense and imagination: Part 4, Mr Square's teacher. "Upwards, not Northwards." One, two, three, four dimensions; first-, second-, third-, fourth-generation (apartments). Edwin A. Abbott's dedication, as I copied it: "Just as a humble native of Flatland, who had known only a two-dimensional world, encountered the mysteries of the three-dimensional world, so may the people of this wonderful world long for higher and higher worlds, up to the secrets of four, five, even six dimensions; and so may the superior races of humanity let their imagination flower and cultivate, deeper and deeper, the precious gift of modesty." Is a higher dimension possible? A bolder dimension? Dimensions Four dimensions, five (Interstellar), ten (superstring theory)... Quantum mechanics, topology, calculus (continuous exchange between dimensions). Humanity must keep doing calculus: not stay trapped inside one dimension but be able to think while moving fluidly among countless different dimensions. Banpo-Xism emphasises one dimension, the dimensions at or below three, and position and status within a dimension... Overcoming Banpo-Xism: no single dimension is the only one. Fighting, competing and consuming signs on a 2D plane is nothing from the standpoint of 3D, and fighting, competing and consuming signs in 3D becomes nothing from the standpoint of 4D... Apartments A blog post on Korean apartments: their first, second, third, fourth generations... Is this a real increase in dimension? The symbolism of the third dimension Three dimensions: the perceivable dimension, the dimension we live in. We struggle to imagine dimensions beyond three (like the Sphere of Spaceland). Banpo-Xism: 1D (old buildings), 2D (second generation), 3D... It has not yet smashed the wall of the third dimension! Smash the wall of the third dimension. Visually effective, too. Additional references and metaphors Nemo-ui kkum (Dream of Squares): two dimensions, escaping the dream of squares (IU's live clip of "Dream of Squares"). Snowpiercer: "It's been closed so long, we think it's a wall", and the famous line, "Not this door, I want to open that one." Escaping structure, post-structuralism. teamLab Planets Tokyo The visuals are so-so, yet countless people go wild for it. Of all the interactive art I have seen, the most impressive and the most accomplished. (Aside: ticket power, business model.) A playground for adults. I agree with their philosophy of "three-dimensional thinking through the body" (their Athletics Forest concept): "spatial thinking", "higher-dimensional thinking", thinking with the body. Three dimensions, four dimensions, "spatial and higher-dimensional thinking through the body". Leaving the plane, leaving two dimensions, leaving the smartphone, leaving the city (the dream of squares). This matches the message of Banpo-Xism. teamLab: more than the visuals themselves, a system, a playground where people can interact and run around. Movement between the "volumetric" and the "flat". Natural (phenomenological) movement, bodily movement, something primal... On a smartphone: the movement of the finger? Affirming the finger? Systems, interaction This also matches the philosophy of system art: components (A, C, G, T), and a playground where these components are combined. Parametric exploration, parametric combination, parametric space. Combinatorial explosion. The systemic definition of these combinations and functions is what matters. Interaction offers ambiguity (Kang Yuan). It offers an "ambiguity", a "space" (in the case of space), in which one can interact. Degrees of freedom in the space of interaction, more axes. 1D -> 2D -> 3D -> 4D... ND -> (N+1)D (inductive). In the end, more dimensions are an affirmation of Banpo-Xism... Not dimensionalising at all (remaining in the real before the symbolic) would be best, but that is no longer possible... So let us push dimensionalisation to excess instead: excessive structuring, an excessive system, excessive degrees of freedom... Banpo Xi, the sign structure and its axes: the signs, the axes, "Banpo" and "Xi". Go beyond this two-dimensional space? Three, four, five dimensions... Interaction: let us affirm the finger. Offer a space, an interface, where the finger can play. Scroll interaction, ergonomic interaction. Overall structure Multi-mobile interaction (N = 1, 2, 3, 4). 3 screens (current words): simple, one-to-one, intuitive correspondence. A parametric interface. A different form from SoTA (in SoTA one interaction moved too many things). 1 media wall: a 3D cityscape. Live transactions? The live movement and growth of the city? Agent-based modelling. Drawing maps. System state, system dimension 1D, 2D, 3D... 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D... 153D~! An explosion of signs! Countless combinations! Reaching 3D takes time, but the moment we actually leave 3D, the dimensions can keep increasing without end! Accommodating two or more people: phones can enter and leave freely. When a phone enters, it syncs with the system state. But if user A keeps upgrading the dimension and user B falls behind... then B just keeps falling behind. The phone needs a somewhat clearer definition... What is the phone's role? Explicit? Implicit? Explicit trading? An implicit role (setting the mood, a pacemaker, a market maker, adjusting the dimension of the market)? I am drawn a little more to the implicit axis... A minimal interface, no signage, only signs. Azabudai Hills Tokyo's new urban landscape: Azabudai Hills, Heatherwick Studio. Topology in architecture, the fourth dimension, the Mobius strip, the Klein bottle. Raised dimensions, dimension-transcending dimensions, the amorphous... Overcoming modernism, starting from modernism. No fixed axis, streamlined... Lifting the ground. Affirming the land, understanding the land, using the land. <-> In contrast: the apartment. "Castrating the land", digging out the land, the Euclideanisation of the land, making it 2D, 3D. Boundaries disappear, axes disappear (bye bye, three-dimensional Euclid), inside and outside disappear. Output 3D scene (A screen demo.) The goal: not an apartment, yet at a glance it looks exactly like one. Something any Korean can relate to. Somewhat abstract. Primitive geometry, combinations of cubes. The dream of squares. Somewhat similar to SoTA! (But drab, matchboxes.) Hard... Expanding dimensions: from the apartment, the chicken coop, to Azabudai Hills, to Sou Fujimoto. Implementation with Three.js. - Option 1: model the city directly with Three.js (from scratch, primitive geometries). - Option 2: use a 3D digital-twin model of the city. I will experiment with 3D digital-twin data too... but I prefer the more adjustable Three.js. Show the evolution of the apartment: 1D -> 2D -> 3D -> 4D+. A question of scale: focus on the form of a single apartment? Or on the apartment complex (the cluster)? Reference: Sam Lavigne's New York Apartment. Sou Fujimoto (Mori Art Museum) The exhibition "The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto" at the Mori Art Museum (a visitor's video), and a Los Angeles Times piece: "With potato chips and staples, architect Sou Fujimoto sketches out his architectural ideas". Everything is material for architecture: Architecture is Everywhere. Everything can become material for an expanded Banpo-Xism (and so for overcoming Banpo-Xism). Everything can be turned into a sign, everything into a difference. Through this, signs and differences are expanded and produced infinitely -> not expansion and production along existing axes, but the expansion of new axes and the countless production of these axes (higher dimensions, beyond the three dimensions of human cognition). Through this, signs and differences are overcome. Potato-chip architecture, clothes-peg architecture. Many, many, many! Open boundaries! Amorphous! The city = a forest, multidimensional, with no fixed axis. The planned city, the grid city, is convenient, but not humane (Heatherwick), not primal (Fujimoto). Beyond the outward structure, beyond the two or three dimensions that limit our imagination: when we think of other axes based on imagination (relations, time, the amorphous, the invisible), can we not expand infinitely, into four, five, six dimensions? The wall of the third dimension is truly high... But once it is crossed, once people are placed well within the range of imagination, does moving to four, five, six... higher dimensions not become inductively easier? Truly, there is "hope" in the future... the hope of going beyond Banpo-Xism... The open future city: from linear circulation to hyper-adjacent circulation (the last section). Sketch visuals. Affirming combination, generating countless combinations Expanding dimension through combination. Differentiating, integrating: how to go from 1D to 2D, 2D to 3D, 3D to 4D... Anything can be material! Anything can be a sign! The possible combinations are infinite. Truly infinite. Only our imagination sets a limit... Han River view? Lake view? We have the right to enjoy all kinds of views -- why the obsession with the Han River only? McDonald's view, ____ view... As long as it is not a view of the apartment block in front? The shape of the city: does it need to be rectangular? Perhaps not? Conceptual shapes? Circles? Uplift? Chaos? Decided as the result of the system and the interaction, the result of combinations of parameters. Countless sign play, the generation of axes? The phone's role: the continuing expansion of dimensions, the expansion of axes. Expanding axes on which agents can exist and actively move back and forth. Expanding dimensions by continuous scrolling? Hangeul, combination, wordplay Chair Moon So-young + Hangeul Free (KF, "Resonating Letters"). Hangeul, scientific combination. Hangeul is "architectural". Hangeul -> countless combinations -> wordplay? "Banpo Xi" -> Banpo + Xi. (A mobile demo.) Mobile interface: an iOS wheel picker, inspired by the slot machine. Y-axis scroll, similar to SoTA: an endless wheel picker, the affirmation of scrolling, the affirmation of the finger. A slot machine of meaning, a slot machine of signs. Inter-dimension transition: scroll to the end of one dimension and the next dimension appears, so dimension can expand naturally. Language as sign: an inquiry into the limits of language, an inquiry into the limits of signs. Signs. The limit of dimension, three dimensions, the limit of language. Roulette, infinite scroll, play... Options for wordplay Combinatorial generation, using the architectural principle of Hangeul. Hangeul: initial consonant + vowel + final consonant. Each character: three degrees of freedom. Banpo: - changing the initial consonant (1D): Ganpo, Nanpo, Danpo... - changing the vowel (2D): Baenpo, Beonpo, Byanpo... - changing the final consonant (3D): Bappo, Bakpo, Balpo... - recombining whole syllables: Ganjto, Beulppi, Hichgyu (nonsense)... Semantic substitution: reorganising and expanding the value system. Using semantic categories, substituting signs. - Banpo (place) -> Apgujeong, Haeundae, Omotesando, SoHo - Xi (brand) -> Xi, Raemian, Le-El, IKEA, Daiso - Han River view (value) -> city view, sup-segwon (forest-adjacent), maek-segwon (McDonald's-adjacent), Daiso view Formulaic differentiation: the multiplication of desire through minimal difference. - Prefixes: Sin- (New), Gu- (Old), Dong- (East), Seo- (West), Nam- (South), Buk- (North), Jungang- (Central), New-... (e.g. Sin-Buk-Banpo, New-North-Banpo) - Suffixes: -Xi, -Castle, -Palace, -Foret, -Park, -The Hill, -County... (e.g. Raemian-The Hill-Foret) Old-West-Banpo, North-West-Banpo, North-North-West-Banpo, South-South-West-Banpo, North-West-New-Banpo, Old-East-West-Central-New-Centren-Banpo. Central-Xi-Le-Habitat-County-City-View. Questions: which of these options to choose? How to combine them? How to enlarge the combinations, the dimensions? Interface options A proliferation of one-dimensional, column-wise scroll wheels: a file hierarchy system (the Linux file system hierarchy as reference). A two-dimensional cross, a grid. But how to rise to three dimensions and beyond? Final installation form Left: 3 TVs + 2 smartphones. - TV 1: the location sign (Banpo) - TV 2: the brand sign (Xi) - TV 3: the commodity sign (price) - Smartphones: the operator signs (+, x, =) Banpo + Xi = 5 billion won. Each TV: text + a parametric interface. Right: the media wall. A 3D city: aggregated, evolving. A city dashboard. Dealing with the treadmill Geoffrey West, Scale. Overcoming the techno-treadmill... How is continuous evolution possible? It is possible by heading towards transcendent dimensions. --- 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. Index: https://jeanyoon.ch/llms.txt.