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Jeanyoon Choi (b.1999) is a Computational Artist researching in interconnectivity and complexity through Multi-Device Web Artworks.

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Banpo-Xism Artist Notes: November 2025

2025-11-22

10 November 2025

From 2D to 3D as a burst: leaving the forest of apartments and its suffocating camera angle, the view opens onto the wide sky, and then the apartment fragments, having overcome the spirit of gravity, begin to float. After that, the evolution through dimensions continues: 3, 4, 5, 6 and onwards. Overcoming gravity, overcoming form; movement and transformation; the intervention of a time axis. A video on Brutalism is noted as a reference.

3 November 2025 (update from a meeting with the professor)

The installation has three parts: mobile, TV and LED wall.

Mobile: should the roulette convert to numbers, focusing on dimensions, vectors and numbers rather than on the semiotic side? Dimensions run from 1D to 2D to 3D: location, then location plus brand, then something not yet known. How does one level up a dimension? By continuing to scroll naturally? The wheel picker has to work as picking: aligning a date, aligning 777, choosing some combination. The key is not to scroll down endlessly but to form a combination and to stay on the combination one wants. This psychology should be used well, and it could be the trigger point for moving to the next dimension.

LED wall (3D modelling): 1D, 2D and 3D expressed through camera angles and movement. 1D shows an apartment from one face only; 2D turns around the apartment's floor plan; 3D looks down on a forest of apartments packed with 2D apartments. Floor plans are being drawn and tested directly at https://banpo-xism.vercel.app/apt. One reference for apartment interiors is Sam Lavigne's New York Apartment (https://lav.io/projects/new-york-apartment/); another, for exteriors, is an Instagram post. Both differ from the desired direction and aesthetic. The aim is something that looks state-of-the-art but is less techy, with a concrete, Korean colour.

TV: in 1D, TV1 = TV2, the location sign equals the price (the good). In 2D, TV1 × TV2 = TV3: TV3, the good, depends on TV1 and TV2, location and brand. In 3D, TV1 ? TV2 ? TV3: TV3, the ultimate value, is no longer a monetary value dependent on TV1 and TV2 but something free.

Options for what the TVs show: one large central text over a background visual or moving image, as in Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries; or a website or a chunk of text; or several phones displayed; or something like a real-estate trading site or online community. The content could be AI-generated praise of Banpo-Xism, and therefore satire of it. Goal one: an interaction that is intuitive enough, unhurried and understandable. Goal two: socially satirical content that mocks Banpo-Xism.

27 October 2025 (preparation for a lab meeting)

Banpo-Xism: its present state and its problems. Uniformity, totalitarianism, desire, fetishism, South Korea, a frog in a well.

Banpo-Xism, signs and vectors: "Banpo" plus "Xi", a location sign plus a brand sign. Desire, individuality, living space and life goals are turned into signs and vectors and made uniform, in the same way as MBTI. Banpo-Xism is "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, so seen from three or more dimensions it is pitiful and absurd.

Flatland, and the chapter on common sense and imagination in which Mr Square meets his teacher: "Upwards, not Northwards." 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D; first, second, third and fourth generation apartments. The book's dedication is quoted: may the inhabitants of this wonderful world aspire, as a humble native of Flatland did on encountering the mysteries of three dimensions, to the secrets of four, five or even six dimensions, so that the finest of humankind may let imagination flourish and cultivate deeply the rare gift of modesty. Are higher dimensions possible? Bolder dimensions?

Dimensions: four, five (Interstellar), ten (superstring theory). Quantum mechanics, topology, calculus as continuous exchange between dimensions. Humanity must keep doing calculus: not staying trapped in one dimension but thinking while moving fluidly among countless different dimensions. Banpo-Xism emphasises one dimension, dimensions at or below three, and position and status within a dimension. Overcoming Banpo-Xism means seeing that no single dimension is unique: struggle, competition and sign consumption on a 2D plane are nothing from the standpoint of 3D, and those in 3D are nothing from the standpoint of 4D.

Apartments: a blog post on first, second, third and fourth generation apartments raises the question of whether these generations are a real increase in dimension.

The symbolism of three dimensions: 3D is the perceivable dimension, the one we live in, and we struggle to imagine more, like the Sphere of Spaceland. Banpo-Xism moves through 1D (older buildings), 2D (second generation), 3D, but has not yet broken the wall of the third dimension. Breaking that wall would also be visually effective.

Further references and metaphors. The pop song "Dream of a Square" (in an IU live clip): escaping the 2D square. Snowpiercer: "It has been closed so long that we thought it was a wall", and the line "Not this door, I want to open that door": escaping structure, post-structuralism.

teamLab Planets in Tokyo: the visuals are so-so, yet huge numbers of people are enthusiastic. It is the most impressive and accomplished interactive art seen so far, with, as an aside, its ticket power and business model: a playground for adults. Its philosophy of "three-dimensional thinking through the body" resonates (https://www.teamlab.art/ko/concept/athleticsforest/): spatial thinking and higher-dimensional thinking using the body; leaving the plane, leaving 2D, leaving the smartphone, leaving the city (the dream of a square). This matches the message of Banpo-Xism. teamLab offers not so much visuals as a system, a playground in which people can interact and play, moving between the volumetric and the flat. Natural, phenomenological movement of the body, something primal. On a smartphone this would be the movement of the fingers: affirming the finger.

Systems and interaction, in line with the philosophy of system art: components (like A, C, G and T) combine into a playground of parametric exploration, parametric combination and parametric space, a combinatorial explosion. The systemic definition of these combinations and functions matters. Interaction offers ambiguity, a space in which one can interact, and more axes and degrees of freedom: 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D, from N to N + 1 dimensions, inductively. Yet more dimensions ultimately affirm Banpo-Xism. Not dimensionalising at all, remaining in the real before the symbolic, would be best, but that is no longer possible; so instead push dimensionalisation to excess: excessive structuring, excessive system, excessive degrees of freedom. "Banpo" and "Xi" are signs and axes; can one go beyond this 2D space into three, four, five dimensions? In interaction, affirm the finger: give it a space and interface in which to play, scrolling, an ergonomic interaction.

Overall structure: multi-mobile interaction (N = 1, 2, 3, 4); three screens showing the current words, with a simple, one-to-one, intuitive correspondence through a parametric interface, unlike SoTA, where one interaction moved too many things; and one media wall with a 3D cityscape, perhaps showing live transactions and the city's movement and growth, agent-based modelling, map drawing.

System state and system dimension: 1D, 2D, 3D, then 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D, up to 153 dimensions. An explosion of signs, countless combinations. Reaching 3D takes time, but once 3D is left behind, the dimensions can keep increasing without end.

Accommodating two or more people: phones should be able to enter and leave freely, syncing with the system state on entry. But if user A keeps upgrading dimensions while user B falls behind, B stays behind. The role of the phone needs a clearer definition. Explicit or implicit? Explicit trading, or an implicit role (setting the atmosphere, acting as pacemaker or market maker, adjusting the dimension of the market)? The implicit axis is more appealing: a minimal interface with no signage, only signs.

Azabudai Hills (Heatherwick Studio): topology in architecture, the fourth dimension, the Möbius strip, the Klein bottle; raised dimensions, trans-dimensional and amorphous. Overcoming modernism from within modernism: no fixed axis, streamlined, lifting the ground, affirming, understanding and using the land. In contrast, the apartment castrates the land, digs it out, makes it Euclidean, two- or three-dimensional. Azabudai Hills dissolves boundaries, axes (goodbye, 3D Euclid) and the distinction between inside and outside.

Output 3D scene (screen demo at https://banpo-xism.vercel.app/apt). The goal is something that is not an apartment but obviously looks like one, something any Korean would recognise, somewhat abstract: primitive geometry, combinations of cubes, the dream of a square. Somewhat similar to SoTA, but drab, matchbox-like. It is difficult.

Expanding dimensions: from the apartment, the chicken coop, to Azabudai Hills and Sou Fujimoto. Implementation with Three.js: option 1 models the city directly from scratch with primitive geometries; option 2 uses a 3D digital twin of the city. The digital twin data will be tested, but the more adjustable Three.js approach is preferred. Show the apartment's evolution: 1D, 2D, 3D, then 4D and beyond. A question of scale: focus on the form of a single apartment, or on the complex as a cluster?

Sou Fujimoto, at the Mori Art Museum exhibition The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto (on until 9 November), and a Los Angeles Times article on how he sketches architectural ideas with potato chips and staples. Everything is material for architecture: architecture is everywhere. Likewise, everything can become material for an expanded Banpo-Xism, and therefore for overcoming Banpo-Xism. Everything can be turned into a sign and a difference, so signs and differences are expanded and produced without limit. Not expansion and production along existing axes, but the expansion of new axes and their countless production (higher dimensions, beyond the three-dimensional range of human perception), and through that, overcoming signs and differences. Potato-chip architecture, clothes-peg architecture.

Many, many, many! Open boundaries! Amorphous! The city as forest, multidimensional, with no fixed axis. Planned grid cities are convenient but not humane (Heatherwick) or primal (Fujimoto). Beyond the outward structures and the two or three dimensions that limit imagination: when we think of other axes based on imagination (relations, time, the amorphous, the invisible), can the city not expand infinitely into four, five, six dimensions? The wall of the third dimension is truly high, but once one crosses it and places people well within the range of imagination, does moving to four, five, six and higher dimensions not become inductively easier? There really is hope in the future: the hope of going beyond Banpo-Xism. An open future city, moving from linear circulation to hyper-adjacent circulation, perhaps as a final section, with sketch visuals.

Affirming combination, the generation of countless combinations, dimensional expansion through combination. Differentiating and 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 the limit. Han River view? Lake view? We have the right to enjoy many kinds of view, so why the obsession with the Han River? McDonald's view, blank view: as long as it is not a view of the apartment block in front? Does the city have to be rectangular? Perhaps not. Conceptual forms: circles, uplift, chaos, decided as results of the system and interaction, of parameter combinations. Countless sign play, the generation of axes. The phone's role: continuous expansion of dimensions and axes, axes on which agents can exist and move actively back and forth. Expanding dimensions by continuous scrolling?

Moon So-young, committee chair, and the exhibition Hangeul Free (KF, "Resonating Letters"): Hangeul as scientific combination. Hangeul is architectural. Hangeul's countless combinations could yield wordplay: "Banpo Xi" is Banpo plus Xi. Hangeul, combination, wordplay.

Mobile demo: https://banpo-xism.vercel.app/mobile/1. The mobile interface uses an iOS wheel picker inspired by a slot machine, with Y-axis scrolling similar to SoTA: an endless wheel picker, affirming scrolling and the finger. A slot machine of meaning, a slot machine of signs. Inter-dimensional transition: scrolling to the end of one dimension brings up the next, expanding dimension naturally.

Language as sign: an inquiry into the limits of language and of signs. The limit of dimension, three dimensions, the limit of language. Roulette, infinite scroll, play.

Options for wordplay. Combinatorial generation uses the architectural principle of Hangeul, in which each syllable is initial consonant plus medial vowel plus final consonant, giving each character three degrees of freedom. From Banpo: changing the initial consonant (1D) gives Ganpo, Nanpo, Danpo; changing the vowel (2D) gives Baenpo, Beonpo, Byanpo; changing the final consonant (3D) gives Bappo, Bakpo, Balpo; recombining whole syllables gives nonsense syllables.

Semantic substitution reorganises and expands the value system by swapping signs within semantic categories. Banpo (place) becomes Apgujeong, Haeundae, Omotesando, SoHo; Xi (brand) becomes Raemian, Le-El, IKEA, Daiso; Han River view (value) becomes city view, forest-adjacent, McDonald's-adjacent, Daiso view.

Affixal differentiation multiplies desire through minimal difference. Prefixes: new-, old-, east-, west-, south-, north-, central-, New- (for example New-North-Banpo). Suffixes: -Xi, -Castle, -Palace, -Forêt, -Park, -The Hill, -County (for example Raemian-The Hill-Forêt). Examples: Old West Banpo, Northwest Banpo, North-Northwest Banpo, South-Southwest Banpo, Northwest New Banpo, Old-East-West-Central-New-Central Banpo; Central Xi Le Habitat County City View.

Questions: which option to choose? How to combine them, and how to enlarge the combinations and dimensions?

Interface options: a proliferation of one-dimensional, column-wise scroll wheels, like a file hierarchy system (with the Linux file system hierarchy as a reference); or a two-dimensional cross or grid. But how to rise to three dimensions and beyond?

Final installation form: on the left, three TVs and two smartphones. TV 1 shows the location sign (Banpo), TV 2 the brand sign (Xi), TV 3 the sign of the good (price), and the smartphones the operator signs (+, ×, =): Banpo + Xi = 5 billion won. Each TV has text and a parametric interface. On the right, the media wall: an aggregated, evolving 3D city and a city dashboard.

Dealing with the treadmill: Geoffrey West's Scale and overcoming the techno-treadmill. How is continuous evolution possible? By heading towards transcendent dimensions.

12 October 2025 (summary)

Which aspect of Banpo-Xism to focus on? Compared with other works on concrete in general, what does Banpo-Xism criticise or show differently? Keywords: minimal marginal difference, sign consumption, a zero-sum game, wanting to be different and equal at once, totalitarian individualism, irrationality made from the sum of rationalities. A video of Kanye West is noted.

South Korean society is in danger (no future industries, a collapsing demographic structure), yet the life goal is Banpo Xi, and this real-estate speculation, like squeezing a pimple, in turn endangers future industries and worsens low fertility in a vicious circle. Humanity's future is in danger (the Anthropocene), yet the goal remains short-term profit: irrationality made from the sum of rationalities. Apartments and concrete are ultimately the surface. What the work wants to show is a critique of the sign structure (the vectorisation of humans, of happiness, of goals), of short-sightedness, of totalitarian and ruinous competition, of the bubble.

Banpo-Xism, signs and vectors: pursuing Banpo Xi means pursuing Banpo (a location sign) plus Xi (a brand sign). Every instance of Banpo-Xism can be expressed as coordinates or a vector: (Banpo, Xi, 5 billion won, 30 pyeong, Han River view, near a subway station). The apartment's liquidity, reducibility, exchangeability and status as a good equal its sign-ness and vector-ness. The psychology of Banpo-Xism is "a comedy created by the desire to place oneself on a coordinate system and to be placed even slightly higher on it (minimal marginal difference)". Comparison with others becomes quantitative comparison, comparison within a vector space. But the vector space is two-dimensional (or N-dimensional), unable to see three or N + 1 or higher dimensions, unable to do calculus, so people live short-sightedly inside it like a frog in a well. Making a life goal of bumping around in a flat vector space leads to a zero-sum game, a collective suicide of society.

Banpo-Xism as a system of religion, science and game.

Religion: Banpo-Xism is fantasy, myth, religion, fetishism. Ever-rising house prices and capitalism are matters of faith, a certainty that demand will keep rising, almost shamanism, the only powerful and absolute religion in contemporary Korea. People who believe in an absolute religion become more machine-like and blind. Possible expression: videos, texts, generative AI.

Science: Banpo Xi is a coordinate space; house prices are determined by combinations of signs (location, brand, new build, proximity to a station). Countless analyses of house prices, countless "analyses", sciences and forecasts on real-estate channels. In the end these numbers and vectors consume humans in return (a hyperobject): irrationality made from the sum of rationalities. A quoted observation: it has made Koreans' ways of life too similar, and similar ways of life lead to similar ways of thinking; like the cityscape itself, everything becomes flattened and uniform. Possible expression: vector spaces, statistics, graphs, grids, computational aesthetics.

Game: "our life is an infinite game", "we must grow". The opponents are neighbours, comparison, the nation: a zero-sum game. "Trading up to a higher-tier neighbourhood." Not absolute value but relatively more points, yet the game cannot be sustained. Possible expression: a land-grabbing game, computational aesthetics.

The system reinforces itself through interaction among religion, science and game. With continued interaction, the links among them and their intensity accelerate further. How?

The system and the individual: does an individual who takes part in Banpo-Xism participate in the system because there is no choice? "I am taking part in something harmful, even ruinous, in the long run." Is the individual blameless? They act in their own interest. But that is itself the fault: not solving common, more important, more essential problems, but trying to secure a better place inside a sinking Titanic.

Mobile interface: an interface in which visitors combine signs. Option 1 uses real names: Banpo, Apgujeong, Daechi, Jamsil and so on, beside Xi, Raemian, Le-El and so on. Option 2 uses syllable variants: Ganpo, Nanpo, Danpo, Ranpo, Manpo, Banpo, beside Gai, Nai, Dai, Tai. An iOS wheel picker inspired by a slot machine, with endless Y-axis scrolling similar to SoTA: a slot machine of meaning, a conveyor belt, combining words continuously like a haiku or poem, breaking every four units (Banpo, Xi, 30 pyeong, 5 billion won). The logic for moving to the next picker could be automatic, one per second, rhythmically, like a conveyor belt; or manual, moving on when the visitor finishes scrolling. Which text, content and options is still open. One sentence per four words: "Banpo Xi, standard size, 5 billion won"; "You know it: Bundang, just below heaven." It should not be too cheesy or obvious, it should hit the core, and the narrative should keep developing as people choose among options, partly using an AI word generator in the backend.

The phone's roles: sign exchange, Banpo Xi exchange, the voluntary production of sign value and difference (a participant in the market, an individual, shaping the market's mood); reinforcing and affirming Banpo Xi, with apartments rising on the surrounding screens and the religious, scientific and game-like features intensifying. With N ≥ 2, two or more people can be accommodated at once; if they join together, perhaps a competitive setup.

The whole system. LED wall with 3D visuals: option 1 uses 3D city data and apartment models; option 2, as in SoTA, stacks squares and Three.js primitive geometries to represent apartments, superficially not apartments but obviously looking like them. The second seems more likely, with the advantage of flexible expression, but both need testing. Three or four monitors: with three, one each for religion, science and game; with four, two for religion (blind religion gradually making humans mechanical; symbolic consumption), two for science (sophisticated analysis that rules humans in return; financial markets), and the phone as the game (a wordplay game). Tablet 1 displays the QR code; tablet 2 (to be decided) acts as a controller for changing the sign structure: sign play, system play.

System destruction or collapse? Like part 4 of PoW, the phone turn-off in SoTA, or the phone shake in Omega (MBTI): forming the system and destroying it. How to destroy it? Build a structure and then destroy it (structuralism to post-structuralism), or use the strategy of system overload. Build an absurd, sign-based, simulacral system; reinforcement, immersion, participation in the system.

Summary of September to October notes

The outward splendour of collectivism. Banpo Xi as the highest good: the active bourgeoisie, content to be enjoyed. The "N ≥ 2" simulacrum: one thought it was "just for me", but "I" is actually plural. A reductionist cycle, an asset-growth cycle: English kindergarten, gifted high school, medical school, marriage, childbirth, English kindergarten again. Their own world, no outsiders allowed. Reconstruction and the multiplication of generations, until the cycle breaks, the bubble bursts and everything collapses.

The point of explosion, the point of turning off. Phone turn-off: the simulacrum, revealing the data behind a rich texture (brutal interface, Miguel Chevalier). A different entry point revealing the simulacrum and the circulating structure of signs. Explosion, M2, the role of sign play, the simulacral character of the system. Through a roulette machine, a circle or a navigation chart, random combinations of signs: combining the signs that exceed and control individual phones and agents (a structure on top of a structure), then a structure on top of that, rising ever upward. Ultimately a critique of linguistic structure, of structuralism, of structure, sign and minimal marginal difference: towards the real beyond signs, the Real beyond the Symbolic. Or a continuous integration of the sign structure towards higher sign structures. SoTA was just a frontend-backend structure; Banpo-Xism should move towards continuous integration, 2D, 3D, 4D, 5D, ever higher. AI and calculus: AI works well within one dimension, within a structure of language and signs; we must go beyond that and keep doing calculus.

A kick or punctum: on the phone, a gradual elevation to higher dimensions? A gradual escape from the circular structure? Perhaps Banpo-Xism is a laboratory in the course of human development: can it be overcome? First there was religion, then science, then game, then something else. A structure that rises through kicks or punctums: not a circulation among religion, science and game but circulation within religion, then within science, then within game, like Dante's Divine Comedy. Thus Spoke Zarathustra: the camel, the lion, the child.

What is Banpo-Xism? It is circular and reductionist (sameness). It is a zero-sum game. It calls for followers. It is not about apartments or concrete; it is about society, the housing problem, circular structure, religion, science and game.

Make good use of the parametric interface. Papers to consult: Yoshinao. Mobile as instrument, playing, scrolling. Use of the game: use the grammar, system, mechanics and addictiveness inherent in games without following their interface, form or surface language.

Open questions: the mobile interface; what Banpo-Xism is; minimal marginal difference or sign structure? Every Banpo Xi transaction can be plotted on a coordinate system, repeating the "comedy" of the desire to rank slightly higher on it: (Banpo, Xi, building 206, unit 1307, 84 square metres, 5 billion won, 2025), with auxiliary coordinates such as transport, view, education, year of completion, community facilities and price per pyeong. Religion is firm belief in this coordinate system (myth); science is its analysis, numbers and quantification (mathematics, the numerical and monetary conversion and reduction of all value); game is territorial conquest on the coordinate system (a land-grabbing game).

References: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Liam Gillick, a Raemian brand magazine page. Accelerating rhythm, with a video reference.

19 January (lab meeting keywords)

From budongsan to dongsan: from real estate, literally immovable property, an immovable, absolute, external value, to movable property that one moves directly, plays actively and plays with. 0D, 1D, 2D, 3D, 4D: point, line, plane, space, hypersolid. Banpo Xi, Banpo-Xism, Banpo-Xism-ism, Banpo-Xism-ism-ism.

Not navigating passively within a system made by others, lowering oneself to a castrated, two-dimensional desire, but designing one's own coordinate axes, one's own system, one's own vector field; acknowledging and following the diversity of desire (the will to power). The distortion of space-time, the distortion of a vector field: from relativity to dimensions and differential geometry; from Euclidean and Newtonian physics to an adjustable, distorting field.

What gives form in three dimensions is chaos in two, and generation in a higher dimension may be perceived as destruction in a lower one. Do not follow the rules of the game. Look at the game from a higher dimension and change its rules.

A critique of game theory: why emphasise the fixed rules of a game, its unquestionable assumptions? There is no fixed, immutable truth, only old valuations to be torn down. The fixed rules of the game are the other, what Nietzsche called the existing truth, worn out. From a higher dimension, the rules of the game, the rules of Banpo-Xism, can be changed all too easily; what is hard is only the idea of integration, the courage to explore and the acceptance of inefficiency.

Navigating Banpo Xi inside Banpo-Xism is navigation as a point: passive and system-dependent. Navigating Banpo-Xism inside Banpo-Xism-ism is navigation as a line, changing what counts as the highest value: from Banpo-Xism, a field in which Banpo and Xi are best, to Hanpo-Tai-ism, a field in which Hanpo and Tai are best. But a linear series is still maintained. Navigating Banpo-Xism-ism inside Banpo-Xism-ism-ism is navigation as a plane: questioning the order of the series itself, and the orthogonality between series.

Multiple users: each with their own desire, direction and variation. As points, they appear to compete, each from their own position. What governs these variations together is a manifold, a manifold in differential geometry: a differentiable manifold of desire made together, instrumentally, as movable property.

The phone: Reels mean addiction, being bound to an external frame, a passive role. Towards higher dimensions, it becomes an instrument, a percussion instrument, struck, played and varied: the will to power, desire manifesting as a manifold, a direct, differential effect on the vector field itself. The interface should go beyond scrolling to accommodate the playing of the finger itself: finger skating, smooth morphing rather than discrete clicks between icons.

The biggest concern is a smooth transition: the structure exists, but how is it translated into an intuitive language?

Banpo Xi is to desire as Banpo-Xism is to desire, as Banpo-Xism-ism is to desire, as Banpo-Xism-ism-ism is to desire: a progressive series, but something concrete (an advertisement) is missing to stand in the place of "desire". Banpo-Xism moves like a point in pursuit of an apartment called Banpo Xi. Banpo-Xism-ism asks which series is best and moves the maximum of the board itself, that is, moves Banpo-Xism. Banpo-Xism-ism-ism moves Banpo-Xism-ism, and so on, each level still undefined.

Another hypothetical example: state funding programme to artwork, state funding programme to artwork. The process of applying for and running a state funding programme is itself made into an artwork; to make this artwork, a state funding programme is needed; the process of applying for and running that programme is made into an artwork, and so on. Likewise: Banpo Xi's will to power (a word left blank); for this, Banpo-Xism is needed; Banpo-Xism's (blank); for this, Banpo-Xism-ism is needed. Infinite semiosis.

Peirce's semiotics. A sign (representamen) stands for something else under a certain relation: sounds, letters, images, gestures, ideas (Banpo Xi, Banpo-Xism, Banpo-Xism-ism). The object is what the sign stands for (desire). The interpretant is the content interpreted as the sign's meaning. Banpo Xi (sign) indicates a castrated, two-dimensional desire (object): Banpo-Xism (interpretant). Semiosis is the process in which the interpretant, produced on grasping that a sign indicates an object, becomes a second sign generating a second interpretant of the object, which becomes a third sign generating a third interpretant, and so on.

A table sets out the levels by situation, controller (the "Reels" name), degrees of freedom of control, the dimension of the Banpo Xi plane, the operation and its meaning:

Banpo-Xism, controlled by Banpo Xi: 0D (point) control on a 2D plane, passive point-to-point navigation within the given Banpo-Xism plane, bound to Banpo-Xism and dependent on the external hierarchical order called Banpo Xi.

Banpo-Xism-ism, controlled by Banpo-Xism: 1D (linear) control on a 2D plane, manipulating the plane's hierarchy, from "Banpo is best" to "Hanpo is best", operating a one-dimensional edge, questioning the maximum of the series and adjusting Banpo-Xism.

Banpo-Xism-ism-ism: 2D control on a 2D plane, a two-dimensional operation (tentative), questioning the absoluteness and orthogonality of the series, mixing the two edges (tentative).

Banpo-Xism-ism-ism-ism: 3D control, and since the degrees of freedom now exceed the plane's dimension, the plane itself begins to be transformed: plane to cylinder, cylinder to torus (a Ricci-flat torus). This questions the linearity of the series, turning the linear series into a circle: from linear thinking to circular, recursive thinking.

The next levels are 4D (a K3 surface), 5D, and 6D (perhaps a Calabi-Yau manifold).

A chatbot-style explanation of the will to power in Banpo-Xism was appended: it reads the desire to go higher and to a better apartment as an expression of the will to power that, confined to the single value system of location and brand, becomes an endless competition in one direction of vertical ascent. It is noted here without being adopted as authorial argument.

21 November 2025

A passage on Deleuze is transcribed. It argues that noticing that the same pattern seems to be repeating already means being captured by sameness: to be serialised is to be captured. Distinguishing types means placing something in a frame from a subjective viewpoint with some criterion of consciousness. In everyday life we are unconsciously trained into types, look through frames fixed by someone's intention or desire and readily agree with what has been typified, and so are captured by the view of whoever set the frame, our thought dominated by theirs: the stage of sameness. When something different appears at that stage (the notes add: foreign bodies, rebelling against the order of the series), we begin to perceive difference, and perceiving difference is cognition at work. Difference and repetition matter in Deleuze because he took becoming and event, rather than subject and object, to be being; the question of where the subject and others go is answered through difference and repetition.

The same rule means one absolute axis, an absolute rule: an absolute good, an absolute right answer, serialisation into higher-tier and lower-tier neighbourhoods. Finding the right answer, finding the highest score (100 points): Banpo × Xi = 100 points, and everything else lies below 100.

A draft artwork statement follows. Banpo-Xism is an interactive web artwork that systemically dismantles and reconstructs the flat structure of desire that dominates Korean society, so-called "Banpo-Xism". The artist focuses on how contemporary Korean life is reduced to the product of the location sign "Banpo" and the brand sign "Xi", that is, to coordinates on a two-dimensional plane of location × brand.

This plane resembles the world of Flatland, the Victorian mathematical novel. Individual desires and life goals, castrated within a vector space, race only towards "up and to the right" within a hierarchy. Seen from a higher dimension, the struggle on this plane is merely the zero-sum game of a frog in a well, a blind race that cannot see the real.

The work cracks this flat world through a multi-device web environment. The visitor's mobile device works as a "slot machine of meaning", and through scrolling the visitor dismantles fixed signs. These microscopic disturbances of signs change the cityscape on the large screens: the uniform apartment grid is distorted and set floating in unpredictable shapes, evolving into a higher-dimensional complex system beyond two dimensions. Banpo-Xism thus resists the "vectorisation of the human" represented by the real-estate class chart and, with a post-structuralist character, invites reflection on a higher-dimensional future and city.

22 November 2025

The projective plane, with a video reference. The same four-dimensional figure casts a different three-dimensional shadow every time its orientation changes. Four-dimensional space: twist it, and keep taking pictures.

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