# Competition: Relativeness and Absoluteness

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/competition-relativeness-and-absoluteness
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2024-07-31

## Summary

Prompted by Walter De Maria's Time/Timeless/No Time, this 2024 note argues that people judge education, work, wealth and appeal by relative position, so material improvement does not end dissatisfaction. Jeanyoon Choi proposes an installation in which several participants press on their phones before one large projection, raising scores in an abstract visual field, while a rising surface, evoking sea-level rise, submerges lower scores. The work would link relative competition to the resources and ecological conditions it consumes.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤은 월터 드 마리아의 작품에서 출발해 상대적 경쟁이 만족을 주지 못하는 구조를 논하고, 휴대폰으로 점수를 올릴수록 수면이 차올라 낮은 점수가 잠기는 설치 작업을 구상한다.

## Questions this answers

### Why doesn't getting richer end dissatisfaction?

In 'Competition: Relativeness and Absoluteness', Jeanyoon Choi argues that value is often judged by relative position, so the reference point moves with the people around us; competition demands more resources without guaranteeing more contentment.

### How could an installation make competition and sea-level rise tangible?

Jeanyoon Choi proposes participants pressing on mobile phones to raise scores on a shared projection while a rising surface submerges the lower scores, so local pursuit of improvement produces an environment in which fewer can remain.

Topics: relative competition, interactive installation, sea-level rise, mobile phone participation, ecological consequences

References: [Walter De Maria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_De_Maria), Time/Timeless/No Time

## Full text

Walter De Maria’s Time/Timeless/No Time prompted this thought about competition. In education, employment, wealth and personal appeal, we often evaluate ourselves through relative position rather than an absolute condition. Value emerges from comparison with someone else.

An improvement in material conditions therefore does not necessarily end dissatisfaction. The reference point moves with the people around us. Competition demands more resources without guaranteeing a corresponding increase in contentment. My image of being a hundred times wealthier while consuming a hundred times more is deliberately symbolic: the excess does not resolve the comparison that produced it.

An installation could make that structure tangible. Several participants each use a mobile phone, facing one large projection. They begin pressing without fully understanding the system. More presses raise their score, represented through an abstract visual field.

As competition intensifies, scores rise—but the lower scores begin to disappear beneath a rising surface. The image evokes rising sea levels. Those already ahead continue upwards while others are submerged.

The participants’ local pursuit of improvement produces a shared environment in which fewer and fewer can remain. The work would connect relative competition to the resources and ecological conditions it consumes.

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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.