# Platform Art

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/platform-art
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2024-08-16

## Summary

In this 2024 essay, Jeanyoon Choi defines platform art as many repeated modules sharing one rule, M(t), but running with different states, speeds and parameters so that they diverge asynchronously. Drawing on Tatsuo Miyajima's counters at Naoshima, departure boards at London Victoria and a grid of identical OPIc test avatars, he links small differences between units to Baudrillard's least marginal difference. Unlike static small multiples or multichannel works governed by one synchronising input, each module keeps some autonomy. Nonequality, Das Gerede and Factory 4.0 explore the idea.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤이 정의한 '플랫폼 아트'에 관한 글로, 하나의 규칙을 공유하는 모듈들이 서로 다른 속도와 상태로 비동기적으로 반복되며 만드는 미학을 미야지마 타쓰오의 카운터와 기차역 출발 안내판을 통해 설명한다.

## Concepts defined

- **Platform Art**: Art made of identical rule-based modules, M(t), repeated and run asynchronously with varied states and parameters, so that each module keeps some autonomy and their aggregate forms a dynamic ecology rather than a synchronised display.

## Questions this answers

### What is Platform Art according to Jeanyoon Choi?

Platform art is Jeanyoon Choi's term for artworks built from a repeated rule-based module whose instances run asynchronously with different states and parameters, so that small differences between similar units create a lively whole, like departure boards on a train platform.

### How can multiple asynchronous displays create a different experience from a single display?

Jeanyoon Choi notes, after Tatsuo Miyajima's counters, that one display, many synchronised displays and many asynchronous displays feel very different. Asynchronous modules sharing a rule produce tension between resemblance and difference.

### Which of Jeanyoon Choi's artworks are examples of platform art?

The essay names Nonequality, Das Gerede and, to an extent, Factory 4.0. Das Gerede is closest to the station departure board, filling a shared layout with generated conversations.

Topics: platform art, modular systems, asynchrony, small multiples, multi-device web artwork, generative art

References: [Tatsuo Miyajima](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatsuo_Miyajima), [Naoshima](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoshima,_Kagawa), [London Victoria station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Victoria_station), [Jean Baudrillard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard), [Small multiple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_multiple), OPIc, [Rafael Lozano-Hemmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Lozano-Hemmer), ≠ (Nonequality), Das Gerede, Factory 4.0

## Full text

At Tatsuo Miyajima’s Naoshima house project, repeated numerical displays count at different speeds. Each follows a related rule, yet their timing differs. One display, many synchronised displays and many asynchronous displays produce very different experiences. My idea of platform art begins with the third.

Its basic unit is a module governed by a rule. Call it M(t), where t is an input such as time or speed. Repeat the module, but vary its state and parameters. The underlying M remains recognisable while its instances diverge.

A small difference between otherwise similar units can generate a striking difference in the whole. I connect this to Baudrillard’s least marginal difference. The result can resemble an ecology of modules rather than a single image multiplied.

Small multiples in data visualisation offer a useful comparison, but I am particularly interested in dynamics. Rather than presenting a set of static cross-sections, the modules allow relationships to unfold through time.

A literal train platform helped form this idea. At London Victoria, departure boards share a layout while displaying different information and changing at different moments. The tension between resemblance and difference gives the place its atmosphere.

The OPIc test centre offers another image: thirty computers showing the same avatar, Ava, speaking at slightly different moments and in different contexts. The repeated character becomes at once efficient, awkward, utopian and dystopian.

Miyajima’s counters are a particularly clear reference. Counting through one to nine and a blank interval is a simple shared structure. Different speeds and starting points make their aggregate more than a synchronised display.

Some multichannel interactive works provide a useful contrast. Where one overarching input continuously coordinates all outputs—for example, breathing that governs a field of lights—the channels may remain subordinate to a single rule of synchronisation. In what I am calling platform art, each module needs some degree of autonomy, even while it shares an algorithmic or visual foundation with the others.

Nonequality, Das Gerede and, to an extent, Factory 4.0 explore this. Das Gerede is particularly close to the station-board observation: a shared presentation structure populated by generated conversations that parody the idle exchanges of everyday life.

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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.