# Tech-Art, not Art-Tech

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/tech-art-not-art-tech
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2025-01-25

## Summary

Jeanyoon Choi distinguishes tech-art, a practice that investigates technology as a medium and reaches beyond the established art audience, from art-tech, which places technology on top of conventional artwork. He asks whether media art could grow into an industry as film did after the camera, and seeks an independently sustainable path between institution-dependent work and social-media spectacle. His commitments are speculation, medium and narrative, with the web valued for its accessible, interactive language. CES 2025 prompted the view that designing encounters with technology is an artistic task.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤은 기술을 매체로 깊이 탐구하고 더 넓은 관객에게 다가가는 '테크-아트'를 기술을 장식처럼 얹는 '아트-테크'와 구분하며, 웹을 매체로 삼아 인류가 기술을 소화하도록 돕는 실천을 지향한다.

## Concepts defined

- **Tech-Art**: An artistic practice that investigates technology as a medium, beyond practical or demonstrational uses, and reaches audiences beyond the established art world, in contrast to 'art-tech', where technology is a topping on conventional artwork.

## Questions this answers

### What is the difference between tech-art and art-tech?

In Jeanyoon Choi's essay, tech-art investigates technology as a medium and reaches wider audiences, while art-tech places technology on top of an otherwise conventional artwork without examining it deeply; he notes the boundaries may blur.

### Why does Jeanyoon Choi use the web as an artistic medium?

He values its accessible, flexible and interactive language, JavaScript's direct link to a wide technical ecosystem, and its closeness to everyday uses, which lets familiar forms be bent into unfamiliar experiences.

### What did Jeanyoon Choi take from CES 2025?

He observed that many presentations isolated a product or feature rather than constructing a substantial experience, which he saw as an opening for artists, designers and research practices like XD Lab.

Topics: tech-art, media art, web as medium, experience economy, technology and art, artistic practice

References: CES 2025, [Consumer Electronics Show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Electronics_Show), [Apple Store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store), [JavaScript](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript), KAIST XD Lab

## Full text

My direction: tech-art, not art-tech. Helping humanity digest technology.

The distinction is provisional. By tech-art, I mean an artistic practice that investigates technology as a medium and reaches beyond an established art audience. It explores uses that are neither simply practical nor demonstrations of a feature. By art-tech, I mean the tendency to place technology on top of an otherwise conventional artwork without examining it deeply. Ultimately, these boundaries may blur.

Could media art develop something like the film industry? The camera enabled a new artistic language, which became an industry of its own. Computing, three-dimensional graphics, audiovisual systems, AI and extended reality may offer a comparable opening.

The current landscape often feels polarised to me: at one end, work that depends on government and art-world structures while becoming difficult to communicate; at the other, superficial spectacle made for social media. I want an independently sustainable practice with more narrative, research and reasoning than a decorative audiovisual attraction.

That does not mean simply following market demand. An artistic practice can create a demand by developing a language that did not previously exist.

Three commitments help define this direction. Speculation: investigate what technologies can make possible as interactive experiences. Medium: use them critically, rather than merely as implementation tools. Narrative: communicate an artistic position beyond an attractive audiovisual output.

The web matters because its language is accessible, flexible and deeply interactive. JavaScript connects directly to a wide technical ecosystem. Working with code can bring new technologies into an artwork without waiting for a third-party creative tool to package them. The medium also remains close to everyday uses, making it possible to bend familiar forms into unfamiliar experiences.

CES 2025 sharpened this thought for me. Many presentations still isolated a product or feature rather than constructing a substantial experience of the technology. I saw an opening for artists and designers to rethink those encounters, and for a research practice such as XD Lab to do more than decorate them. The same question extends to what might follow the Apple Store as a place for encountering technology.

An experience economy should communicate an experience, not just an individual product. Designing that encounter is an artistic task: helping humanity digest the technologies it is already living with.

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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.