# Two-Rooms Problem: Interrogation Room

Canonical URL: https://jeanyoon.ch/oi/texts/two-rooms-problem-interrogation-room
Type: essay / research note
Author: Jeanyoon Choi (최정윤)
Date: 2024-07-28

## Summary

Jeanyoon Choi proposes that multi-device web artworks need not keep every device in one room, citing Nam June Paik's Good Morning, Mr. Orwell as a reference for working across distance. He takes the interrogation room's one-way mirror as a model of directed power: one room is watched, the other observes and controls. A participant in Room A experiences an augmented environment controlled unseen from Room B, then later enters Room B, discovers the mechanism and may take the controlling position. Lacan's account of the gaze is noted for further reading.

## 요약 (Korean)

최정윤은 취조실의 단방향 거울을 모델로, 한 방의 디지털 환경을 보이지 않는 다른 방에서 통제하는 멀티디바이스 설치를 구상하며 백남준의 Good Morning, Mr. Orwell과 라캉의 응시 개념을 참조한다.

## Questions this answers

### What is the interrogation-room idea in Jeanyoon Choi's Two-Rooms Problem?

A participant in Room A experiences a digital environment controlled from an unseen Room B, modelled on a one-way mirror; later they enter Room B, discover the mechanism and may take the controlling role.

### How can an installation make a real-time connection between distant rooms felt?

Jeanyoon Choi's essay suggests letting participants first suspect that their environment responds to an unseen presence and only later discover the controlling room, instead of explaining the link directly.

Topics: multi-device web artwork, inter-spatial installation, gaze, surveillance, power, interactive narrative

References: [Nam June Paik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik), [Good Morning, Mr. Orwell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Morning,_Mr._Orwell), [Jacques Lacan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan), [One-way mirror](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-way_mirror)

## Full text

Multi-device web artworks do not have to keep every device in the same room. Their connections can pass between physically separate rooms, buildings or countries. Nam June Paik’s Good Morning, Mr. Orwell is one reference for thinking across distance.

How could an installation make that distant, real-time relationship felt without simply explaining it? How could a narrative unfold between spaces?

The interrogation room offers a starting structure. A one-way mirror separates being watched from watching. One room is exposed; the other observes and exercises control. The architecture assigns power a direction.

I imagine a participant entering Room A without understanding the complete arrangement. The digitally augmented environment around them is being controlled from Room B. They may begin to suspect that its events are responding to a presence they cannot see.

Later they enter Room B and discover the mechanism—and perhaps occupy the controlling position themselves. What first appeared to be an autonomous environment becomes a relation between people and rooms.

Lacan’s account of the gaze, including the relationship between point of light, screen and subject, is a possible direction for further reading.

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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.