CARTESIAN PINEAL GLAND

by Sangbong Lee

3 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (10)_1998x2000
4 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (45)_1998x2000
6 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (59)_1999x2000
7 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (15)_1999x2000
7.1 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (15) (2)_2000x1997
7.2 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (51)_2000x1997
8 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (58)_1992x2000
8 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (60)_1997x2000
8.2 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (27)_1999x2000
8.2 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (28)_1999x2000
9 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (37)_1992x2000
10 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (36)_1999x2000
11 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (36) – Kopie_1999x2000
13 Sangbong Lee. WATER LIGHT LAB Brixen 2023. Photo Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun (53)_1999x2000
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Photos: Studio Bettina Pelz, Jennifer Braun.

Video by Sangbong Lee.

The name “Cartesian pineal gland” means Rene Descartes’s pineal gland.

The pineal gland is a small organ inside of the brain and it produces melatonin which is regulating sleep patterns. Although, in the 17th century when renowned philosopher Rene Descartes lived, nobody knew what this organ is. According to him, the pure mind and material body are completely separable and cannot affect each other. The point in Descartes’s speculation about the pineal gland, in short, is that the immaterial mind and material body combine at the pineal gland. It is basically a medium between mind and body.

However, the contradiction of this assumption is that the very point where the mind meets matter is composed of physical flesh. This contradictory claim on the pineal gland from Descartes, paradoxically, could be used as an argument that immaterial abstraction is realized by mediation through matter. Hence, this apparatus is a speculation which shows the intermingled state of both abstract information and material aspect mixed together. Moreover, the purpose of this project is the visualization of data processing & computing in regards to the co-relationship between the material and information by using real substances to display genuine representation of matter and data inter-connection.

Sangbong Lee is currently based in Germany. After completing his industrial design major at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, he started a design studio. After several years of studio life, he is pursuing a master’s degree in Digital Media at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Germany. While attending the Department of Design, he came across a programming class by chance and became aware of the work in the field of computer art. The interest in this field that arose after that led him to quit his major, industrial design, and choose a path as a new media artist.

In his early work, he felt the limits of human interaction with the computer limited to the inside of the screen and tried to expand the scope to the space outside the screen. Afterward, he became attracted to the work of bringing out the results of information processing inside a computer into three-dimensional space and studied hardware as a means to realize it. As part of that, he planned an intermediate-state product that combines digital art and commercial products, and in that attempt, he participated in the Maker movement.

Currently, Sangbong Lee is paying attention to objects that transcend human senses (climate crisis, black hole) recognized by us in the form of huge data. He is researching what types of material, space, and temporality should be applied when bringing data without physical substance into our sensory realm.

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Photos by Sangbong Lee.

EXHIBITIONS
2022Bremen(DE), Galerie NebenFlut, Gedankenexperimente
Bremen(DE), HFK Speicher XI, Hochschultage
Bremen(DE), Dauerwelle, DIS/PLAY 22: Eight perms for a digital age
Projects
2021Bremen(DE), R&D for new harmonicas for Hohner musical instruments
2018Seoul(KR), Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, Maker movement sponsoring program
2017Seoul(KR), Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, Maker movement fostering program
STUDIES
Since 2020Bremen(DE), Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Master in Digital Media
2006 – 2015Seoul(KR), Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Bachelor in Industrial Design
SCHOLARSHIP
2021 – 2022DAAD Study Scholarship program, Postgraduate Studies in the Fields of Fine Art, Film, Design/Visual Communication and Film, 2021/22
BIO
Since 2020Lives in Bremen(DE)
2006 – 2019Lived in Seoul(KR)
1986Born in Daegu(KR)
LINKS
salee.cargo.site
Instagram