SPACE February 2026 (No. 699)
The work visible on the left is Je Baak’s The Spacing, which transmits video images generated by artificial intelligence combining emotional terms (Hanguel) listed by the artist.
‘Senses of Writing: Tools & Perception’
Culture Station Seoul 284 RTO
Nov. 19, 2025 – Mar. 22, 2026
How can we describe the texture of letters? What kinds of material properties do they possess, and how can they be sensed? The 5th Hangeul Design Project at the National Hangeul Museum, ‘Senses of Writing: Tools & Perception’, was conceived to reconsider the sensory transformations triggered by the act of writing through its interface with tools. Focusing on the relationship between writing and tools, the exhibition commissioned 23 teams of artists and designers to create works that expand the material properties and sensory dimensions of letters. As a result, the exhibition presents a wide range of materially grounded works: from writing tools translated into diverse materials such as paper, pigment, metal, wood, and leather; to furnitures and spatial structures designed to support the act of writing, including desks, chairs, and lamps; to objects that express the emotional and sensory shifts evoked by writing. In one corner of the exhibition, works that consciously respond to our rapidly changing technological environments capture visitors’ attention. A machine that converts the sensation of writing into sound; a device that analyses data such as pressure and speed applied at the moment of writing and outputs vector-based letterforms; a robot that draws digital letterforms; and AI-based media art that translates emotion-laden language proposed by artist into moving images: diverse practices that traverse genres are brought together in this single space.
Above all, the most conceptually decisive point of departure for the exhibition is in four literary works that probe the relationship between writing and tools. Keem Youngle, Kim Sungwoo, Jeon Byung Geun, and Kim Choyeop explore the meaning of writing and propose shifts and expansions in our thinking about writing tools through distinct literary forms and narrative modes...
