Gyung Jin Shin is an artist and researcher with a background in sculpture and new media. She has incorporated a wide range of digital media into artworks in contexts including physical computing, programming, 3D printing, and performance video.
During her graduate studies at Seoul National University, she joined a robotics club and studied C programming and physical computing to complete her kinetic sculptures and installation. She went on to develop performance videos using machines that she modified or invented, first as a student in the MFA program at Columbia University. In her recent projects, she has connected new technologies with the language of art to highlight philosophical and ontological issues relating to technology and provides these issues with historical and societal context.
Her creative projects have been exhibited and screened at a worldwide biennale, a conference, and at media art festivals as well as in museums. As a recipient of Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), she completed her doctorate at the City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media in 2022. She is an assistant professor in the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.
As a researcher, her overarching aim is to connect the theory and history of art with contemporary philosophical issues relating to technology from the perspective of Critical Theory. Her current research interests include postdigital discourse, new materialism, digital labor, and the author discourse emerging with the advent of new technological advances. Her next major research project at the Academy of Visual Arts explores the distribution of authorial and creative power with respect to nonhuman agency, including the agency exercised by smart machines, in particular robots, and AI. She also plans to conduct practice-based research on creative robotics and generative art production.
As an art educator, my primary goal is to help students to become self-motivated in finding their own materials and methodologies through brainstorming, discussions, and group critic systems. I have introduced students to a broad range of digital methodologies, including robotics, new media performance, interactive art, sound installations, and projection mapping. I have found that technological materials can be intimidating for students, since working with them requires technical literacy and, ideally, an understanding of their complex historical and theoretical contexts. So, I make sure that the students have enough time to explore the best way to express their ideas and to confirm that they would be feasible within the scope of the class. I also support students in maintaining their artistic inspiration while they are building their technical proficiency.