Chanmin Jeong (b. 1991) visualizes "actions" that have been marginalized or omitted by efficiency-driven technological advancement and the logic of capitalism through a wide range of media, including video, photography, sculpture, and installation

By giving form to invisible experiences—such as bodily movements that contrast with digital processes, human labor over machines, and non-productive gestures in everyday life—the artist draws attention to what is being lost in contemporary society.

Originally trained in photography, Chanmin Jeong has explored the theme of "image" through various photographic and video-based works. However, after sensing the limitations of image-making through the camera alone, she began to step outside the photographic frame, focusing on herself as the photographer and on the physical processes involved in producing an image.
 
In these early works, Jeong emphasized the bodily gestures and material experiences associated with using digital devices. She focused on the tactile sensations felt by the photographer during the act of shooting, exploring experiences and perceptions shaped by physical actions—elements that stand in contrast to digital processing.

For instance, in her 2021 work Developed Movement, Chanmin Jeong materialized the physical gestures involved in the process of image development through drawings and three-dimensional forms. While developing actual film images, she used an accelerometer to collect spatial data based on her body movements during the development process. This data was then visualized using generative programming and 3D printing technologies.
 
Beginning with this work—which focused not on the technology itself but on the bodily gestures that interact with it—Jeong has continued to question the phenomenon of physical alienation brought about by the highly advanced technological and industrial society of 21st-century capitalism.

In her 2021 solo exhibition 《You and I Look Alike》 at KT&G Sangsangmadang Chuncheon Art Gallery, Chanmin Jeong presented a collection of familiar bodily forms she had gathered over time, reflecting on how our identities are entangled between digital and physical spaces in contemporary life.

The artist focused on the real, physical body in contrast to the non-contact society generated by today’s rapidly expanding digital world. For example, by collecting and transforming hand gestures made while using a smartphone into 3D video (Afterall, we look alike, 2021), and by observing the increasingly burdensome labor of delivery workers in the context of platform technology and the rise of a contactless economy (The story that we are becoming alike, 2021), the artist prompts a reconsideration of the contemporary human body.
 
Through these works, the artist reflects on the paradoxically intensified use and fatigue of the body in an increasingly contactless society, raising questions about what may have been overlooked or lost in circumstances that have come to feel all too natural.

Furthermore, in the 2022 exhibition 《Autopoiesistic Life》 held at the Seoul Artists’ Platform (SAP), Chanmin Jeong presented a mid- to long-term collaborative project with artist You-na Cha that envisioned an alternative mode of living outside the dominant narratives of growth-oriented ideology and capitalist order.
 
Their joint work, Autopoiesistic Life (2022), features a kinetic device designed with repetitive and cyclical movements to nurture a fictional organism called the “D-Tardigrade.” Through this slowly evolving mechanism, the artists conveyed a contrasting sense of temporality that feels alien within the fast-paced flow of contemporary life.

The work also proposed an interactive process with the D-Tardigrade and constructed a narrative around its nurturing. Borrowing the structure of a novel, this fictional organism’s story reflects the condition of modern individuals navigating a growth-driven society. It explores how one might break away from such paradigms, structure their daily life differently, and pursue a sense of self-worth on their own terms.
 
A projection on the gallery wall displayed the web-based environment in which the D-Tardigrade "lives," allowing viewers to witness, in real time, how the creature responded to the operation of its parenting device.

Through the life of this fictional organism, the two artists offer an alternative perspective on the limitations of a society driven solely by quantitative growth. Their work invites us to envision a future that prioritizes values of coexistence and mutual support over competition.

At her 2023 solo exhibition 《Mass Action》 at Alternative Space LOOP, Chanmin Jeong sought to highlight bodily movements and routine patterns that were previously considered meaningless within the daily actions organized hierarchically around growth and productivity. Jeong identifies, documents, and visualizes actions marginalized within the capitalist order that necessitates economic value creation.
 
Contained within the installation structure Mass Action (2023), comprised of eight giant fabric balloons, fans, and motors, are the daily routines of 64 individuals. This installation collects ‘mass actions’ of the public, unconstrained by factors like affiliation, gender, age, or ideology.
 
Personal routines such as walking, praying, drinking coffee, studying English, riding, taking supplements, and journal writing are converted into volume based on the duration of each action, which determines the balloons’ size.

The size of each balloon is determined based on the calculated values derived from the time spent on each specific action. Activities that consume more time cause the balloon to grow and persist longer. For instance, the time devoted to journal writing, which holds no direct economic value, is represented as an activity that occupies a significant portion of an individual’s day.
 
Actions that are unrelated to productivity but clearly present in and sustaining an individual's life are visualized as volumetric masses. The artist states that through the use of motors—devices that inflate the balloons—she hopes these seemingly worthless actions can be transformed into something productive.

The work Shapes of heard (2023), created by converting collected footsteps sounds into data and then 3D printing the resulting forms, shares a similar context. Through this piece, the artist assigns value to previously overlooked bodily movements and everyday patterns by expanding auditory experience into visual and tactile realms.

Another exhibition work, The Tower for Mass Action (2023) is a tower created by 3D scanning the delivery boxes that the artist received while preparing the exhibition. The development of platforms and the non-face-to-face economy have overburdened the delivery system, and the accumulating delivery boxes have become records in the artist’s daily life.

The following year, Chanmin Jeong began a project focusing on the significance of “movement,” which is increasingly regarded as inefficient and thus gradually diminished due to technological advancements. For instance, Movement Mass (2024), created as an extension of Mass Action, visualizes five days of the artist’s movement records—combining time spent moving, GPS coordinates, and average speed—into five separate air-filled sculptures.
 
These air sculptures, whose volumes vary according to the amount of movement the artist personally experienced through her own muscles, evoke the true nature of the human body living through movement

In a similar vein, Developed Movement 2024 ver. (2024) is an embodiment of the artist’s physical movements on a metropolitan bus to travel to her destination in 3D printed sculptures and video. Each sculpture was produced based on data reflecting changes in the tilt of the soles of her feet and the top of her head, measured during her bus rides.
 
The video, created by ChatGPT, is a result of the artist’s request to visualize the data value measured with the acceleration sensor on the top of her own head while riding the bus.

As such, Jeong’s approach to visualizing intangible movements serves as a way to document physical experiences overlooked in efficiency-focused technological evolution. She observes and visualizes the everyday actions that have been marginalized and overlooked in a life swept away by the rush of daily routine, reminding us of the moments lost in the rapid pace of society.
 
In this way, Chanmin Jeong’s works affirm existence not through specific goals or achievements but through the very act of ‘doing’ and ‘being in action.’ It invites us to imagine living life at one’s own pace.

 “I want to continuously create tangible masses out of things that are disappearing, just as I have steadily escaped from a single image.”    (Chanmin Jeong, from a Monthly Art interview)

Chanmin Jeong studied photography at Chung-Ang University and graduated from the university and its graduate school with a BFA and MFA. Jeong also graduated in convergence art and design at the Seoul Media Institute of Technology. Her solo exhibitions include 《Mass Action》 (Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, 2023), 《Autopoiesistic Life》 (Seoul Artists’ Platform, Seoul, 2022), 《You and I look alike》 (KT&G Sangsangmadang Chuncheon, Chuncheon, 2021), among others.
 
Jeong has also participated in numerous group exhibitions and projects, including 《Linking Island》 (Art Center White Block, Paju, 2025), 《Born to be Distracted》 (Daegu Arts Center, Daegu, 2024), 《Skin, the Deepest Part》 (Sehwa Museum of Art, Seoul, 2024), 《Meta-Breathing》 (Pier Contemporary, Seoul, 2023), Gangwon Artists Triennale 2022 《Hundreds of Boats, Thousands of Mountains》(Pyeongchang, 2022), 《Calling》 (d/p, Seoul, 2021), and 《영부터 네모》 (Sahng-up Gallery, Seoul, 2019).
 
Chanmin Jeong has participated in residency programs including the 3rd Chuncheon Art Village (2025) and the Gangwon Art & Culture Foundation Pink Factory International Artist Residency (2017, 2018). Her awards and grants include selection in the Alternative Space LOOP Artist Open Call (2023) and the 2nd Pier Experimental Media Art Exhibition (2023).

References

• 정찬민, Chanmin Jeong (Artist Website)
• 대안공간 루프, [서문] 정찬민 개인전: 행동부피 (Alternative Space LOOP, [Preface] Chanmin Jeong Solo Exhibition: Mass Action)
• 월간미술, 한껏 부풀리고 움켜잡기
• KT&G 상상마당, ‘10100’ artist 정찬민
• PROCEEDINGS OF HCI KOREA 2022 학술대회 발표 논문집, 정찬민 - 현상된 움직임 : 필름현상 동작의 데이터 시각화 작품, 2022.02 (PROCEEDINGS OF HCI KOREA 2022, Chanmin Jeong - Developed Movement : An artwork embodying film-development gesture data into tangible visualization, 2022.02)
• KT&G 상상마당, 우린 결국 닮은 모양 (KT&G Sangsangmadang, You and I look alike)
• 서울문화투데이, 정찬민, 차유나 프로젝트 전시 《오토-포이에시스의 삶》 “성장지상주의 시대, 새로운 방향 탐색”, 2022.09.27
• 한국디지털콘텐츠학회 논문지, 정찬민;차유나;김현주 - 탈성장 관점의 미디어아트 작품 연구: <오토-포이에시스의 삶> 중심으로, 2023.07.31 (Journal of Digital Contents Society, Chanmin Jeong; You-na Cha; Hyun Ju Kim - Media Art Practice from the Degrowth Perspective: Focusing on , 2023.07.31)
• 세화미술관, [전시 브로셔] 가장 깊은 것은 피부다(Sehwa Museum of Art, [Exhibition Brochure] Skin, the Deepest Part)
• 세화미술관, [크리틱] 이준 – ‘논알고리즘 챌린지’에 대한 비결정적 해제 (Sehwa Museum of Art, [Critic] Zune Lee – A Non-deterministic Introduction to a “Non-Algorithm Challenge”)