Techno-link Autonomy is an annual research program organized by Woman Open Tech Lab, based in Seoul. In 2023, the program has been co-hosted with Barim, Gwangju, and seven women artists/researchers who are based in or have connections with Gwangju joined the group and met bi-weekly since June.

Techno-link Autonomy

Techno-link Autonomy is an annual research program organized by Woman Open Tech Lab, based in Seoul. In 2023, the program has been co-hosted with Barim, Gwangju, and seven women artists/researchers who are based in or have connections with Gwangju joined the group and met bi-weekly since June.

The Woman Open Tech Lab has been running programs for people who have been distanced from learning and using technology, especially from a gendered perspective, and Barim’s director runs the Degital platform, which focuses on critical perspectives on digital technology. Alongside these organizers’ ongoing interests, the seven participants have balanced the distance and position between technology and themselves, refraining from being swept up and lost in the larger technology discourses.

The purpose of this group was made clear in the open call – it was to determine the relationship with technology that has an irreplaceable and non-integrable nature and to measure the concrete distance between it and us. This is particularly important in a city like Gwangju, which claims to specialize in artificial intelligence and media arts but often prioritizes popular trends in policy over the discourse on technology. Here the participants aimed to map their research with a sense of concrete distance; avoiding drawing abstract worldviews as technology often does such as the future, the world, sensitivity, and art, and not being carried away by the idea of utilitarianism such as expression, sensation, and representation.

Kim Kkot Bi searches for a sense of experience in the practicality of games and attempts to transcend reality within the possibilities of virtual reality. Park Sun uses AI-generated images to reconstruct memories of her grandmother, who passed away at the same age as she is now and lists the complex emotions and questions she discovers. Woorim finds a discord between herself and language and while she regards language as a kind of technology, she searches for possibilities for reconciliation that can be free from existing language technologies. Wi Juri focuses on the amount and convenience of information and the idea of filtering, and explores to visualize it as a concept of “bubbles.” Lee Mok Hwa highlights her experience of becoming aware of disability around herself and tries to interpret visual information through the eyes of a non-disabled person. Jang Yoonseon studies the relationship between disability and sex toys, looking for domestic and international examples and imagining sex toys for all. Choi Youngseo examines her medical records to discuss the purpose and limitations of disease diagnosis technology.

The understanding of technology by the book and the problems it presents to society are always in the same boat. The topics covered in this group often originate from social problems but also start from personal experiences, and they overlap. As technology created by others becomes more integrated into our lives and creates an inseparable relationship with us without consent, the participants have consciously documented their growing distance and relationship with technology.

​​Date: 2pm-7pm, Dec 12 – 26, 2023 (Closed on Sundays and Mondays)

Venue: Barim

Participants: Kim Kkot Bi, Park Sun, Woorim, Wi Juri, Lee Mok Hwa, Jang Yoonseon, Choi Youngseo

Opening & Showcase: 7pm, Dec 16, performance by the Synthesizer Club

Organized by Woman Open Tech Lab

Meetings led by Kim Ga Hye

Curated by Barim

Photographed by Hyun Jun Young

Designed by Suh Youri

Supported by Arts Council Korea