"Evidence of the Invisible." (2012) Media Art Short Film.

"Evidence of the Invisible," by artist Sunmyoung Choi.
Music by Jean Park (Pizzicato Allegro), 2012.
The project was screened in Gallery Simon, Seoul, Korea (May-July 2012). www.gallerysim...
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Artist's Notes:
"Evidence of the Invisible" deals with the connection between civilization imbedded in artifacts and civilization imbedded in languages. This relationship can be constructive, or it could be destructive.
The Tower of Babel, which was said to have been the tallest structure ever built by mankind which reached up to the heavens, was destroyed not by physical force, but due to the introduction of confusion into the language. Once the language became disordered, confusing, and abstract between the people, the collapse of the Tower of Babel must have been all too inevitable, despite its high level of technical achievement.
The nature of language is such that it is a constructive tool when one is familiar with that language, but if not, it is merely an abstract phenomenon. If the language is completely de-constructed, it becomes abstract, and upon re-construction, it becomes a code, containing a message. Furthermore, even if comprehensible language is used in communication, the language can become abstract if the thoughts of the involved parties happen to be different.

In "Evidence of the Invisible," a tower is constructed while the viewer stands far away. If the viewer approaches the tower, four different sets of language characters start to fall from the sky, causing the tower to collapse. The four languages then flow away to four directions-north, south, east, and west, as if they are supposed to represent the disparity between the viewer and a past civilization with the traces of its corresponding language, through time and space.
Mankind uses language in the process of creating a civilization, and in turn leaves behind artifacts, objects, and architecture as evidence of civilization. If there are no available visual evidence such as architecture, then the civilization, as well as the people who had created the civilization, become forgotten. But wouldn’t the language which was used to plan out and communicate the idea for the fabrication of artifacts and architecture also be the evidence of the civilization? The civilization may no longer exist in any visible form or written documentation, but the language that was used in all those discussions could very well be floating around in space, in some form of sound waves.