Taeyoon Choi: Lichenous Networks

Taeyoon Choi makes drawings, computer programs and performance. He co-founded the School for Poetic Computation in New York City. Now, he lives in South Korea.
On Lichenous Networks (an excerpt from the talk): Networks are not only technological, they're natural. Every week, I drive about two hours south from Seoul to work on a half-acre farm in Gyeryong mountain. I used to come to the farm as a kid. The small yew trees that I planted are more than a few feet tall now. Wild weeds took over the trees while the farm was neglected for decades. I’m learning the basics of forest maintenance and farming machinery, taking solace in the physical labor of weeding and digging, and appreciating the birth and decay of life-forms. During this time, I’m in an active dialogue with the fungi, critters, and animals around the farm. The biologist Lynn Marguli advocates that individuality is a false belief. “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking,” she asserts in her book "Symbiotic Planet" (1998). Lichens, for instance, form mutually beneficial relationships between fungi and algae, such that they coexist in interdependence while each element's integrity is maintained. The future of networking may be an interdependent relationship between virtual and real life experiences that takes its cues from the partnerships of lichens.
Learn more about the artist on his website: taeyoonchoi.com/
This public talk was hosted virtually over Zoom on November 30, 2021 by the the Graphic Design department at the Yale School of Art. The Paul Rand Lecture Series is made possible through the generosity of the Paul Rand (’85 M.A.H.) Annual Lectureship in Design Fund.