Instant gratification has become the plight of our contemporary lifestyles. We've become conditioned to respond to the fantasy of pressing a button, to the immediate global accessibility at our fingertips. Our dependence on these unseen systems of digital domains and technological trances now dominates our behavior and worldviews. All kinds of media now narrate the ways in which we maneuver physically, socially, and emotionally. Ronin Cho, an artist keen on negotiating the value of the immaterial, draws sharp attention to this contemporary handicap.‘WEIGHT OF UNSEEN’ is Cho’s interactive kinetic sculpture that joins two very divergent realms of understanding: the material physical world and the immaterial digital world. Comprised of a large steel seven-segment display unit, seven servo motors, a manual chain hoist and a proximity sensor, this sculpture concisely defines the very nature of our day to day invisible interactions. Participants interact with the installation by pulling on the chain to trigger the unit to display the binary code for end-of-file: 00011010. Cho requires his participants to physically work for an end result we rarely acknowledge, instigating behavior that is consciously constructing the unconscious. By materializing the immaterial with such an astute, precise interpretation, Ronin Cho keeps us grounded and aware of the weight of the unseen.
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