Arts Thread

Haedong Lee, from South Korea—a country leading the way in gradual human extinction due to its severe population decline caused by the world’s lowest birth rates and highest suicide rates—Having developed the anti-Antrhopocenetric perspective, he argues that human extinction is the best alternative for the planet and all other species. With the view that ‘Sound’ has played a crucial role in humans becoming the top predator leading to the Anthropocene, he has been examining the contexts in which sound has been used in the history of civilisation.  His recent development of the “The Sound of Restriction” series is the result of this endeavour, mainly drawing its inspiration from cowbells—the sound shackles relegating animals to livestock.He has studied and inherited shamanism, folk beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, and labour songs from various tribes and rooted cultures in West Africa, Asia, and Europe, and has learned to perform and create various sound objects. He has also been exploring answers to the origins of sound through collecting and structuring sound materials. Furthermore, he has been making sound objects using metal, wood, and various other by-products of the Anthropocene, and has been actively engaged in interdisciplinary works such as sound performance, record, and installation.Haedong stimulates audiences emotionally and intellectually by constructing a distinctive ‘Sound Ecosystem’ with sound objects he creates and electronic instruments. His practice, grounded in asceticism and meditation, is based on the belief that “we are the only species evolved enough to consciously go extinct for the good of all life, or which needs to.”