Seoul43 and Mondrian Hopscotch

Yesterday, I hiked Dobongsan, my final mountain in Seoul. I have hiked a total of 154 km (~77 miles) in 60 hours. (Perhaps this is extreme fatigue talking, but I think that cloud looks like the Ghostbusters logo, don’t you? Something to Rorsketch.) I’ve hiked all 43 mountains (and then some) of this city for a project called Seoul43. Today, I present it in our group exhibition, “Seoul Seoul Seoul” at The National Art Studio of Korea in Changdong.

On display is a multimedia interactive piece. The main parts are jars that contain soil samples from all the mountains I hiked, which were taken at the end of each hike at the bottom of the mountains. The table in the middle has shovels, mixing bowls, small outdoor plants, and other gardening equipment. Participants are invited to plant using any mixture of soil.  When they finish planting, they can place the paper cup containing the plant with the soil, now a mixture of soil from different mountains, on the shelves on the right. On the left is a video in both English and Korean that explains the project, and an iPad showing the website that contains more photos, information about the mountains, data from the hikes, etc.

Here is my friend Kate assembling the first plant, after helping me get the entire display finished in time for the opening:

After the exhibition, I will invite people to go to the mountains on individual scavenger hunts to return both soil and plant to the mountains, and to do fun tasks while at it.

Although I am grateful to have finished all the treks with no mishaps whatsoever, this piece is far from over. My next step is to continue with the website to add the data I have gathered during my hikes, which was recorded by the MyTracks app. I will also have to design the scavenger hunts and get enough people to participate in them.

But that’s it for now. Our opening is in two hours, and tomorrow I plan on going to a jimjilbang (Korean sauna). Because dang it, my feet are killing me.

Oh, and I made another hopscotch board for the Mondrian Hopscotch series, this time with a Korean twist (the X in the middle is how they create their boards here):

The link to the Seoul43 site is here.