Wall-mounted Relief Sculptures Comprising: Aluminium, LEDs, Electronics, Laser-Cut Hanji, 3D Printed PLA, Video and Sound
"When I was a child, there were dragonflies everywhere." This recollection opens How to Touch a Dragonfly, an immersive installation that unfolds at the intersection of memory, ecological change, and technological vision. The installation brings together traditional Korean craft, cutting-edge media, and deep ecological research to create a sensorial environment where visitors are invited to experience the world through the perspective of a dragonfly—an ancient, migratory insect now profoundly impacted by anthropogenic transformation.

At the core of the installations is the concept of a low-resolution screen composed of individual hexagonal “pixels” that echo the lenticular structure of the dragonfly’s eye, playing a narrative video and soundscape exploring landscapes changing due to human actions. These pixels are created by video-mapped LEDs shining through folded Hanji—handmade Korean paper crafted for the piece by artisans at the Jeonju Millennium Hanji Museum. The result is a visual system that resists high-definition spectacle, favouring embodied intimacy and fractured vision. Visitors step into a world that translates motion, colour and vibration as dragonflies might experience it.

Juxtaposing Cheongsan Island, a farming area designated a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Site, with urban spaces in Republic of Korea, the work explores the relationships between land use, climate change and insect migration. It draws on interviews with elders from Cheongsan Island and field recordings of dragonfly habitats, weaving together past and future, memory and data, emotion and environmental change.