City of Boulder, CO Creative Neighborhoods Projects, 23 Jun 2021

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From YouTube: Artist Interview: Laura Hyunjee Kim & Kevin J. Sweet

Description

Laura is partnering with fellow artist Kevin Sweet on a project called Seed Seekers, best described as geo-caching with custom seed packets. Creative Neighborhoods: COVID-19 Work Projects was launched by the Office of Arts + Culture and Create Boulder: https://boulderarts.org/public-art/creative-neighborhoods/covid-19-work-projects/

A

uh So, first off I just want to have you guys, introduce yourselves in your creative careers.

B

Okay, I could go first, um my name is laura genji kim and I am a multimedia artist, primarily working with performance, body-centric performances and produce video, new media, digital art, um and thematically I like to explore human and non-human interactions with digital technologies and um the kind of what I like to call philosophical, so feely, emotional aspects of our lives that get lost or that are hard to render through digital, digital, medium and yeah. That's that's me.

C

And I'm kevin sweet, uh so I'm a media artist and uh educator um and yeah. I I typically work in um mostly it's been virtual reality uh sort of performance, work, video, that kind of thing and I'm really interested in ideas of play and playfulness and how play and playfulness can help people sort of change their relationship to either the histories or societies or cultures that they've been born into.

A

Very nice, it's great to meet both of you so kevin. How has coveted 19 affected your life and livelihood.

C

um For me, uh since I'm a phd candidate at uh university of colorado boulder, um so it's been a rather rapid transition to online teaching, which is uh it's something um you know. Basically, everybody uh on one hand it becomes more difficult uh to teach and to do things, particularly if you're interested in more social practice, oriented art so working with people within public spaces. But at the same time, when you have a lot of people who are sharing um sort of a broader experience,.

A

C

Of the um the kobe 19 pandemic, um I've seen um and had people also contribute. You know to my life. I've seen people sort of just really rise to the occasion in a lot of ways and help one another out in ways that um I didn't necessarily expect uh to be. um You know done virtually it's. It's been really kind of great.

A

C

It's shown, I think, a lot of people's uh really. You know their.

A

Their generosity.

C

Empathy compassion that kind of thing.

A

Yeah kind of kind of the silver lining of this messed up situation. huh um How about how about you laura? How has covert 19 affected your life and livelihood.

B

Yeah um I was teaching a digital art class at cu boulder, um and so for me too, it was rapidly transitioning into remote teaching and also, um you know also tending to a lot of the various um emotional.

B

You know resonance that the students are feeling and I were feeling I was feeling at the same time and and a lot of kind of this kind of rapid transition to uh care and remote care, which I thought was a very interesting um aspect of what happened um and alongside like professionally like I was supposed to travel, to different places for conferences um to showcase new work um and all of those things have were cancelled and um for me, like being able to be in like a venue or attend an event in person is always about connecting and meeting more people, and so um having those opportunities.

B

um Stunted in a way was uh was was tricky um because you know you prepare you're ready to go and um suddenly everything is shifting and um my folks are in korea, and so they were hit first and um seeing what they were going through.

B

So I feel, like I've been in this mental space for the past since january, um and uh seeing it kind of spread everywhere, like just the the uncertainty, the the kind of just emotional like uncertainty that everybody shares um was also as kevin said, was also kind of a space for um being more empathetic, but also how do you do it when you can't be in touch with other people physically, you know, but also um realizing that you know physical distancing, isn't social distancing nowadays, we're still able to talk to each other, and how do you yeah really like care for some buddy um during this time when um it's just difficult- and that was a very tangential way of talking about how covered.

A

B

Affected me, but um yeah it just it just brought a lot of people who um closer to me um and yeah.

A

Yeah, it's very strange, um so you've obviously been awarded a covid19 work project. Stipend. Would you mind just briefly telling me about the project and how it can support connectivity in your neighborhood.

C

Sure so, um on the more practical terms, uh what we're doing is we're producing these uh little custom uh seed, packets, okay and we are in uh they contain sort of a small uh amount of seeds, um a little card with directions that will send you to our sort of centralized website which is seedseekers.go and we are going around.

C

Certain areas within the 80302 zip code and hiding them just like you, would, if you were geocaching uh and dropping a pin um on an interactive map on our site, so that people can go and they can actually look for these uh seeds or just happen across them by accident. um The the little thrill of discovery is really sort of an exciting part of this. For us um and.

B

C

B

Those who have found these seed packets to be able to um as like a um a platform or a space, a creative space um that could lead to conversations and storytelling um when uh yeah, when everything is so individual like and so uh so having.

B

um Whoever picks up the seat packet can also come back to her website and connect with other people um by sharing their images, sharing their stories of what they're doing so in a way it's becoming like it will become, hopefully like a archive for um now and like the moment of time, when it's so hard to trust one another like or even trust.

B

Anything that's outside that um that you uh that's unknown, like you, don't know who touched that before so um yeah, so bringing those kind of conversations and yeah it's a very specific moment that we're responding to um as part of the project and hopefully um building a micro community um by having everybody, have a shared experience of growing a plant together.

A

Yeah, that's such a wonderful project idea. um I'm just curious. Have you guys seen many people posting um their experience with the seed packets or is that sort of like a later phase.

C

Well, that's that's a later phase as the packets haven't been dropped yet, um but that'll be uh in, you know, sort of across the month of june, probably starting in the the first or second week, uh and then these seeds take. um I believe it was.

B

Six to eight days or eight to ten days of rejuvenation.

C

Yeah for germination, and then I think it's a full 80 days for harvest. So, while there's this initial push to get these, these sort of seeds out there and have people discover them um over time. The hopefully, the community will.

A

C

Over a much longer period of time, because you know 60 to 80 days- uh is quite a long time when we're kind of limiting our interactions with one another uh over to be over zoom or or oftentimes we're sort of staying at home.

C

So this gives you know in my mind, it gives it gives something, particularly for younger people, uh children that kind of thing you might find this particularly exciting.

C

It also becomes a context for learning which I'm very excited about, but um it gives people something to to look forward to every single day to notice the change to notice the growth, to knows the development and also to see, um I hope, uh to see what other people are are doing with their plants as well, um so that it's not just uh sort of um helping to get people within the community that already exists out um in a safe way.

A

C

The the sort of the city around them uh in the sense where they're able to share an experience but not actually be physically together, uh but it also creates a new community.

A

C

um And I think that's you know, we all need to look for more ways to connect with one another, and this is one way to do.

A

It yeah, that's that's great. I love how it's an individual activity that can simultaneously be creating community yeah. It's really it's beautiful, um so is there? Is there anything else you guys would like to share about the project or your experience so far.

B

Yeah, I um I'm really excited to just start actually like dropping them around and uh see what happens and it's it's also. um We we're talking about community in a very general sense, but it's uh I think I mentioned earlier too. It's like arc, like I felt stronger with my community, but it's harder to to get to know, expand that just because of the place we're in and um kind of how do we, you know how? How would this piece really like interact with strangers?

B

How would it work with those who I don't know yet and have yet to know of, and um that kind of uh togetherness I think, is really what's really attractive for me with this project and how um there's something that changes good and we're going through change together?

B

That is just um hopefully that will lead to more positive change in the future, but um it's a hard time and um and also recognizing and noticing that change is always hard, um but not something to be afraid of, hopefully, by introducing these packets that have little quirky bits that uh could not distract you, but um can help you kind of re-evaluate and um center yourself a little bit more and yeah. Just having something to look to look forward to is also um it's kind of like a way of building hope.

B

I think too, and yeah.

A

Great, that's! Wonderful! um All right! Well! Thank you! So much.