유비쿼터스 컴퓨팅이 미디어아트의 매체가 될 때, Multi-Device Web Artwork와 〈Living Geometry 2026〉
마크 와이저(Mark Weiser)가 ‘가장 깊은 기술은 사라지는 기술이다’라고 쓴 것이 1991년이다. 35년이 지난 2026년 5월, 영등포아트스퀘어에서 열리는 〈Living Geometry 2026〉은 그 명제가 실제 미디어아트의 매체로 작동하는 장면을 보여준다. 최정윤(Jeanyoon Choi)이 정의·연구해 온 매체 형식 ‘Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA)’는 단일 화면이 아닌 여러 디바이스의 실시간 합주를 매체 그 자체로 삼는다. 작품 〈Banpo-Xism · 반포자이즘〉이 그 매체의 대표적 사례다.
유비쿼터스 컴퓨팅의 명제
와이저는 컴퓨팅이 가장 잘 통합된 형태는 기기가 별도의 객체로 인식되지 않고 일상 환경 속으로 ‘사라지는’ 형태라고 보았다. 이 명제는 30여 년에 걸쳐 IoT, 스마트 환경, 멀티 스크린 미디어 등 여러 산업적 형태로 분화되었지만, 미디어아트 안에서는 여전히 단일 화면(영상, 프로젝션, 미디어월) 중심의 작업이 다수다. ubicomp의 시선에서 보면, 그 단일 화면 중심성은 ‘기기가 사라지지 않은 매체’의 잔여다.
Multi-Device Web Artwork이라는 매체 명제
최정윤(Jeanyoon Choi)은 자신의 작업에서 사용하는 매체 형식을 ‘Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA)’라고 명명하고 그것을 매체 자체에 대한 연구의 단위로 삼는다. 작가의 정의는 다음과 같다. ‘여러 웹 디바이스와 다수의 참여자가 하나의 인터랙티브 경험으로 융합되는 매체.’
이 정의는 두 가지 점에서 ubicomp의 후속이다. 첫째, 매체의 기본 단위가 한 개의 화면이 아니라 ‘서로 다른 디바이스들의 합주’이다. 둘째, 사용자는 한 명이 아니라 ‘동시 다수’를 전제한다. 〈Banpo-Xism〉의 경우 N개의 관람객 핸드폰, 1개의 미디어월(Mac Mini M4), 3개의 보조 PC, 1개의 어드민이 단일 Socket.IO 서버를 통해 동기화된다. 어떤 디바이스도 ‘UI 텍스트로 안내’되지 않는다. ‘차가운 매체(cold medium)’ 원칙에 따라 모든 입력은 affordance와 광고 카피로만 학습된다.
〈Banpo-Xism〉 안의 ubicomp 패턴들
BYOD(Bring Your Own Device). 관람객은 자신의 핸드폰을 꺼내 QR을 찍어 입장한다. 별도 앱 설치는 없다. 핸드폰 한 대는 ‘작품 한 점’이 아니라 ‘작품의 한 성부(聲部)’가 된다.
단일 진실 원천(single source of truth). 모든 가격·좌표 상태는 미디어월의 zustand store가 갖고, 약 180ms 주기로 모든 디바이스에 broadcast 된다. 모바일은 자체 재계산을 하지 않는다. ubicomp가 이론적으로 요구해 온 ‘환경 측 일관성’이 시스템 레벨에서 보장된다.
벡터 합으로 결합되는 다중 사용자 입력. 음성 RMS, 가속도 흔들기, 7가지 환경 변수, 7×8 그리드 위의 손가락 스케이팅 같은 여러 모달리티의 입력이 서로 다른 관람객으로부터 동시에 들어와 ‘합주’를 이룬다. 단일 사용자 모델로 환원되지 않는 매체 형식이 작품의 표면이자 비평의 표면이 된다.
차가운 매체 원칙. 화면 위에는 매개변수 라벨도, 차원 숫자도, 사용설명도 없다. 관람객은 affordance(스크롤 영역, 탭 가능한 광고, 흔들기 반응 영역)와 광고 카피만으로 시스템을 학습한다. 작가가 자신의 매체를 ‘cold medium’이라고 부르는 이유다.
매체 연구로서의 의미
MDWA는 단일 작품의 형식이 아니라 작가가 박사과정 연구의 단위로 들고 가는 매체 명제다. 그 명제 위에 〈Banpo-Xism〉이 한 점의 사례로 놓인다. KAIST 산업디자인학과 경험디자인연구실(XD Lab)은 이러한 매체 연구를 미디어아트와 학술 연구가 함께 진행되는 단위로 다룬다. 연구실의 작업은 Leonardo Journal(MIT Press), ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM DIS 등 학술지·학회와 Red Dot, iF Design Award 등 디자인 공모에 동시에 노출되어 왔다.
이번 전시에서 직접 체험할 수 있는 다른 작업들 또한 ubicomp의 후속으로 읽을 수 있다. 황인태(Intae Hwang)의 〈Vessel〉은 맥박 센서로 관람객의 생체 신호와 서울 1년치 이동 데이터를 결합해 ‘박동하는 도시 조각’을 완성하고, 〈Goldilocks〉는 7가지 환경 변수와 서울 실시간 기상 데이터를 결합해 ‘집단적 골디락스 존’을 만들어낸다. 강이연(Yiyun Kang)의 〈Technosphere〉는 인류가 구축한 인공 시스템을 ‘제6의 권역’의 시각적 지질층으로 풀어낸다.
When Ubiquitous Computing Becomes a Medium for Media Art, Multi-Device Web Artwork at Living Geometry 2026
Mark Weiser wrote that the most profound technologies are the ones that disappear in 1991. Thirty-five years on, in May 2026, Living Geometry 2026 at YDP Artsquare in Seoul stages a moment where that proposition becomes a working medium for media art. Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA), a medium category coined and researched by Jeanyoon Choi, takes the real-time orchestration of multiple devices as its medium itself. The work Banpo-Xism is the lead exemplar.
The proposition of ubiquitous computing
Weiser argued that computing is most fully integrated when devices stop being separate objects and recede into the everyday environment. Across thirty years the thesis has split into IoT, smart environments, and multi-screen media on the industrial side. Inside media art, however, single-screen formats (video, projection, media wall) remain dominant. From a ubicomp perspective, that single-screen centrality is the residue of a medium whose devices have not yet disappeared.
Multi-Device Web Artwork as a medium proposition
Jeanyoon Choi names the medium of his practice Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA) and treats it as the unit of medium research itself. His own definition: a medium in which several web devices and many participants are fused into a single interactive experience.
This definition is a successor to ubicomp on two fronts. The unit of the medium is no longer one screen but the orchestration of several devices, and the user is assumed to be many in parallel rather than one at a time. In Banpo-Xism, N visitor smartphones, one media wall on a Mac Mini M4, three Intel PCs, and an admin console are kept in sync over a single Socket.IO server. None of the devices is guided by UI text. Following a cold-medium principle, every input is learned only from affordance and from the artwork's own advertising copy.
Ubicomp patterns inside Banpo-Xism
Bring your own device. Visitors enter by scanning a QR with their own phone. There is no app to install. A phone is not one work; it is one voice in the work.
A single source of truth. All price and coordinate state lives in the media wall's zustand store and is broadcast to every device about every 180ms. Mobiles do not recompute locally. The environmental consistency that ubicomp has long argued for is enforced at the system level.
Multi-user inputs combined as a vector sum. Voice RMS, accelerometer shake, seven environmental variables, finger skating across a 7 by 8 grid, and other modalities arrive at the same moment from different visitors and form an ensemble. A single-user model would not contain the medium.
Cold medium. There are no parameter labels on the screen, no dimension numbers, no instructions. Visitors learn the system only from affordance and from the work's advertising copy. The artist calls his medium a cold medium for this reason.
Significance as medium research
MDWA is not the format of a single piece. It is a medium proposition the artist holds across his doctoral research. Banpo-Xism sits within it as one exemplar. The KAIST Experience Design Lab (XD Lab) treats this as medium research carried out alongside artistic practice. The lab's outputs are present in venues such as Leonardo Journal (MIT Press), ACM SIGGRAPH, and ACM DIS, and in design honors such as the Red Dot and iF Design Awards.
Other works in the show extend the lineage. Intae Hwang's Vessel binds visitors' biometric signals to a year of Seoul mobility data and completes itself only when a hand touches the pulse sensor. His Goldilocks combines seven environmental parameters with Seoul's live weather data to compose a collective Goldilocks zone. Yiyun Kang's Technosphere visualises humanity's artificial systems as a sixth sphere settling into the Earth as a new geological stratum.
When Ubiquitous Computing Becomes a Medium for Media Art, Multi-Device Web Artwork at Living Geometry 2026
Mark Weiser wrote that the most profound technologies are the ones that disappear in 1991. Thirty-five years on, in May 2026, Living Geometry 2026 at YDP Artsquare in Seoul stages a moment where that proposition becomes a working medium for media art. Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA), a medium category coined and researched by Jeanyoon Choi, takes the real-time orchestration of multiple devices as its medium itself. The work Banpo-Xism is the lead exemplar.
The proposition of ubiquitous computing
Weiser argued that computing is most fully integrated when devices stop being separate objects and recede into the everyday environment. Across thirty years the thesis has split into IoT, smart environments, and multi-screen media on the industrial side. Inside media art, however, single-screen formats (video, projection, media wall) remain dominant. From a ubicomp perspective, that single-screen centrality is the residue of a medium whose devices have not yet disappeared.
Multi-Device Web Artwork as a medium proposition
Jeanyoon Choi names the medium of his practice Multi-Device Web Artwork (MDWA) and treats it as the unit of medium research itself. His own definition: a medium in which several web devices and many participants are fused into a single interactive experience.
This definition is a successor to ubicomp on two fronts. The unit of the medium is no longer one screen but the orchestration of several devices, and the user is assumed to be many in parallel rather than one at a time. In Banpo-Xism, N visitor smartphones, one media wall on a Mac Mini M4, three Intel PCs, and an admin console are kept in sync over a single Socket.IO server. None of the devices is guided by UI text. Following a cold-medium principle, every input is learned only from affordance and from the artwork's own advertising copy.
Ubicomp patterns inside Banpo-Xism
Bring your own device. Visitors enter by scanning a QR with their own phone. There is no app to install. A phone is not one work; it is one voice in the work.
A single source of truth. All price and coordinate state lives in the media wall's zustand store and is broadcast to every device about every 180ms. Mobiles do not recompute locally. The environmental consistency that ubicomp has long argued for is enforced at the system level.
Multi-user inputs combined as a vector sum. Voice RMS, accelerometer shake, seven environmental variables, finger skating across a 7 by 8 grid, and other modalities arrive at the same moment from different visitors and form an ensemble. A single-user model would not contain the medium.
Cold medium. There are no parameter labels on the screen, no dimension numbers, no instructions. Visitors learn the system only from affordance and from the work's advertising copy. The artist calls his medium a cold medium for this reason.
Significance as medium research
MDWA is not the format of a single piece. It is a medium proposition the artist holds across his doctoral research. Banpo-Xism sits within it as one exemplar. The KAIST Experience Design Lab (XD Lab) treats this as medium research carried out alongside artistic practice. The lab's outputs are present in venues such as Leonardo Journal (MIT Press), ACM SIGGRAPH, and ACM DIS, and in design honors such as the Red Dot and iF Design Awards.
Other works in the show extend the lineage. Intae Hwang's Vessel binds visitors' biometric signals to a year of Seoul mobility data and completes itself only when a hand touches the pulse sensor. His Goldilocks combines seven environmental parameters with Seoul's live weather data to compose a collective Goldilocks zone. Yiyun Kang's Technosphere visualises humanity's artificial systems as a sixth sphere settling into the Earth as a new geological stratum.
Transit :: 3-min walk from Yeongdeungpo Station (Line 1 / KTX)
Suggested duration :: ~60–90 min
MDWA preview :: banpo-xism.vercel.app for a single-device demo before your visit
About the exhibition
Living Geometry 2026 is a media-art special exhibition curated and developed by the KAIST Experience Design Lab (XD Lab) within KAIST's Department of Industrial Design. It re-threads Yeongdeungpo's visible urban landscape, its invisible data, and the emotional strata behind them in a geometric language — recasting the city, beyond a stilled aggregate of concrete, as an organism in continual pulse. Seven works span single-channel video, interactive installation, and multi-device web art.
Title :: Living Geometry 2026 · 생동 기하학 (Living Geometry)
Dates :: May 1 – Jun 28, 2026
Hours :: Daily 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:45)
Venue :: YDP Artsquare · Times Square B2F, 15 Yeongjung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
