Connecting the Boundaries Between Disability and Non-Disability: "Beyond Sensation" to Be Held
Exploring Sensory Approaches to Museums for People with Disabilities
Developing and Applying Diverse Appreciation Methods Until September
This Year's Theme: "Media"
The Leeum Museum of Art, operated by the Samsung Foundation of Culture, announced on the 19th that it will host "Beyond Sensation 2025," a program that bridges the boundaries between sensation and art, media and community, and disability and non-disability.
Participants are taking part in the session titled "Layer by Layer, Editing Sensation" at the "Beyond Sensation 2025" workshop held last May. Hoam Art Museum
"Beyond Sensation" is a program that focuses on individual sensory experiences rather than physical differences, exploring how the museum can be experienced and interpreted sensorially.
This year, the program centers on the theme of "Media." It examines media not as a means of information delivery or a technological device, but as a method of mediating relationships between bodies.
As part of the program, from May 21 to 29, the Leeum Museum of Art and the Hoam Art Museum held the workshop "Layer by Layer, Editing Sensation" for teenagers with hearing impairments and adults with developmental disabilities. Led by hearing-impaired artist Kim Eunsul, participants explored traces of invisible sound?such as vibration, light, shadow, and texture?through visual and tactile experiences.
On the 20th and 22nd, the museum will host the workshop "Whispers of the Black Box," led by artist and New York University (NYU Tisch ITP) professor Song Yesle. Using tactile sensors and physical computing equipment, the workshop explores "tactile language," a form of communication through vibration and touch rather than speech. Participants will create interactive objects themselves and, through this process, invent new sensory communication methods, redefining media as a nonverbal interface.
From July to August, the museum will run "Bojabodaboinikka," a workshop on art appreciation methods for low-vision audiences, ten times. Led by performing artists Lee Seongsu and Heo Younggyun, "Bojabodaboinikka" is a workshop where general visitors and people with low vision collaboratively develop new ways of appreciating art. In September, both low-vision visitors and the general public will apply these methods in actual exhibition spaces.
From September 17 to 27, the museum will hold an "International Forum" to share and expand on the various experiments and sensory explorations from its workshops. The forum will present a range of domestic and international theories and practices that highlight "media" as an artistic mediator connecting sensation and technology, body and society. In addition to the forum, the museum will also offer a variety of workshops, performances, talks, and screenings in different formats.
Notably, during this period, the museum will once again collaborate with PiLAB Cr?ation under Les Beaux-Arts de Marseille in France to present a workshop where art is appreciated through gestures rather than sign language, as it did last year.
Kim Taerim, curator at the Leeum Museum of Art's Education and Research Department, stated, "'Beyond Sensation' is experimenting with new ways of connecting senses and people through media," adding, "We will continue to pursue artistic practices that aim for an open museum where diverse senses coexist."
"Beyond Sensation" began in 2021 as a pilot program for children with hearing impairments and has since expanded into an inclusive space for participants with various sensory and physical conditions?including visual, auditory, physical, and developmental disabilities?as well as people without disabilities. Since 2023, the program has highlighted the "relationship between art and accessibility" each year through a central theme, offering workshops, lectures, forums, and publications in diverse formats.
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