Gray Area Grand Theater: Yoon Chung Han: Dreaming Babies: illi (opening reception)

Gray Area presents Dreaming Babies: illi (꿈꾸는 아기들: 일리), a solo exhibition of recent speculative simulation works by Korean artist Yoon Chung Han.
This immersive, interactive installation transforms Gray Area’s gallery into a futuristic nursery for 23 special hybrid human babies, each with a different chromosomal anomaly.
Each baby sleeps and dreams inside of a virtual incubator in space, weaving stories together with the audience based on the expression of their own uniquely individual identities.

Exploring new speculative human designs, Dreaming Babies: illi addresses humanity’s desire to create a perfect being through genetic technologies: the commercializing of fertility treatment, the advancements in the science of cloning, the many possibilities and uncertainties of future human birth, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding genetic modification.

Each simulated baby’s story, generated from real genetic data, is created in collaboration with artificial intelligence. Visitors interact with the sleeping babies in real time by inputting sound through a microphone, connecting with them via the ChatGPT system. The live-rendered videos of babies floating in space can be viewed on each screen, where audiences can observe how genetic anomalies are reimagined not as physical difficulties, but as representations of more unique and special forms of humanity.