Traces in Motion : Embody the Ocean

Workshop Description

Imagine life in the ocean and design your own wearable fins, paddles, floatation aids, or extensions. Sketch, sculpt, and fabricate your creation, then explore how it transforms your movement. Conclude by sharing stories of your oceanic self, connecting creativity, movement, and imagination.

Objective:

Participants explore movement, water, and imagination through the design, sketching, and fabrication of wearable appendages for hands, feet, shoulders, or other body parts.

Activities:

1. Imagination & Sketching (15–20 min)

• Participants choose a body part to extend (hand, foot, shoulder, arm).
• Encourage imagining life in the ocean:
• How would your extension move in water?
• What shapes help glide, push, or sense currents?
• Quick sketches of ideas, focusing on form and function.

2. Sculpting Prototype (20–30 min)

• Translate sketches into clay models.
• Emphasize experimentation: curvature, fin shape, flexibility.
• Encourage tactile exploration to understand movement dynamics.

3. Fabrication (30–40 min)

• Use vacuum press machine to shape plastic or flexible sheets over clay prototypes.
• Create lightweight, wearable fin, paddle forms, or other floating aid forms.
• Cut and finish edges for comfort and safety.

4. Embodied Testing (20–30 min)

• Wear the created fins on chosen body parts.
• Experiment with movement: mimic swimming, paddling, or floating gestures.
• Optional: test in shallow water or with air/water flows to see how the shape interacts.

5. Reflection & Sharing (15–20 min)

• Participants share their wearable forms and movement experience:
• How does it feel to extend your body?
• How does it change the perception of space and movement?
• Connections to adaptation, evolution, or fluid dynamics.

About the workshop instructor

Centered on the materiality and performativity of skin and clothing, HKASON explores the multilayered relationships between body, objects, and space through theatrical forms. The act of putting on and taking off extends beyond body-object interaction to body-space dynamics. By tracing points where materials and surfaces transform beyond simple covering, he investigates the ambivalence of media, their encounters, and transitional potentials. Recent exhibitions include his solo show Gametophyte (2023), and group shows Poetic Forensic (Sewon Hall, 2025), Mirror and Cloak (Platform L, 2024), Lab Coming Day (Art Korea Lab, 2023), and Art Science (National Busan Science Center, 2022).

Website: www.hkason.com

Social media: @dehanhkason