The Land of Morning Calm

The Land of the Morning Calm (2025) creates a visceral soundscape of division as conflicts within the South Korean National Assembly spill into citizens’ daily lives, igniting strife between opposing political ideologies. Using two MRI-scanned models of the artist's own vocal tract, each in red and blue to represent Korea’s rightist and leftist parties, the work amplifies the tension in South Korea’s polarized political landscape. Composed of glottal waves derived from sonified texts—each party’s Constitutions, Regulations, and Ethical codes accumulated since the establishment of the Republic of Korea (1948)—the work channels the constant flux and conflict of Korean politics. The models, connected to compression drivers, project a cacophony of dynamic voices that embody confusion and noise yet presenting the artist's personal stake in an ideologically divided society. The synthesis of artificial glottal waves, 3D-printed body parts, and lecterns critiques the synthetic and constructed nature of political discourse while reflecting the impact of polarization on my individual voice and collective struggles.
The artist created the soundtrack from the EGG signal of his own voice, which he reprocessed by sonifying the Korean political party documents.
This project was created with funding and support by Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto
Photo: LF Documentation
Video: Miles Rufelds

Amid the current situation with uncertainty—where the weight of political turmoil, election fraud conspiracy, and the spectre of martial law suffocates the present—South Korea finds itself caught in an escalating crisis, marked by deepening polarization and political instability.
The Land of Morning Calm creates a visceral soundscape of division, as the conflicts within the National Assembly spill over into citizens’ daily lives, igniting strife between opposing political ideologies. Using two MRI-scanned models of my own vocal tract, each in red and blue representing Korea’s rightist and leftist parties, the work amplifies the tension between political disputes in South Korea’s polarized political landscape. Composed of glottal waves derived from sonified texts—each party’s Constitutions, Regulations, and Ethical codes accumulated since the establishment of the Republic of Korea (1948)—the work channels the constant flux and conflict of the Korean politics. The models, connected to a compression horn speaker, project a cacophony of dynamic voices, embodying confusion and noise yet presenting my personal stake within ideologically divided society. The synthesis of synthetic glottal waves, 3d printed body part, and lecterns critiques the artificial and constructed nature of political discourse, while reflecting the profound impact of polarization on my individual voice and collective struggles.
Length: 5 minutes
All sculptural elements in this work are hand-fabricated by the artist. The soundtrack was created from EGG signal of artist’s own voice, which he reprocessed by sonifying the Korean political party documents.
This project was created with funding and support by Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto
Photo: LF Documentation
Video: Miles Rufelds