Block game was the first computer game I ever came across. I remember as a child that I was so immersed in playing this game at a small stationery shop that I was often completely unaware of the passage of time. Like some type of daily work, I did it everyday on my way home and even when I had no money, I was still satisfied watching my friend play the game. Such block games became the motive of my work as I became interested in new media. I wish to share with many people the pleasure I felt when playing that game. Appropriating the form of that original block game, I create a real-time interactive game.

In Block Game, one of my interactive works, the camera captures the viewer’s real-time movement and realizes it in RGB colors. I set those colors on the foreground and the rest of images in the background. In this work, any response arises due to the difference between the foreground and background values.
Actually, viewers can play the game using their shadows on the screen and select certain images. They can break four kinds of images with their own shadows such as ‘money’, ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘glass cup’, and ‘The Gate of Hell. I have selected those images after asking people of various ages and occupations the question, “What would you want to break first if you were given the opportunity?”
The most frequently chosen answer was ‘money,’ which was considered for many people hard to shake from their mind. The next was a ‘glass cup,’ which is usually pleasant to look at, but also can appear burdensome due to its frailty. Based on the results of the survey, I chose the ‘Mona Lisa’ on my own because some people said they wanted to shatter an extremely high-priced artwork. The reason I selected ‘The Gate of Hell’ is that some participants wanted to destroy a gate, which has both positive and negative connotations. It may be something linking spaces, but also may suggest negative meanings such as separation, isolation, and barriers. I intend to add even more connotations to this gate. I have chosen ‘The Gates of Hell’, for communications with the audience, as most Western viewers of my work are familiar with its connotations.