<Ŏdŭme(Somewhere)> is a sound installation that constructs a virtual ecosystem mimicking the DMZ, isolated for over 67 years, and sonifies the DNA data of native flora and fauna to visualize and audibleize the biological phenomena circulating within it through spatial sound and light.

The title 'Eodume' is a dialect term from the Pyeongan and Hamgyong provinces meaning "somewhere" or an unspecified place, referring to the virtual ecosystem modeled after the DMZ—a physically real yet inaccessible territory. We constructed this virtual environment by selecting representative species based on data published by the National Institute of Ecology; within this space, digital creatures interact according to a food chain algorithm governing the dynamics between species, generating real-time data from biological phenomena such as predation. Each species composing this ecosystem possesses a unique sound derived from analyzing DNA data across various layers—including base sequences, codons, amino acids, and polypeptides—and these sounds continuously shift in reaction to the data flow of the established virtual ecosystem. This resulting auditory landscape is physically realized through a 20.2-channel spatial audio system and 15 LED moving lights installed within an 8-meter diameter geodesic dome, allowing the audience to walk inside and undergo a synesthetic experience as if standing in the center of this unknown ecosystem.

By translating numerical data values into sensory sound and light, the work intends to metaphorically convey the dynamics of the three-dimensional food web structure and the exquisite balance maintained within it. In particular, focusing on the paradoxical phenomenon observed during the pandemic where nature recovered its vitality as humans were alienated, we question the values of coexistence we must embrace as members of the ecosystem through the overwhelming power and self-sustaining balance of nature that are revealed only when anthropocentric intervention ceases.

Produced with the support of the '2020 ACC_R Creators' residency at the Asia Culture Center (ACC).