NEW YORK, NY.- GHOSTMACHINE will present Maze by Taezoo Park.
In an era where digital advancements render technology obsolete at an unprecedented pace, Maze by Taezoo Park reimagines the remnants of discarded machines as sentient entities. Referencing Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition, the exhibition explores the continuous cycle of writing and erasure, emphasizing how meaning unfolds through transformation rather than stasis. Since arriving in New York City in 2008 one year before the city transitioned to digital broadcasting, Park has documented the disappearance of analog media, particularly the once-iconic CRT television. Through a labyrinth of interactive installations composed of repurposed electronics that the artist terms Digital Beings, Park explores the ambiguous boundary between the living and the inanimate, questioning whether obsolescence is merely a technological fate—or a human one.
Drawing inspiration from Yoko Ono’s Painting to Be Stepped On (1961), Park challenges viewers to move beyond passive observation. Through installations incorporating e-waste components, touch sensors, and repurposed CRT televisions, the artist revives discarded machines, repositioning them within the technological present. This practice, coined by Park as Digitology, breathes new life into antiquated devices, transforming them into interactive artifacts that question the sustainability of technological progress. In this exhibition, these leftover electronics take on new roles, not only as artistic materials but as speculative entities that expand our understanding of technological evolution, surveillance, and the fleeting nature of progress itself.
Park integrates these analog devices discarded in the wake of rapid digital progress with sensors, radio modules, and interactive components. Some of the beings respond to human presence, while others function autonomously, driven by the inherent characteristics of their original design. In this exhibition, they reveal themselves within the frame—waiting, expanding, and transforming their existence through sound, movement, and light. On some screens, Old Disney cartoons flicker to life, their familiar characters now unsettling in their recontextualized state. As viewers engage with these relics of childhood nostalgia, the line between past and present blurs while simultaneously eliciting an eerie recognition of the ever forward march of technology. On other monitors, viewers may catch a glimpse of their own reflection, merging with the mechanical world in a way that feels both intimate and disturbing. Alternatively, a digital candle may flicker, its warm glow emblematic of remembrance and mourning juxtaposed against the cold logic of the machines. As they wander through these intricate pathways of discarded yet reanimated machines, viewers will experience the evolving interplay between obsolescence and reinvention, presence and absence, control and randomness. At the end of the maze, a surprise awaits—a black rotary dial phone rings, calling the viewer back. Who, or what, is on the other end?
Like knowledge appearing and disappearing on a blackboard, digital beings emerge through glitches, self-corrections, and random chance—distinct from artificial intelligence, yet deeply embedded in our everyday lives. The ephemerality of these interactions echoes the transient nature of memory and the digital landscape itself.
Taezoo Park is a Korean-born, New York-based artist who transforms discarded technologies into “Digital Beings”—sentient entities created through his unique unmaking process. By repurposing obsolete machines, he challenges the concept of obsolescence, breathing new life into forgotten devices. Some “Digital Beings” interact with audiences, while others function autonomously, driven by the original purpose of the mechanics.
Park’s work has gained global recognition, featured in ABC News, BBC News, MBC News, and platforms like Artnet, ACM SIGGRAPH Asia, and CHI (Computer-Human Interaction). His installations have been showcased at venues including World Maker Faire, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Focus Art Fair, and the World Trade Center, bridging past and future technologies through art. Currently, Park teaches at Pratt Institute’s Digital Arts Department, offering students a new creative approach based on the philosophy of unmaking and guiding them to explore the intersection of art and technology. His latest project, “Digital Being: Radio Row”, reimagines New York’s historic tech hub from 1921 to 1966, merging nostalgia with innovation in a dynamic digital experience, now on display in the Financial District.
