Unhappy Circuit is a technology-driven artist and electronic musician in Korea.

He began his creative practice by creating electronic music that expressed his own “unhappiness” through glitch and noise sounds.

After that, he expanded his work into technology-driven art, exploring audiovisual expression and artificial intelligence. In particular, his work reveals the presence of human nature within AI.

And further, his work expanded beyond the relationship between technology and humanity, toward understanding human existence within the vast universe.

He was selected as a member of Hyundai Motor Group’s ZER01NE Creator, and his works have been selected and supported by various art institutions such as Asia Culture Center, Arts Council Korea, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, and Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab.

Unhappy Circuit is concluding over a decade of his work, and since 2024, he has continued his journey into the vast universe under a new name, “Unhappy the Cosmic Traveler.”

As a “cosmic traveler”, he seeks to understand the meaning of existence and life within a cosmic context. And at the end of that journey, he hopes to discover true happiness.

His journey toward the universe can be found on the page below.

unhappy-cosmictraveler.life

An interstellar message is a form of structured data intended to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence through deep-space transmission technologies. Since 2020, Unhappy Circuit has been developing interstellar messages as an ongoing artistic project. His work focuses on exploring how human language might become understandable to non-human intelligence, seeking to share human thought, emotion, and culture across interstellar space.

He believes that extraterrestrial intelligence may also exist in isolation on distant planets, living only for a brief moment in comparison to cosmic time, and gazing at the stars while asking the question: “Are we alone in this universe?” In particular, he believes that loneliness is a fundamental feeling that runs throughout the universe. Through interstellar messages, he seeks to create a sense of cosmic empathy between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence as lonely beings in the vast universe. Even if his message never reaches extraterrestrial intelligence, he believes that the effort itself can connect human life, consciousness, and the meaning of existence with the vast universe.

Astro-linguistic-anthropological Data on Human Language and Life, 2023

- Multimodal data composed to convey information about human language and life to extraterrestrial intelligence
- Digital photos, graphics, text, audio recordings
- Exhibited at Sejong Museum of Art
- Supported by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
- Video work: https://youtu.be/NTa6oJFxxlE

＜Astro-linguistic-anthropological Data on Human Language and Life＞ is a multimodal dataset composed to convey information about human language and life to extraterrestrial intelligence.

This dataset constructs a kind of linguistic dictionary designed to make the lyrics of the old song ＜Row, Row, Row Your Boat＞ understandable to extraterrestrial intelligence. The lyrics are composed in a simple structure while also revealing distinctive characteristics of human language and ways of thinking, allowing extraterrestrial intelligence to understand the fundamental structure of human language.

In addition, the song reflects how human beings perceive life. Perhaps the only thing that may be shared between extraterrestrial intelligence and humanity is that both are tiny and fragile beings, isolated on their own planets, living only for a fleeting moment compared to the scale of cosmic time.

Alongside an audio recording of “Row the Boat” performed by eight voices, the dataset also contains photographs portraying the everyday life of an ordinary human being on Earth. This message about “life” form a sense of cosmic empathy among all lonely beings in the vast universe.

1 HUMAN MESSAGE, 2023

- Daily attempts to transmit information of a human life into outer space
- Digital text data, transceiver, transmission log photographs
- Supported by Arts Council Korea
- Video work: https://youtu.be/jkJVDbeOHIs

Compared to cosmic time, our lives are like a moment. That is why we hope our lives can hold meaning in the universe. In other words, we instinctively seek a connection between our existence and the universe.

1 HUMAN MESSAGE is a short information of a human life, transmitted toward the stars using a portable deep space transceiver. In this way, 1 HUMAN MESSAGE links cosmic time with the lifetime of an ordinary human. and through this, it expands the meaning of human life into the universe, and connects all isolated, finite, and lonely beings in the universe.

Between 2018 and 2019, Unhappy Circuit explored artificial intelligence as both a central theme and artistic medium. He approaches artificial intelligence through three perspectives: as a new form of human existence, as a technology that complements humanity, and as a mirror reflecting humanity.

First, he sees AI as a new form of intelligent being that could evolve beyond humanity. In other words, he envisions AI as a true posthuman existence.
In addition, he works with AI as a technology that extends human capabilities — a new technological tool that extends human capabilities. While the former perspective is based on a vision of the future, the latter reflects the present era.
Finally, he recognizes AI as a mirror reflecting humanity itself, approached through a humanistic and artistic perspective. AI is learning about humanity through data. Therefore, the artifacts generated by AI reveal the nature of humanity.

After all, for Unhappy Circuit, AI is a new form of being, a technology that is profoundly changing our lives, and an artistic medium that reflects nature of our humanity.

A Synthetic Song Beyond the Sea, 2019

- Ambient music in which blue whale vocalization and human music are converged by artificial intelligence
- 2-channel projection, 2-channel sound, 4'29"
- Collected by Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art
- Exhibited at Art Center Nabi, Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Bangalore International Centre
- Supported by Korea Creative Content Agency and Art Center Nabi
- Video documentation: https://youtu.be/SmEvkJTvBaA

Whales, like humans, can feel and express emotions, live in complex societies, and use language systems for communication. In addition, whales share a common ancestor with all mammals on Earth, including humans. However, humans have long threatened the survival of whales, and this threat still persists today.

This work is an attempt to create music that both whales and humans can listen to and interact with, by synthesizing blue whale vocalizations and human music using artificial intelligence. Through this attempt, the work envisions a future in which whales and humans understand each other and coexist.

Through the life and death of whales, we are able to confront the true nature of humanity. This relates to the numerous tragedies in human history that have arisen from a lack of mutual understanding, and to the current state of human civilization, which still carries the potential for self-destruction.

Learning About Humanity, 2019

- Cooking performance with the recipe generated by artificial intelligence
- Live performance, 2-channel projection, 4-channel sound, 20'
- Exhibited at Asia Culture Center
- Supported by Asia Culture Center
- Video documentation: https://youtu.be/95iyi_BfDN4

Chickens, of which about 65 billion are slaughtered each year, are considered a symbol of the Anthropocene. In this era of abundance driven by industrialization, we often forget that the meat we face in our daily lives once belonged to living creatures. In particular, the uncomfortable truths in the processes of raising and slaughtering livestock—truths we tend to ignore—lead us to question what “humanity” means.

Artificial intelligence learns about human beings through massive amounts of data, and the results reflect humanity like a mirror. After all, chicken dishes generated by artificial intelligence become a mirror of humanity, revealing the true nature of human civilization hidden behind its abundance.

i Remember, 2019

- Images and sounds generated by artificial intelligence that learned the fragment of human memory
- 1-channel video, 2-channel sound, 20'
- Exhibited at Platform-L Contemporary Art Center
- Supported by Arts Council Korea
- Video documentation: https://youtu.be/ncnhnyX4WmY

For humans, memory forms part of our identity. Losing memory is like losing the self. In other words, memory is life itself. However, human memory is inherently incomplete. Therefore, humans have recorded and preserved memories across various media to compensate for the limitations of biological memory.

From prehistoric cave paintings to computer memory, humans have rapidly evolved through advances in technology to store memories. And now, the memory extends to artificial intelligence.

Are experiences unreplicable and exist only in lived moments? Or are memories merely data that can be copied? If memories are just data, is it possible for artificial intelligence to learn human memory? And if AI can learn human memory, would that AI be me?

In this work, AI learns the fragment of a person's memory and generates images and sounds. Whose memory is this audiovisual artifact?

Unhappy Circuit began his artistic practice with experimental electronic music rooted in glitch and noise sounds. After continuing his career in the underground electronic music scene in Korea, he expanded his work to the field of technology-driven art by exploring the methodology and expression form of audiovisual based on computer algorithms.

Music of Memories, 2017

- Audiovisual sequence depicting Morse code signal transforms into evolving memory process
- 2-channel projection, 4-channel sound, 20'
- Exhibited at Asia Culture Center
- Supported by Asia Culture Center
- Video documentation: https://youtu.be/QK3PQacIgA0

Morse code and computer logic systems share similarities as binary systems. In particular, Morse code, which digitizes human language, becomes a medium that connects humans and computers.

In this work, human language digitized in Morse code is transformed into an audiovisual sequence depicting a computer memory process gradually evolving into human memory. Through this process, this work closely connects language and code, memory and data, and humans and computers.

Dreams, 2017

- Format: Single (Digital)
- Release date: 2017-07-02
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Downtempo, chillout, ambient
- Music video: https://youtu.be/DvdMxIE9rTg?si=oxmnWY40_sUlCRd2

There is an AI robot girl.
A cable extends from a port on the back of her head, connected to a battery she holds in one hand.
She tries to dance, but the cable and the battery prevent her from moving freely.
Eventually, she decides to disconnect the battery.
The moment she disconnects it, the power supply begins to shut down.
Until the last of her remaining energy is gone, she dances with all her strength.
And with her final movement, she quietly comes to eternal rest.

Just Waiting for a Happy Ending, 2014

- Format: Album (CD, Digital)
- Release date: 2014-03-14
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Glitch, Noise, IDM
- Music video: https://youtu.be/SqtouftaqII

＜Just Waiting for a Happy Ending＞ is Unhappy Circuit's debut album released in 2014.

The music, composed of noise, glitch sounds, and unstable tones, was an attempt to give audible form to his inner state at the time, and became the origin of his name.

He also developed his own artistic style by creating not only the music, but also visual elements related to it. In particular, what stands out is the music video crafted with stop-motion animation, through which he delicately portrayed the character and story of a broken machine boy.