(381) Saju: Reading of South Korea
By Janet Shin
I have worked with an artist from Italy named Fabio Lattanzi Antinori who was invited by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea, to give an exhibition starting on June 1 at Residency Changdong.
He is presenting three interactive sculptures in the gallery space. It is “digital art,” the convergence of AI technology and fortunetelling. Each sculpture is made of a structure and an attached long screenprint on paper. When the audience in the gallery touches the prints, they will hear a woman's voice from the speakers, reading a text. The texts, halfway between poetry and prose, have been created by merging two sources, one from data of the past few years and future forecasts of Korean society and the other is saju reading of Korea.
The data was gathered both from Korean as well as international sources covering agriculture, development, economy, education, energy, environment, finance, government, health, innovation and technology, jobs and society. This has been derived from data containing comments from research to make the whole story more accessible to the general public. The latter, saju reading, was made in collaboration with me, adding metaphors and more or less abstract images and/or numbers. By merging these sources, the final text incorporates both the data and saju making it inspirational, ambiguous and poetic.
According to our several meetings, here is the saju reading of Korea, based on the establishment date of the Korean government as a country officially recognized by the world, Aug. 15, 1948.
The symbolic energy, day master, of South Korea is the heavenly stem of its founding day, circled in black representing water. This saju mainly consists of metal (white) and water (black) as the five elements composition. The earth (yellow) located in the heavenly stem of the birth year plays an important role to balance its yin and yang energy, which implies its authority and power, career star. It also harmonizes sturdiness and fluidity, coldness and warmth, and dampness and dryness.
The coupling of metal and water marks a fluent aptitude for computers, internet and hardware while earth portrays a big mountain that can explain the mountainous geographical features of the Korean Peninsula, surrounded by ocean.
All eight letters are yang which usually indicates a strong personality. And the combination of metal and water also depicts a tenacious spirit coupled with gentle appearance.
Looking at its 10-year luck cycle, the fortune year began at its age 48, in the mid-1990s. When it reaches 78, a charismatic leadership will come out to rule both the North and South Korea, as it has a combination of yang earth both the heavenly and earthly elements. 2018 and 2019 also show a strong leadership but is still passing through a sentimental adjustment period.
It is unusual to read the saju of a nonhuman object. I have read the saju of companies and broadcasting programs. I also have an interesting experience reading the saju of pets. Although there is skepticism, we still can see that saju may reveal some interesting truths about everything, even animals and inanimate materials.
Information : Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teachings, the “Four Pillars of Destiny” and oriental ways of fortune telling or fortune tellers? Janet teaches Saju for the public at Seoul National University of Education. For further information, visit Janet's website at
or her blog,
https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin
.You can also contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin.kor@gmail.com
The writer is the author of “Life's Secrets.”