MihHyun Kim
MiHyun Kim is a designer, an artist, and an educator. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. Her research agenda focuses on creating meaningful connections between people and their communities, especially for marginalized members whose narratives are often underrepresented. By using digital technology, human experience design, storytelling, and data visualization, her interdisciplinary nature of projects serves to create a sense of belonging to enhance humanity.
Line Portraiture
Each of the Line Portraiture and Fragmented series is based on generative design, a coding-based process that allows freedom and flexibility within loosely defined structure and parameters. The projects utilize two conventional ways, ‘portraits’ and ‘language’, of exploring humanistic qualities.
Line Portraiture iterates of a single portrait collected from a digital participatory project online that invited others to upload their images. I wanted to explore what it means to display the same photograph through digital and analog processes. I examine how the computer-generated image can be recontextualized and take on new meaning through different mediums.
Fragmented
Fragmented is an exploration of indirect translation, specifically Korean words that don’t have a direct English translation. 정 Chong, 한 Han, and 기 Ki are the words utilized in the series. The term Chong means an affection that you have for someone because of the time that you’ve spent with them. Han loosely defines as a feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered. Lastly, Ki’s closest translation means vital energy or spirit. I believe that those words represent the nationality of the country.
In the work, Korean letterforms have been created from fragmented pieces of the western roman alphabet and the English letterforms have been created from fragmented pieces of the Korean alphabet. By printing the browser and screenshots in Risograph, layered emotions are displayed in juxtaposition.
Prior to coming to the United States to earn her MFA in Visual Design from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, she worked as a graphic designer at COEX (Convention and Exhibition) Center in Seoul, South Korea, one of the most influential cultural venues in Asia.
Her projects have been recognized by numerous international and national design organizations including Interaction Design (IxD) Association, ico-d (International Council of Design), Ars Electronica, CAA (College Arts Association), Cumulus (International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design, and Media), AIGA Design Educator Community, UCDA Design Education Summit, and eyeO festival.
Her design projects are in the permanent collections at the Lonsford Collection at Purdue University Galleries and the Denmark Poster Museum in Aabyhøj, Denmark.