Subroutines is a series of live-streamed durartional performances made at the old electronic markets grouped around the 청계천 (Cheonggyecheon) stream in Seoul. Here, short excerpts can be seen in a showreel, but in the spring of 2019, the stream was live every Thursday on the Subroutines YouTube channel. In the performances I worked with equipment that came from the shops and markets where the streaming took place. The images on the streams contain empty screens, mirrors, frames, and broken devices. In the margins of the images the bustling activity of the surrounding markets can be seen.

In Subroutines two streams coincide. On the one hand there is the physical 청계천 stream, the water also visible in Watercamera, that runs through the electronic market area. On the other hand, this physical stream is overlaid by a virtual stream visible on YouTube. For each of the performances I made a sort of sculpture, often involving kinetic or motorized elements, that held the camera or attached it to my body. The YouTube streams link digital images with the places where both the sculptures and cameras are made. Through outsourcing, companies like Amazon, Ebay, and Taobao increasingly hide these kinds of places from sight. The Subroutines streams attempt to do the opposite by reconnecting the cultural grit and materiality of the workshops with the flat surface of the computer screen.