Calling Sunghyun Cho a multi-media artist is accurate, but it doesn’t quite get across the breadth of his work. The Korean artist is probably best known for his performative installations, which go beyond the merely audiovisual to examine digital architecture and experimental sound.

As a former student of architecture, media art and sound, the relationship between space and sound is a particular meeting point for his practice, although color and image are obviously important touchstones.

Of special interest in the realm of wearable technology is Cho’s Sound Guard, which incorporates a glove, a Taekwondo martial arts armguard, a small universal board — making electronic modification simple — condenser microphones, sensors and circuits as an open-source light and sound controller. It can capture sounds from the atmosphere or via direct contact and comes arrayed with LEDs, constantly changing via electronics, body movements, even the performance environment.
Cho is also working on developing more controllers that connect to other body parts. As an artist who overlaps so many disciplines, Cho’s work represents the cross-platform nature of modern art while simultaneously representing the sensory overload an infant might feel first encountering his or her surroundings. Notions of communication and perception are newly explored in these ingenious integrations.