Krista Kim on Mars House, Digital Zen, and the Metaverse | Interview for institut

Interviews for institut
Written By David Cash

Krista Kim says meditation will save us from the machine and art will save us from ourselves, and explains how a Zen garden in Kyoto shaped Mars House and her idea of digital Zen.Interviewed by David Cash. Book David to host, moderate, or speak: https://davidcash.ca

Krista Kim is a digital artist working since 2013 and the founder of the Techism art movement, started in 2014. David Cash interviewed her remotely for institut in September 2021, ahead of an institut exhibition with Unit London that was also shown in the Arium metaverse. They discuss her piece for the show, which brings a public sound and light installation first shown at Nuit Blanche in Paris into the metaverse, the Ryoanji Temple garden and the thinking behind Mars House, how she defines the metaverse, avatars and self-expression, using augmented reality to bring beauty to underserved communities, and her plan to donate proceeds to a UNESCO initiative for rebuilding Beirut.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

  1. 00:00 Welcome to institut
  2. 00:24 Krista Kim on Techism and artists in tech
  3. 01:38 From Nuit Blanche Paris to a metaverse installation
  4. 04:21 Mars House and the Ryoanji Temple garden
  5. 08:02 What is the metaverse?
  6. 12:11 Avatars, identity, and self-expression
  7. 14:06 Beauty, education, and co-creation in the metaverse
  8. 17:23 Augmented reality for underserved communities
  9. 19:58 Her piece in Arium and the Beirut donation
  10. 23:16 Advice for first-time metaverse visitors
  11. 24:53 Where to find Krista Kim

Speakers

  • David Cash, interviewer
  • Krista Kim, digital artist and founder of the Techism art movement

Key topics

  • Techism and the case for artists at the inception of tech companies
  • Turning a public sound and light installation into a one-of-one NFT
  • Kyoto, the Ryoanji Temple garden, and digital Zen in Mars House
  • The metaverse as a parallel universe for culture, education, and economies
  • Meditation, balance, and resisting addictive behavior online
  • Avatars and radical authenticity in virtual worlds
  • Augmented reality as a tool to beautify underserved communities
  • An exhibition shown in a gallery and in the Arium metaverse
  • Donating proceeds to a UNESCO initiative for Beirut

In their words

"I believe that meditation will save us from the machine and art will save us from ourselves." Krista Kim

"So the metaverse is the imagination come to life." Krista Kim

How to cite

APA: Cash, D. (2021). Krista Kim on Mars House, digital Zen, and the metaverse [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/zyebF6ZRmJ0

Chicago: Cash, David. "Krista Kim on Mars House, Digital Zen, and the Metaverse." Recorded September 2021, remote video interview. YouTube video, 25:32. https://youtu.be/zyebF6ZRmJ0.

About institut

institut was the Web3 division of Unit London. This conversation was recorded in 2021 for institut to introduce Krista Kim's work in an institut exhibition presented through Unit London and the Arium metaverse from September 10 to 24, 2021.

Recording details

Recorded September 2021, remote video interview. Original release: institut. This edition: archival re-release with chapters and captions, 2026.

Transcript

Machine-transcribed and reviewed. Timestamps link to the moment in the video.

[0:00] Welcome everybody to Institute. We are here with the one and only Krista Kim, architect, designer, metaverse builder and hero. And we're very lucky to be talking with her about the metaverse today. What is the metaverse? What does it mean to our future? And there's nobody else better to talk about this than the one and only Krista Kim. Krista, how are you doing today? Would you like to introduce yourselves to the lovely people watching from home? Yes, thank you, David. Thank you, you're such a darling and I'm so happy to chat with you and the community of Institute. I'm so excited for our upcoming drop. I'm a digital artist. I've been a digital artist since 2013 and I'm founder of the Techism Art Movement since 2014. And techism is about really engaging art and artists at the leading edge of technology in order to create a humane culture in tech. If you think about Facebook, imagine if there was an artist in the boardroom

[0:56] right at the inception of the company, it would be a completely different company today, right? Cause artists wanna create beauty. And basically if an artist gets involved in a tech company, then that tech company wants to create beauty in the world through what they create. So here we are. I love the way you talk about art and technology. I don't think there's anybody who exists at that intersection more than you. So it's an absolute pleasure. And for everybody who's watching right now, before we get into the nitty gritty of what is the metaverse, how are we supposed to harness this new technology? Would you like to tell the people about the piece that you have in our upcoming show? Because I definitely think it is on topic. Yes, thank you. We can explore some of those notions in our chat. So if people remember the Mars house, there were screens that were the substrates for the ceiling and the

[1:44] floor. And I created, I installed my meditative sound and light installations for the ceiling and the floor of the house. But basically that house, which I built last year, came from my practice and my investigations in using the giant LED walls for public art installation, for public meditative installations of sound and light. And in 2018, I had exhibited as part of Nuit Blanche in Paris at the iconic square of Palais de Tokyo Museum and Musée Mardin de la Vie de Paris. Right there, we did a large, 20 foot long wall by six feet high installation for the public for that evening. And it was really well received. And my intention was to create a healing sound and light experience for the viewers. So some people did yoga, some people were embracing, some people were dancing in front of it. We had lots of dancers doing prompter dances, it's really amazing. And a lot of people were just sitting

[2:57] there and then just soaking it in, letting it, responding to the work physiologically because color and light and sound, healing sound frequency music. Oh, and the musician who I collaborated with in Paris is Tenille Bentley. So with this concept, eight by eight is the name of the project, I wanted to bring that public art installation into the metaverse and offer it as an NFT, a one-on-one NFT. And this is the eight of eight XR version, which is being offered for our institute exhibition. So it's really quite exciting because I'm actually creating the metaverse installation of eight by eight in area metaverse. And so basically the collector will have the assets to build out their own metaverse. It's already pre-built, pre-fabricated, they just have to choose which platform they wish to have the installation there. And it's their private meditative metaverse installation.

[4:02] Incredible. I love the way you take the metaverse and you use it as your medium for the work that you already do and for techism, for meditation, for being grounded as a human being. You take the ethos that is you and your work and you bring it into the metaverse and it's such a perfect place for it. I wanna not dismantle, but break down a couple of things that you said just for the people watching who might not be so familiar with the metaverse. And I think the best first way to do that is to talk about Mars House, your iconic project, which left you into this space and which we are also going to be including as an off-shot room in the area of metaverse, which I'm very excited about. Tell us about your journey with Mars House. What got you excited to start building specifically in the metaverse? You know, I'm really influenced by visiting Kyoto and having lived in Japan, I lived in Tokyo for three and a half years and I would visit Kyoto

[4:55] three or four times a year riding the fast train and it was so convenient and it's so beautiful. You're transported into the past, into it's almost like a virtual reality there because you end up there and you're like, wow, it's like, where am I? Kyoto is really a city of Zen and the pinnacle of beauty and that balance of Zen aesthetics in every aspect of creation and experience in that city. Architecture, you know, urban planning and cuisine and fashion and everything. So for me, I had my artistic epiphany that directly influenced the Mars House design because I was in a, what's it called? A Zen garden, right? It's called the Ryoanji Temple Garden and this place is so incredible, not because, I mean, it's extremely minimalist, right? I wouldn't say that it's the most beautiful garden but I'd say that it made an incredible artistic epiphany for me. It taught me what Zen is and the power of creation where

[6:02] I'm sitting there and I'm trying to understand the garden because it's like, there's so much empty space in between the rocks and it's beautifully manicured and it's so, I mean, it takes a master to manicure it with a rake without, you have to erase your footsteps and everything. There's a whole technique to it, right? With, I don't know, a lifetime of practice, obviously. So I was admiring the beauty of the garden, the simplicity of it and then I realized that I was entering into a Zen state of consciousness, just being in the presence of the garden because our environment becomes a mirror of our mind and I was just amazed at how beautiful it is that these Zen monks, through the power of their intention to really create Zen consciousness in the other people around them, they created this garden to help people achieve that. So I thought I would love to do it. I'm a meditator. I believe in the power of

[7:00] meditation. I believe that meditation will save us from the machine and art will save us from ourselves and so for me, I wanna bring that Zen mentality and philosophy into the 21st century and beyond. And so the Mars House is really an ode to that translation of digital Zen and presentation. Just like in Kyoto, you have these beautiful Zen homes and architecture. I wanted to create the 21st century and metaverse version of digital Zen. That's so well said. I love the way you speak about your work. One thing that stuck out to me about what you just said and just your work in general is the way you take the surreal in-person, like you take inspiration from the surreal in-person, the experiences that you can access at very specific points in time and then you make those accessible to others through the power of the metaverse. And I think that very succinctly leads us into the next question, which

[8:04] is why the metaverse? What is the metaverse for those people who are watching right now who aren't aware and how would you define the metaverse at this point in time for our audience? The metaverse is the next frontier for humanity on a social and economic level and even political level. We are going to basically be engaging economies, education, social interaction in the digital parallel universe. And that's exactly what it is. It's a parallel universe of existence. It's another paradigm of existence. And it's an extension of our lives. So the good thing about the metaverse is that you have the chance to really create beauty and art that will actually influence the real world. The cultural changes that we want to see in the real world we can start them in the metaverse and really change people and open people's eyes to the possibilities of how we can actually change the real world. And that's what I'm

[9:07] really passionate about. I believe that life imitates art just as science fiction has greatly influenced technological innovation and cultural shifts today. The metaverse was actually founded as a concept in early science fiction novels like Neomancer. And I mean, there's so many great examples of innovation that came from art, from ideas, from fiction, but the imagination, right? And that's the power of the imagination. So the metaverse is the imagination come to life. And so we can also meet in the metaverse in a way where we're actually interacting with one another face to face. And we can actually go and get medical treatments there. We can get educated there. We can actually provide services in the metaverse to people all over the world without leaving our house. So there's a lot that can be done in the metaverse. And I mean, I'm all about balance in life, balance in your life between the real

[10:08] world and the virtual world. And that's why I always am a strong advocate of meditation. So we have a stronger sort of willpower so that we're not giving into addictive behavior online. So what I want to see, right, exactly. I want value added content and education and enrichment of experience of human life in the metaverse. I don't want to see a dystopian ready player one corporate dominated, parasitical or hegemonic power structure. I want decentralization, power to the people. I want person to person interaction. And so you're really transcending a lot of those boundaries in the real world, including geography, including race, including religion, including what have you transcend that. And the metaverse is really an incredible opportunity for us to reinvent the future of humanity. And that's why I'm excited. Absolutely. Very, very well said.

[11:14] I also love talking about the idea of the metaverse as a concept because it really is a blanket term for so many different things. In theory, the metaverse is like one succinct virtual universe that we can all access through different points. But in reality, where we are in history right now is the metaverse means almost the same thing as like XR, right? It's experiential. It's a blanket term for all of these different versus or these different micro versus that we have access to right now from Decentraland to Cryptovoxels to Spatial to Aerium where we're going to be doing this show, which is very exciting. And one of the really exciting things about where we are at right now in history is what you just said, that we actually do have metaverses that are functioning as decentralized protocols and decentralized companies, decentralized apps, all of these terms that are coming out. And that's

[12:02] really exciting about where we are right now because you said it's the new frontier, but we really are at the cusp of this world joining our world, if that makes sense. And to move this conversation along with, I think the logical next step with what you were just talking about in terms of identity and how we display ourselves within the metaverse, there's gonna be a lot of opportunities, geological barriers and racial barriers and gender barriers are being alleviated from people's lives. What excites you about the future of creating our own avatars and being able to control our identity and our destiny in the metaverse? Yeah, so we're not held back by conventions in the real world and conformity and norms and religious dogma or any sort of standards of behavior. I mean, really the metaverse is about being authentically yourself. And I really hope that it brings up the best in people. And of course, I believe in having a code of conduct and respect

[12:59] and basic respect for other human beings, but there are no limitations of how you can express yourself and how you wanna visually express who you are. And I think that obviously if people are more creative and more risk-taking and really truly radically authentic and the fashion choices in whatever choices you make as an avatar, it could be your own likeness or it could be an alien or gorilla. You could be anything you want, right? But it's always going to reflect a part of your personality. And I think it's nice for people to be able to venture into that, really get outside of the box because the box is the dangerous place. It's where you're just falling routine. You're not being mindful of your intuition. You're probably just falling routine and you're going for your daily grind. Well, I think that the metaverse will allow you to step out of that and really be inspired by what you can discover. It's an

[13:56] adventure. And so, yeah, it's definitely self-expression, freedom of expression, that kind of thing, really healthy for all of us. Absolutely. And I think what you just touched on is really relevant to people right now. We are slowly coming out of this pandemic period where we've all spent so much time isolated and on our own. And I feel like everybody to some extent has established a new routine, whether that be healthy or most often not at this point in time. And a lot of people aren't getting out or traveling or having experiences. And you did speak on this a little bit, but I'd love to hear more from your point of view, how the metaverse can allow people. I love the statements that you make about how the metaverse can provide beauty in our lives. And I would just love to hear some of your thoughts for the people. Well, it's true. Absolutely. The power of XR, the power of virtual reality and power of augmented reality, which are both metaverse experiences,

[14:48] I really believe that there's no excuse. The world can be more beautiful and we should beautify our world because there are no limitations. We have no material costs or anything compared to the physical. So we can actually implement and create beautiful murals and beautiful 3D experiences and educational experiences and music and immersion. I mean, there are no limitations to the human imagination. And I believe that people will wanna share beauty. We wanna share what they create and bring joy into other people's lives if it brings you joy to create it. So it's a different culture. It's a cultural renaissance and it's one of creative co-creation and collaboration and sharing. And that's how the metaverse is gonna affect our culture where we're not just passive consumers anymore. We're not just following trends and seeing what's in the magazine to see, oh, that's the greatest thing that I should be with.

[15:47] No, we're actually in the metaverse and creating what we wanna create and we're seeing others and their inspirations and we've become inspired by that. And so it really is this amazing flourishing of creation and inspiration. So it's fun already on the level that we're actually creating on the metaverse, but imagine if everyone participates and is given a chance to create and express themselves with incredible digital 3D assets. The fashion is going to be amazing and it's going to be interactive and I can't wait for that. And I can't wait for the education. I mean, the things that you can learn from experts from around the world, like learning about mathematics and physics from Albert Einstein as an AI professor and learning about the civil rights movement from MLK. We can actually do these incredible things and we will build out these incredible education platforms in the metaverse for the world.

[16:56] And then of course there's like global travel. I mean, you can just portal into another place and halfway around the world and you can interact with people there and they teach you about their culture, but there are no more barriers and you're not learning about other cultures or other countries through the media. You're learning and you're seeing for yourself and that's how your mind and your heart opens. Love that. I do want to take this specifically to your piece in the show again before we close this out. But before we do that, for anybody who might not be aware, Krista is the global ambassador of Superworld, which is an AR metaverse, which is the AR version of the internet or that's how you describe it, which I love. I would love to hear your thoughts on, and I know that this is a current specialty of yours around how we can positively affect change in our world, especially in places that are currently either underprivileged or underserved or

[17:53] they don't have beauty in their immediate surroundings, which I know is one of your favorite topics. Yes, I'm very passionate about this. I think that beauty is important in our environment because it actually brings honor and respect to the place. And you see basically like social experiments. Like in India, they had one corner where there's a lot of garbage pile that people kept piling garbage on that corner. And then they tidied it up and they created a beautiful art and nobody touched it. It was honored, okay? So we give value to things that actually move us and give us pleasure and special beauty is that. So I think that when we're thinking about our urban environments, you're thinking about the living environments for all people around the world. A lot of people are in underprivileged communities and they're not surrounded by beauty necessarily, but why not use the power of augmented reality to bring beauty to them? And they could

[18:51] upload these beautiful art installations or flowers or beauty, like just beautify using AR. And that's a wonderful service to the community because it actually heals people and it makes people feel pride and inspiration where they live. And everybody wants to see beauty around them in their environment, just as I learned in Kyoto. So this is one of my passion projects and I'm going to be launching some really exciting projects. We will talk about in future episodes, I'm sure. Some major sort of beautification projects in communities that are underprivileged that also actually have a charity element, philanthropic to support the communities too. So that can all become packaged and create this wonderful sort of formula of redeveloping or revamping, re-energizing communities that really need that boost, that moral boost. And I think the world needs that right now more than ever.

[19:57] Absolutely, very well said. One of my favorite things that you say is along those lines of the people deserve to live in beauty and dignity and that is a human right. And I love the direction of your work, your ethos, your thought process. I think it's really positive and necessary to move the world into the future. And now with this show that we have coming up, we are perpetuating that, this is a gallery show, it's a traditional gallery show, but we do make it accessible to the whole world for free through the power of the metaverse. So thinking about the show and thinking about your piece, I know you didn't mention Ariam before, but what are you excited about using Ariam? What can people expect if they're coming into the metaverse for the first time to view your piece in this show? So there's, Ariam is really great because they have created some beautiful water movement elements. And I'm really, really, I mean, my artwork

[20:52] basically is 888 on LED wall in the metaverse that's sitting on water, it's floating on water and you're immersed in this sound and light, sound bath experience that's truly immersive while you're in the metaverse. So people can go there and they can see the water looks so amazing and it's really realistic and it has reflective qualities and it's not easy to achieve that, right? And we're at the leading edge and it's still new tech. So being able to create that aesthetic is really difficult and I'm very happy that we have achieved that. So I'm very happy to have partnered with Ariam for this presentation. And I hope that the collector would opt to keep the presentation in Ariam and to keep that going even as a public art installation, that would be fun, right? I think that this project should be open to the public. And I think whoever collects it should actually allow people to come in and experience some healing and

[21:49] meditativeness in space. But it's really up to the owner, it's really. But I personally would love to see more people see it. And yeah, I really hope that people enjoy it. And I actually am donating proceeds to a UNESCO initiative to help in the architectural replanning of Beirut, which was devastated by a blast last year. So that is one of the causes that I'm supporting right now through the drop. And yeah, I'm very excited to support it. I'm going to a conference in Venice in September 14th and 15th with leading architects of the world to create a master plan for Beirut in the redevelopment of the city. So this is actually part of that initiative now. So I'm very pleased to announce that. Beautiful. You take it on all levels. You change people's lives virtually and physically, simultaneously. And that's beautiful. For anybody who is watching, you could see Krista's piece coming up on the 10th,

[22:58] September 10th to 24th through Unit London and through Arium, which we're very excited about since this is going to make the show so much more accessible to everybody. And for anybody who would like to purchase Krista's piece, it'll go to a very good cause. That's incredible. And very much serves your mission to beautify and change the world, which I find incredible. Last little piece, for anybody who might not be aware, Arium is an XR metaverse to the extent that you can view it on your computer, you can view it on your phone, you can look at it through multiple devices. So how do you feel that XR experiences such as this are moving the space forwards? And what could somebody expect if they're joining the metaverse for the very first time? What would you say to a first time metaverse user? Oh, I just think that it's exciting to offer an immersive experience of the art and to create, I'm really into like creating environments and experience. And I mean,

[23:51] naturally the metaverse is my second home. And if not my new home, the new frontier where I'm going, because I want people to have that real sort of visceral experience, but also within a metaverse context, because this is the future. And if we're building future, if we're building a world in the metaverse, then we have to integrate art and beautiful experiences into that measure. So I think that it's a very important direction to take, especially when you're talking about meditativeness and pure consciousness and healing. So I think the metaverse is a place of like amazing experimentation. And this is certainly at the cutting edge. This is an experiment, but I just know that it's going to be awesome.

[24:40] 100%. So for everyone watching, join us in the metaverse through Arium, September 10th to 24th, courtesy of Institute. Krista, it's been an absolute pleasure. I always love talking to you. Where can people find your work if they are not aware just before we close this out? Well, find me on Twitter, on Instagram. On Instagram, I'm at krista .kim. I'm on Twitter, I'm Krista underscore Kim. And my website is krista .kim. So simple. Everybody go look it up. Krista is, like I said, the queen of the metaverse at this point in time. So you heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen and everybody else. Krista, thank you again for doing this. I'm going to end this. And thank you everybody for watching. I appreciate it. This has been Institute. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

David Cash https://www.davidcash.ca