Nerf This — herrwook

Wook Seo

Wook Seo (Hyunwook Seo) is a visual artist based in Seoul and New York, who refuses to be confined to a specific culture or style, positioning himself as an intermediary in the gaps between boundaries. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in Metal Craft from Seoul National University and later received an MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Following this, he participated in a residency program at Flux Factory in New York, where he engaged in various collaborative projects and exhibitions.

Recently, he has been devoted to adding narrative layers to the imaginations he builds within digital spaces, materializing them through carefully chosen mediums, and presenting them to the audience. The physical entities he creates pull viewers into the digital realm, inviting them into his narratives regardless of their generation or background knowledge.

CV

Project

Haphazrd
Trickster
Fantasy

TRICKSTER Nerf This

BACK

TRICKSTER
Nerf This

 2017.01.28 - 2017.01.31
 Installed at Flux Factory, Long Island City, NY

 2017.01.13
 Performed at Park Chuch Co-op, Brooklyn, NY

DESCRIPTION

The term "nerf" originated as gamer slang—specifically from online gaming communities—to describe the act of weakening or downgrading the power of a character or item through software updates or patches. Over time, the term has been adopted more broadly, entering everyday language as a metaphor for any reduction in effectiveness or impact.

This project references the game Overwatch, and in particular the character D.Va, a professional gamer-turned-soldier who pilots a high-tech combat mech in the game. Her narrative blurs the boundary between virtual skill and real-world military prowess, closely resembling the role of real-life drone operators who use gaming-like interfaces in actual warfare.

The phenomena that occur within online games are not isolated from real life. In fact, they often influence and are influenced by reality—especially through the visual language and logic of digital environments. The 3D graphics in games are not bound by real-world physics. Machines do not require energy flows or mechanical logic to function; they simply need a role or purpose. This imaginative freedom within digital space often reverses direction and begins to inform how we think about or interact with the real world.

This project explores that fluid boundary—between digital creation and physical manifestation. I conducted live 3D drawing sessions on the walls of music performance venues, interacting in real time with live musicians. I also experimented with distorted screens and asynchronous data mapping to create structural forms that were relatively free from the constraints of physical laws. These actions allowed me to test the limits of reality’s rules by importing the flexible logic of the digital world into the physical.

In essence, Nerf is a study of how the logic, aesthetics, and behaviors born in virtual spaces seep into, reshape, and redefine our physical reality—and how, in turn, physical creation can feed back into the digital.