Sangyeo – Digital Metempsychosis

“Sangyeo – Digital Metempsychosis” is a 35-minute live audiovisual performance that reinterprets Korean traditional funeral rituals through a contemporary digital framework, based on research into the evolving forms of conventional ceremonies.

We explore how rituals once regarded as solemn and sacred—such as funerals and memorial ceremonies—are becoming blurred and transformed in the context of the AI era and Industry 5.0.

The performance merges “Sangyeo-sori,” the traditional funeral chants sung during funeral processions, with game-inspired and digital soundscapes. Symbols of longevity and immortality from Korean traditional patterns are reimagined as AI-generated visual language and 3D digital models, depicting a speculative posthumous journey of the soul in the digital realm. The act of physically carrying the coffin—once performed communally—is replaced by drone operation, symbolizing contemporary realities such as population decline, nuclear families, and increasing automation.

This multidisciplinary work experiments with how forgotten rituals might be revived within digital virtual spaces. Grounded in a diasporic perspective, it proposes a new vision of Asian future aesthetics. Through its layered composition of sound, drone movement, and digital visuals, the piece explores the concepts of “afterlife” and “transformed tradition” through a hybrid narrative structure.

About Oriental Melon

“Oriental Melon” is a Berlin-based hybrid audiovisual artist duo from South Korea, composed of Jaeho Hwang and Sena Oh. We reinterpret traditional metaphors through a future-oriented lens, merging cultural heritage with digital media across sonic and visual platforms. Grounded in a diasporic perspective, our work experiments with futuristic narratives of East Asian identity and seeks to envision new aesthetics for an Asian future.