BUST DOWN THE DOOR AGAIN! WITH DRUMS AND STRINGS GATES OF HELL-VICTORIA VERSION Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES

Professor Young Hae Chang, Korean artist, and Marc Voge, American poet, joined their artistic skills together to produce powerful graphic animations. They employed the Flash animation tool to combine color, text and music videos under the name Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. They produced BUSTED DOWN THE DOORS! in 2000. In 2004 they revised the original text color from red to black, added the Korean translation of the existing English text and changed the soundtrack (Tribe and Jana). The re-release of the video as BUST DOWN THE DOOR AGAIN! GATES OF HELL WITH DRUMS AND STRINGS-VICTORIA VERSION was a smart move by the artist. With the possible effect stimulating interest by allowing comparison of the two versions, they may have intentionally or unintentionally increased interest in the rest of the company productions. It did for me. Unfortunately, the complete original video of BUSTED DOWN THE DOORS! does not seem to be available and I found only a few frames of the original version to compare the two.










2000 version











2004 version
Forced by the rhythm of the music and the synchronized, rapid pace of the changing screens of black and white text, the VICTORIA VERSION is so powerful it raised my heartbeat and my blood pressure with the effort to keep up with the intense story of a midnight invasion by unknown armed assailants. Beginning with a dramatic numeric countdown I already felt some sort of increased tension. The dramatic story line is presented in capital letter of cold, harsh font. It elicits the fear-sensation that should accompany this terrifying tale. Without the drumming rhythm reinforcing the threat, some of the intensity may not have been captured. The unknown-ness of who the attackers were in BUSTED DOWN THE DOOR! made me question how safe I feel in my country, triggering an uncomfortable insecurity that I may not know all of the possibilities . The addition of the Korean translation suggested that perhaps raiders do bust doors down at midnight in countries like Korea which added to the nightmare-feeling.

The Brown University review of BUST DOWN THE DOORS! (2000) added an insight into one of the reasons for the videos’ effectiveness, pointing out Young-Hae Heavy Industries used the first, second and third person pronouns to afford more than one narrative perspective (Brown University).

The VICTORIA VERSION maintained the same text as the original but added a THE GATES OF HELL photo from Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries work installed in the Rodin Gallery, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea. The installation GATES OF HELL display consisted of red text of nine Internet refrigerators depicting the artists’ “unusual way of presenting Net Art. Advertisers would have us believe that the Internet refrigerator puts the housewife at the cutting-edge of modern, hi-tech life. We titled our piece THE GATES OF HELL because, on the contrary, we feel that their refrigerator helps keep women in the kitchen.”. While their opinion is appreciated on its own merit, the addition of the GATES OF HELL photograph as intro to BUSTED DOWN THE DOOR!, it
creates more questions than answers. They may have GATES OF HELL photograph
intended to use one piece of art to promote another piece
of their work but unintentional created confusion that detracts from the BUSTED DOWN THE DOOR! story.


The online version of BUSTED DOWN THE DOORS AGAIN! WITH DRUMS AND STRINGS THE GATES OF HELL-VICTORIA VERSION I viewed online at Young-Hae Heavy Industries website does not include the GATES OF HELL photo. They may have decided to reduce any confusion or distraction this color image created. Envisioning the color intro page as opposed to the monochromatic “YOUNG-HAE HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS” on the current intro page, I think it’s more powerful the way is currently presented.


Tribe, Mark, Reena Jana, New Media Art – Introduction. Available at https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/New+Media+Art+-+Introduction

Brown University (Anon). [Internet] Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Available at
https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Young-Hae+Chang+Heavy+Industries

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. BUSTED DOWN THE DOOR! WITH DRUMS AND STRINGS GATES OF HELL-VICTORIA VERSION. Available at http://www.yhchang.com/BUST_DOWN_THE_DOOR!_Rodin.html