News

2022.07.01

The Korea National University of Arts (President Daejin Kim, hereafter referred to as K-Arts), AT Lab’s creation <Ballet Metanique>, has been exclusively invited as the first university from Korea in the campus category to the 'Ars Electronica Festival 2022', taking place in Linz, Austria, from September 7 to 11. 

Started in 1979 and celebrating its 43rd anniversary this year, the 'Ars Electronica Festival' (hereafter referred to as Ars Festival) is a fusion art festival renowned for its history and tradition, often dubbed as the 'Cannes Film Festival of media art'. It showcases performances and exhibitions that merge cutting-edge technology with art. The festival, being one of the world's largest media art events, attracts over 200,000 participants online and more than 110,000 visitors on-site each year.

The campus category in which the K-Arts AT Lab’s work is invited is one of the sub-programs of the Ars Electronica Festival. It's an exhibition event where universities from around the world, operating technology/art interdisciplinary educational programs, and their students participate to share their skills. Esteemed interdisciplinary research universities like MIT Media Lab and Bauhaus University are participants, showcasing diverse achievements annually.

The immersive metaverse content <Ballet Metanique> (directed by Ark Park), which K-Arts AT Lab will present, is part of a research and development project under the 'Cultural Content R&D Specialist Training Project' led by the Cultural Technology Promotion Center, affiliated with the Korea Creative Content Agency. It's a collaborative creation by the team from K-Arts and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH, President Muhwan Kim), along with advanced content specialists Zipecrew and Birdhand. This fusion art piece, which combines ballet, a classical art form, with cutting-edge immersive technologies, incorporates a self-developed network performance system and haptic technology that vibrates in response to sound. It aims to provide the audience with a novel experience that transcends the boundaries of art and science, showcasing the results of ongoing R&D efforts.

Professor Sngmoo Lee of Korea National University of Arts (Department of Filmmaking at the School of Film, TV & Multimedia, Director of AT Lab), the chief researcher of the R&D project, stated, “This invitation is a testament to the accumulated content-driven R&D and creative capacity of the K-Arts AT Lab, the excellent research team from POSTECH and outstanding SMEs, and the active support of the Cultural Technology Promotion Center affiliated with the Korea Creative Content Agency. We will strive to ensure that AT Lab and the talented creators of K-Arts lead the way in developing next-generation content and art centered around the metaverse through interdisciplinary research with engineering schools, technical institutes, national agencies, and professional companies.”

K-Arts AT Lab is a creation and production research institute aiming for the fusion of science and technology with cultural arts, industry, and education. Its interdisciplinary virtual reality works such as <Scarecrow> and <Rain Fruits> have been invited to major international film festivals like Sundance, South by Southwest (SXSW), Tribeca, and Cannes Film Festival XR. They have won numerous major awards, including the top prize in the immersive media category at the Raindance Film Festival and the Best Technical Innovation Award at the Sandbox Festival. The lab has been actively collaborating with leading domestic and international companies like LG U+, SKT, and TikTok and conducting joint research in advanced interdisciplinary fields with technological universities like POSTECH and KAIST, leading global trends in the field of advanced content through the fusion of art, technology, and industry.

The invitation of the work <Ballet Metaniques> was made possible by the 'Cultural Content R&D Specialist Training Project' of the Cultural Technology Promotion Center, affiliated with the Korea Creative Content Agency. This R&D support project aims to cultivate advanced cultural technology professionals through supporting the development of fusion technologies between cutting-edge technology and cultural content genres. Korea National University of Arts is the lead research and development institution for this project, collaborating with POSTECH, Zipecrew, and Birdhand as joint research and development institutions. Currently in its second year, the project involves content-driven R&D course development and industry-academic projects, with about 30 students participating.