PROJECTS

The Art and Technology Lab (AT Lab) of the Korea National University of Arts (President Kim Daejin) presented its hybrid metaverse performance <Scarecrow H> produced by AT Lab from December 16th to 18th at COEX Hall C, Samsung-dong, Seoul, during the 'K-Metaverse Expo & K-metaverse Festival,' which lasts for three days.

This event is the first domestic metaverse exhibition organized by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and AT Lab was invited by the organizers to perform.

<Scarecrow H>, which had its world premiere at the Design Museum, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, in November, recorded a sold-out run for its 91st performance. The performance is a recreation of 'Scarecrow VRC', which received three awards at overseas film festivals, including the ‘Spirit of Raindance’ at the Raindance Immersive 2020 and the ‘Breakthroughs in Storytelling Awards’ by the Columbia University School of the Arts Digital Storytelling Lab, and Best Technology Innovation Award at the Sandbox Immersive Festival (SIF), Beijing. It is Korea's first hybrid metaverse performance, allowing global users and actors to connect simultaneously within the virtual reality and co-create the performance on the social VR platform 'VRChat'.

Co-directed by Professor Lee Sngmoo of Department of Filmmaking at K-Arts and Director Jung Jihyun, this work garnered praise from overseas media, including Forbes, which lauded it as "a magical experience shedding tears inside the headset," "a beautiful and hopeful experience that allowed us to enjoy live theater even in the pandemic era," "a work ahead of its time," and "one of the most vivid digital experiences among digital content in history.“

Professor Lee Sngmoo, the creator of the work, stated, "As Mark Zuckerberg said, 'The best way to understand the metaverse is to experience it firsthand.' I hope this performance provides a meaningful opportunity for us to directly experience the new artistic creation platform called the metaverse, which was previously just a discourse without substance, and to gauge its limitless possibilities."

The AT Lab of Korea National University of Arts is a research institute for creation and production, aiming to merge science and technology with culture and arts, as well as industry and education. Its works <Scarecrow> and <Rain Fruits> have been invited to major advanced film festivals around the world, including Sundance, South by Southwest (SXSW), Tribeca, and Cannes Film Festival XR, winning numerous awards. Collaborating with domestic and international companies and research institutes like LG U+ and TikTok, the lab leads the global trend in immersive media and advanced medical and AI content. In 2021, it was selected for the 'Cultural Technology Graduate School Leading University' project by the Korea Creative Content Agency, conducting research on content metaverse construction using artificial intelligence and augmented reality, in partnership with POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology).

https://youtu.be/Pd42qR2B6Sw