K-Arts Art & Technology Lab Ignites the Future at '2023 Immersive Day' International Conference 

The Art & Technology Lab (AT Lab) under the K-Arts designated the date of 4 December as “2023 Immersive Day” and hosted an international conference on “Creativity in the Age of Machine Art.” The conference focused on how arts and technology together headed towards the future and discussed the tomorrow of related contents and advanced arts practices. In the meantime, the event was live-streamed online via AT Lab’s YouTube channel.

On the first day, after the keynote speech by President Steve Dixon of the LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore), Prof. Ryu Semi of Virginia Commonwealth University (USA) gave a presentation. The schedule that followed included presentations of a case study by Choi Minhyeok (an MA candidate of the School of Film, TV & Multimedia) who took an immersive performance lecture co-provided by K-Arts and Virginia Commonwealth University, another by Park Ark (an MA candidate of the School of Film, TV & Multimedia) who researched the integration of arts and technology in K-Arts and POSTECH, and the other by Lee Yundong and Kim Junwu (PhD candidates in Computer Science and Engineering in POSTECH).

On the day following, on the sub-topic of “K-ARTS X Ars Electronica Academy,’ Chief Curatorial Officer Martin Honzik, Daito Manabe, and Peter Freudling of Ars Electronica Center joined the event. Other guests such as Prof. Eugene Yang of the Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan) and Prof. Yeo Unseung of Ewha Womans University (South Korea) also shared their visions and opinions on the topic.

The AT Lab is a creative research center aiming to integrate scientific technology with arts and culture and industry with education. The virtual reality productions, “Scarecrow” and “Rainfruits” gained worldwide recognition, receiving invitations from or winning awards in the Sundance Film Festival, South by South West, Tribeca, Cannes XR, etc. Seeking cooperation with globally leading corporates such as LG U+ or TikTok, the AT Lab is leading the trends in creative activities in immersive media, medical services employing cutting-edge technology, and artificial intelligence content. Winning a fund from the Korea Creative Content Agency in 2021, the AT Lab is researching with POSTECH on constructing a metaverse using AI and immersive and virtual realities.