Scarecrow VRC by K-ARTS Art & Technology Lab Goes to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris

From upcoming July 6 to July 16, Art & Technology Lab (AT Lab) in the K-Arts unveils a virtual reality(VR) immersive performance content Scarecrow VRC in the exhibition “Korea: Cubically Imagined” at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The event will also present director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019) in VR and K-pop star BTS’s performance in extended reality (XR). The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the department for cultural diversity convention of the UNESCO Secretariat co-host the event to celebrate the “International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development” designated by the United Nations. The event raises the expectation to share with the world Korea’s imagination on content creation in the post-Coronavirus era.

The participants of Scarecrow VRC wear their VR headsets and access to VRChat, an online social platform. Once they enter the uncanny and bleak hyper-realistic space, they befriend and cooperate with the scarecrow to take back the villagers’ hearts stolen by evil firebirds. At first, Scarecrow VRC was the VR film Scarecrow produced in the “Advanced Research on Cutting-edge Content Project.” And Scarecrow received invitations to the “New Frontier Exhibition” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan. Later it was adapted into Scarecrow VRC, the first metaverse interactive performance in Korea. Gaining an acknowledgment as a work that is “simply ahead of its time,” Scarecrow VRC won the Spirit of Raindance Award at the 2020 Raindance Immersive, UK, and Storytelling Awards granted by the Columbia University School of the Arts Digital Storytelling Lab (DSL).

Director Lee Sngmoo (professor of School of Film, TV & Multimedia) stated, “In the metaverse where contract-free content becomes the key, I believe we can help people around the world contact and network with each other through realistic media. And ‘connecting people’ is one of the most important topics we face today.” He also added, “We will keep working on producing content integrating art and technology that can lead the global trend.”