Arts Korea Lab

A journey into the highlights of ecosystems around art and technology, XR projects, and art companies from South Korea.
If you ever wondered what trends, developments and phenomenons are at the intersection of arts and technology in South Korea, one of the spotlight of NewImages Festival 2024 was the presentations of Arts Korea Lab.
Arts Korea Lab is a quite young institution established at the end of 2023, but has already started to make an entrance in the networks of creatives. Interestingly, it has a larger focus on projects at the intersection of arts and technology and sciences, which includes XR projects as well, but also has the aim to develop the bigger art-tech ecosystems that includes art startups and companies. We were curious to find out more of its vision, plans for the future, and how it will support artists. As such TechvangArt talked with Haein Choi – the Team Lead of the Art & Tech Innovation TF at Arts Korea Lab (AKL) by KAMS.

I'm representing Arts Korea Lab division of KAMS (Korea AWS Management Service), established in 2006 as a public organisation operating under The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea.
Our mission is simple but very vital to invigorate our circulation and foster the growth of Art company through diverse initiatives. Last October in Seoul, we opened a space called ''Arts Korea Lab'', a supporting platform for art industry(artists and arts companies
So we are a support platform dedicated to pioneering and amplifying new artistic artistic endeavours with technology.

Art Expands, Sustainable Future is our slogan

Located in the bustling Gwanghwamun area, known for its abundance of cultural arts organizations and commercial enterprises, the ”Arts Korea Lab” aims to ensure easy access for artists and art businesses. Spanning across 4,010 square meters, it also offers a variety of experimental spaces for artists and Art Companies.

Arts Korea Lab serves as a support platform dedicated to pioneering and amplifying new artistic endeavours, with the vision to serve as a HUB for Discovering, Experimenting, Realizing and Disseminating innovative arts, bringing creativity with industrialisation.

Arts Korea Lab have quite a generous offers toward artists and art industry professionals, that can be resumed around 4 key words

Maybe one of the most interesting is the fact that ”Arts Korea Lab” offer an experimentation and test-bed facility.

“We made a survey on artists if you want to use technology () and their answer was “I want to fail. I want some playground to play with the technology and do lots of stuff without a guarantee of success”, explained Haein Choi.
… and this experimentation-offer is crucial, so that artists can play around with technology, get to know its potential, but also limitation, and get a phase. Even though the program opened in October, the Super-testbed was offered even before for artists, because we wanted to give artists the opportunity to test, to fail, but do lots of experiments using this kind of technology”, added Haein Choi.
And after experimentation, comes expansion by using technology into creation and productions. As such at this phase, several creations in the early stage were presented to international audiences. “But, we realized that we cannot do we cannot make this change and move forward alone. We are trying to expand our international partners, like institutions or arts groups who want to work with Korean artists as well”.

”Arts Korea Lab” has successfully cultivated partnerships with prestigious entities in the arts and culture community, including the esteemed NewImages Festival, as well as renowned events such as Sonar Barcelona. Moreover, the organization has fostered collaborations with networks in Singapore and Thailand, solidifying its position as a key player in the global art scene.
Our team has conducted a small research regarding the programs that take place in the ”Arts Korea Lab” and we have uncovered the profound synergy within the Art Lab community, where experts have cultivated a remarkable bond to foster unparalleled cooperation and collaboration among artists and art companies

So what is actually the structure and value proposition of the ”Arts Korea Lab”?

The Arts Korea Lab is aimed both for Artists and Art Companies. 

For Artists

For the artists who seek to use experimental approaches to their creative process with technology, Arts Korea Lab offers a comprehensive programme starting from education, grant giving for the prototypes and promotion and distribution. 

“Starting from the education and giving grants for the prototypes and after, we are giving opportunities to promote their work, having a debut or example in France, or find distribution opportunities. This is the way that South Korean Art Labs is supporting artists. Also, if there are ideas to have co-productions with Korean artists, we will be very open to listen to this kind of project” said Haein Choi. 

This year, 6 Korean artists were presented at NewImages Festival 2024, who were supported also via grants to make prototypes, education, mentoring, and the opportunity to present their works globally. 

The Korean artistic projects were presented at present at NewImages Festival 2024, XR development market and out-of competitions section:

Realism and anti: PROTAGONIST
Participants engage in an immersive VR performance, using their mobile phones to interact and save Prometheus from his binds, based on Aeschylus ‘ ‘Prometheus Bound ” enhanced by gyro sensors to enhance realism.
Director: Hyoungjun Kwon

Storytelling in the Metaverse: Fail Again, Fail Better
Fedora, the fictional city from Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’ is recreated on Spatial, where participants embody Marco Polo to explore and share tales of mystical cities, navigable with VR devices.
Director: Moonyo (EunJung) Lee

GOYO Meditation Planet (interview coming soon)
Silent planet offers an XR art meditation experience inspired by Korean culture, blending technology, live performances and exhibition to facilitate introspecting and self discovery.
Directed: SPACE MOUM, Soojin Pray. SeoRyoung Kim

When we encounter
An audience participatory sound interactive media art project using Kinect sensors to capture and project real time images and sounds, fostering a community exploitation of visible and invisible, invisible, invisible elements in our surroundings. dissected project love key.
Director: Project lowkey: Suejoung So. June Won Kwon

Untile the end
The movie invites viewers to practise with the protagonist struggle against societal pressure , becoming active participants. In their journey toward breaking free from isolation and finding their own path
Director: UDN ( Jumyung Yoo, Nahyeon Kim, Yeji Kim, Minji Deo, Jeonghyeon Kang)

Dani: The portrait of a Beauty
Presented at SXSW 20024, XR Spotlight, this VR experience directed by Cooper Yoo, transports users to the Joseon Dynasty era through Shin Yunkok’s genre painting, depicting daily life in the 1700s.
Director; Cooper Yoo

 기어이 GiiÖii– immersive storytelling studio – connects virtual and reality creating the experience where the audience walk into the new world and become part Giioiii is always open to diving into the adventure of blending storytelling with art technology and different cultures exploring a wide range of art forms and immersive technologies. The studio aims to inspire a sense of wonder. Throughout the content and experience, the studio produced our immersive content and multiverse experience pioneered the future of entertainment to produce.

Shall We Stick Together AR
It aims to revive the sense of love by discovering and following courageous gestures of love. Using AR technology, marker images reveal unstable beings which resemble swaying branches, barely recognizable from certain angles. Because of the instabil
Director: Yebin imuiui Lee/ Producer, Rene Hyewon Lee

“We supported 40 artists last year and 5 of them got a chance to participate in the NewImages Festival, and two of them have funds to transition to the production stage. So this kind of continuous support of our programme, that we designed at the moment” highlighted Haein Choi.

In addition, if the prototypes transition to a production stage, Arts Korea Lab will make the necessary connections to other Korean Funds to support these types of more elaborate activities.

Support programs – For Art Companies

Arts Korea Labs offers support programs to art start-ups as well – art start-ups being defined either when the founder is an artist or their business models impact the art world.
Residency support
For the art companies, a 3 year residency support is offered (office support), alongside business consulting and open innovation workshops, mentorships, etc. During their stay, art companies are involved also in an acceleration support program, and are offered networking opportunities.
Space availability
Space availability is determined by individual assessments and involvement in projects, and entry and collaboration opportunities are facilitated through public competitions. Currently Arts Korea Lab offers dedicated offices to 20 art companies and shared spaces for 5 teams.
Scaling-up Opportunities,
Related to scaling-up opportunities, Haein Choi explained that not all companies are aimed to scale internationally, some are small art companies that have a business model focused on the local landscape.

ArtS Korea Lab – Next plans and… the FUTURE FestivalS

If you are curious, what are the next plans for the Arts Korea Lab…
“The next education program will start in June and then they are going to have their first prototypes until November and then next year, we're going to have another long term support phase like this, global distribution and also production” specified Haein Choi.

Furthermore, art aficionados and enthusiasts alike should mark their calendars for an exciting event coming up in November 2024.
Arts Korea Lab is organizing a Festival that Unites artists, technologists, scientists, and industry itself.
So, we will keep an eye on the “Arts Korea Lab“.. for updates and announcements as we unveil more details about this exciting event.

The countdown to November 2024 starts now