The ‘Media Wall at Gwanghwamun Square’, installed with 53m-wide Full HD panels, is a media art platform where citizens can enjoy media artworks. The Media Wall exhibits various media artworks created by artists and citizens alike all year round.
Media Art @ Haechi Lounge is presented every day from 8 AM to 10 PM.
As the 4th of the special exhibition series “Hi Ai!” scheduled to open in February, “AI to King Sejong” features hangeul—the Korean alphabet that is very familiar to us—in Gwanghwamun Square where the statue of King Sejong the Great stands. Leading Korean typo artists incorporate hangeul in unique ways in their works using AI.
“Soom”shows a virtual reality wherein a young AI character created as an English speaker learns Korean. The artist presents the mechanism of how the Korean alphabet was created in a modern, simplified context to fit the era and spaces where the work is shown. In the work, the AI character learns the underlying principle of hangeul, i.e., the consonants and vowels of the Korean alphabet that are combined to create syllables. As the learning process proceeds, the AI teaches itself how to put together syllables to make words and sentences. Eventually, the AI becomes able to use Korean creatively on its own instead of using real-time translation. The artist has created a new modern Ming-style typeface specifically for this project. This newly developed typeface is designed to keep the width of strokes and the proportion of consonants precisely controlled and balanced so that the beauty of hangeul is highlighted to the maximum on the giant media façade. Viewers can clearly appreciate the aesthetics of hangeul.
How to use AI
Once the video starts, 14 initial consonants of modern Korean are lined up in a row from ㄱ to ㅎ, and each of the consonants is combined with a middle vowel and then a final consonant to create a syllable. The syllables keep changing into new syllables through Chat GPT. Each time a syllable is presented, Chat GPT generates words and texts including poems and essays.
“Chukasamul”takes a close look at acts of “celebration” frequently associated with moments we want to remember in our lives and lets you get a glimpse of life in Seoul through the lens of celebration. The artist views objects involved in congratulatory acts as something that preserves our memories of important life events and reinforces our memory, and seeks to rediscover meaningful moments of life and relationships. The artist identifies 4 subtopics in connection with celebration: birthday, anniversaries, firsts, and beginning. These four topics share a common thread, but each of them includes different keywords. They repeatedly appear on the screen and slowly pass by on a horizontally stretching screen as the video is looped.
This work is intended to compare and contrast texts collected from social media that represent records by humans and AI-generated texts to create new experiences that are familiar and unfamiliar at the same time by combining emojis, photos, and other images that people use to record and communicate AI-created images.
How to use AI
The works include two types of Korean texts: hashtags created by people for social media and Chat GPT-generated hashtags. Chat GPT generated hashtags by collecting numerous different messages that people use to communicate their celebrations. These hashtags are laid out in columns to indicate the boundaries among the subtopics in the work. The texts come in different colors, sizes, and motions, revealing their uniquely different identity; at the same time, two texts appear to have conversations on the same topic. Some conversations are similar while others sound quite different, yet all the conversations are intended for viewers to follow each conversation and stay focused on it. The collection of images includes emojis and photos created by people and images created by Midjourney, the image-creating AI based on keywords. Thus, these images look familiar at first, but then you will find them unfamiliar if you look closely. With the application of animation effects, the typography and images appear to be spinning and floating around in the air, making the work fun to watch.
“Objets of Space”begins as the artist tells the AI-based language model GPT-4 to create a story. The artist uses the exhibition space measuring more than 5m as space and requests that GPT-4 create a story on space. After repeated rounds of questions and answers to test the creativity of AI, GPT-4 presents a story with itself as the main character. It starts the story as it says, “I am an AI-based language model but I am self-aware.” The artist asks GPT-4 numerous questions about the designs of Korean consonants and vowels used in the AI-generated texts, the “shapes, texture and colors” of the objets as she ollects various texts. The artist herself reated some of the images, and Midjourney was also actively involved to maximize the use of AI. As you follow the story created by GPT-4 from a first-person viewpoint, you can experience different visual spaces in space from the much broader perspective of an observer.
How to use AI
The artist combined and recreated the texts of the story created by the AI-based language model GPT-4. The artist tried to use the colors or texts recommended by GPT-4 via 3D modeling for objets representing Korean typography. Ideas from GPT-4 were used to express the changing colors of space and colors and texture of planets. For other objets, the image-creating AI model Midjourney was used. When using Midjourney, the artist sought to experiment with various prompts and come up with interesting images, based on descriptions offered by GPT-4. The artist constantly asked questions to collect texts and visual expressions and created his own images based on the collection. In addition, she maximized the involvement of AI by using Midjourney.
Ai to Art is the second exhibition in the Hi, Ai! Series, and is intended to pay homage to world-renowned artist Nam June Paik, who was the founder of video art. Artist Paik predicted the advent of the cyber age, and incorporated this genre into his works, causing a sensation with his experimental performances and exhibitions. The exhibition displays four works selected in the international contest “Nam June Paik: Post-Fluxus Sense” jointly held with G.MAP.
“Robots” is an animation created by Polish artist Ari Kykier, which was influenced by “Pre-Bell-Man” of Nam June Paik and the robots Paik created. Artist Paik created robots using a TV set, electronic elements, wires and metals. Based on Paik’s works, artist Ari Kykier made alterations to his own works, and attempted to depict the world of robots and electronic elements in the work while sharing the former’s vision, which has been clearly incorporated in it.
Artist Ari Dykier
Artist Ari Dykier is a Polish visual artist who creates live audio-visual performances by using surrealism as a mode of expression. The ultimate goal the artist wants to achieve in his works is to find the link between subconsciousness and what is inside our mind. He focuses on matching, installation, AR and immersive experiences, and constructs an uncanny world of art by employing collage, prompting spectators to take an unforgettable journey.
“Parasite Family” by artist Prapat Jiwarangsan was inspired by Paik’s works in which a variety of media interact and integrate with one another in a full embrace. Influenced by “globalization” and “the politics of mass media” as two of Paik’s key interests, artist Prapat attempts to tell a tale of “class identity” in his own work.
Artist Prapat Jiwarangsan
Artist Prapat Jiwarangsan is a visual artist. He received a master’s degree from Royal College of Art, and has been dealing with themes such as the memories of Thai society, political history and nationalism of Thailand from his unique perspective. He employs a variety of media in his works that feature the convergence of photos and videos. His works have been shown at exhibitions in Bangkok, London and Hong Kong and his video works were shown at Images Festival in Canada and the International Film Event of the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (Cndc).
Influenced by Paik’s drawings, artist Seung-kwan Noh presents Paik’s drawings in a playful light as if he was involved a collaboration with the latter. Just like Paik reinterpreted the meanings of objéts, videos and sounds that are commonly found in our everyday life to give them a new look, Noh incorporated traditional drawing techniques and AI into Paik’s drawings to create new works
Artist Noh
Artist Noh finds Korean alphabet charming and beautiful in the glow of neon signs, and performs experimental new media works using the entire city as a canvas. He views Korean alphabet not as a language but as something that has a personality. So, he features it as something that makes different movements to show its personality.
In his work “Dreaming Club”, artist Dabal Kim dismantles the traditional framework of clothes, presents a contrast between natural and man-made materials, and alters the dichotomous structure to work out a contemporary reinterpretation that is manifested in the form of a play. It aims to pay homage to artist Nam June Paik, a performance artist who dramatically visualized his works and expressed the myth of Hermaphroditus through dance together with traditional elements.
Artist Dabal Kim
Artist Dabal Kim has been actively involved in planning and carrying out workshops and art projects in various formats using a variety of media including paintings, photos, motion graphic, performances, fashion, 3D installations and films. Artist Kim has participated in many art residency programs at home and abroad, including the U.S., China, India, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Germany, Austria, Australia, Spain and Morocco. He has held 19 solo exhibitions including the exhibitions at Oil Tank Culture Park T1 (in 2022), Savina Museum (in 2019), Soma Museum Drawing Center (in 2012) and POSCO Art Museum (in 2010), and participated in more than 60 special exhibitions in S. Korea and other countries.
Interactive Contents
‘Interactive Content’ is a free participatory program open to all visitors to Gwanghwamun Square. Firstly, scan the QR code on the media wall using a smartphone. Secondly, send any drawing or photograph to the media wall to complete a media artwork.
This interactive media artwork represents a humorously imagined aqua world of Seoul, where ten million citizens live, work, and play, forming the global megapolis of Seoul. Like Seoul citizens with individualities, fish living in the wide and deep ocean love activities, communication, and interactions.