Chung-Ang University’s Prof. Rhee Boa and her students Kim Kyung-joong, Park Ji-soo, Bae Soo-hyun and Lee Young-joo presented a media showcase “From Tangible to Intangible: A Media Showcase of Kisa chin p’yori chinch’an uigwe” at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in London, the UK, making valuable contributions to promoting Korea’s cultural heritage.
The showcase was presented under the collaboration with the British Library and LG Electronics in an aim to effectively promote Kisa chin p’yori chin ch’an Uigwe, which was taken from Korea along with the Oegyujanggak Uigwe by the French army during the 1866 French Invasion and is now in possession of the British Library.
Prof. Rhee’s team reinterpreted the Kisa Uigwe from a digital heritage perspective and created a digital image media work and AR gesture-based data visualization media work for five months by focusing on the expressions of the musical performances and instruments of the Kisa Uigwe, which is regarded as a valuable resource for the study of restoration and reconstruction of Korea’s traditional court music.
At the showcase, the visitors were drawn to images coming to life with vivid colors on LG’s Transparent OLED Signage and Signature OLED TV thanks to the AR gesture recognition technology exclusively developed by LG, which was used to deliver the meaning of the Uigwe more effectively.
The opening ceremony held on Jan 9 was attended by major officials from the cultural, arts and education sector and the participants were deeply impressed by the media work presented by Prof. Rhee’s team. Hamish Todd from the British Library which is holding Kisa chin p’yori chin ch’an Uigwe, emphasized the importance of the cultural asset and extended his gratitude to the students of CAU College of Art and Technology for their hard work and creative approach, highlighting that the British Library will further strengthen its the cooperative relationship with CAU College of Art and Technology. The participants from the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum were impressed by the exhibition techniques incorporating Korea’s state of the art technology and asked for close cooperation.
Prof. Rhee’s team planned to offer an opportunity to the public to experience cultural heritage through the convergence between the Kisa Uigwe and digital art. Through the convergence between visual storytelling techniques and advanced technology, the research team offered the participants an opportunity to have a whole new experience about historical and cultural events beyond just learning, which will remain as a meaningful achievement in the field of digital heritage and exhibition technology.
In particular, by using an AR gesture recognition technology, the research team designed their work to visualize data according to the finger movement direction of viewers standing in front of the display. Also, by applying a sound visualization technique, the images of the instruments used to celebrate JinChanYeon (a 60th birthday feast for the royal family) were broken down into small pieces along with the court music and moved in the audience’s hand movement direction, allowing the audience to be engaged in the event through the convergence between art and technology.
Kisa chin p’yori chin ch’an Uigwe is an illustrated Korean manuscript describing ceremonies conducted in the first month of the kisa year (1809) to mark the 60th anniversary of the consummation of the marriage (a traditional coming-of-age ceremony) of Lady Hyegyong, grandmother of King Sunjo. Chin p’yori means devoting clothes to the king and chin ch’an means a huge feast held at the royal palace to celebrate major events.
Among Uigwes, which are called the pinnacle of Memory of the World Register inscriptions, Kisa chin p’yori chin ch’an Uigwe is the oldest but best preserved chin ch’an Uigwe discovered to date. Prof. Rhee’s team successfully completed the visual storytelling media project, making substantial contributions to the promotion of Korea’s cultural heritage to the world.
The research team received a letter of appreciation from the British Library and the research outcomes were published by ASEAN Digest, increasing the international prestige of CAU College of Art & Technology. Click HERE to see the achievement made by Art & Technology students who successfully converged technology and cultural heritage through visual storytelling.