Past Exhibitions
In ancient Greece, science and art were deemed as a single concept. It traces back to a term that covered art and technology, “techne”, which was gradually transformed to “ars” in the Roman Empire and then separated into the “art” and “technology” we know today. Noteworthy here is that “techne" refers to not only the artworks as an outcome but also the technologies and craftsmanship that give rise to them. For the Greeks and Romans, the artist and scientist were not two separate occupations but two parts of a single entity.
The Greeks
were not alone in their pursuit of art based on science and technology and vice
versa. Albert Einstein, the founder of the theory of relativity, stressed that playful activities fueled by artistic
inspiration are important for the discovery of profound scientific
principles and rules. Manjul Bhargava, the winner of the 2014 Fields Medal
(known as the “Nobel Prize of math”), said in his acceptance speech that math
and art are in the same vein, especially given that the scientist’s quest for
answers to the question “Why?” is no different from the artist’s journey in
search of beauty.
In 2020, the
Lee Ungno Museum has prepared a special exhibition entitled “Lee Ungno with
Google Arts & Culture,” which proposes new ways to appreciate the infinite
world of imagination that Lee Ungno, a prominent Korean artist, so earnestly
worked to express in his creations, by employing some
of the digital technologies of the Google Arts & Culture platform.
The exhibition will show that, just as art and science were once one in the
past, this invaluable integration of the works of Lee Ungno and latest technology is only natural.
The Lee
Ungno Museum has adopted some of Google Arts &
Culture’s technologies in the actual exhibition space. Art Camera, the
ultra high resolution camera developed with Google technologies, was used to
give visitors a particularly vivid experience of things that are difficult to
see with the naked eyes—from a single, thin thread to the smallest of letters
written on a paper collage artwork—thereby shedding a new light on Lee Ungno’s
works. The museum also put significant effort into making their viewing
experience as fantastic and other-worldly as possible. The researchers from the
Visual Media Lab of KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology provided
technical consultation on how to maximize real immersive experiences in the
exhibition hall with Art Camera. Lee Ungno’s work, reborn as media art, will offer new insight to both those who are new to the
artist and those who already know him.
In each
exhibition hall, visitors will be able to enjoy the art of Lee Ungno in a whole
new way through several Google Arts & Culture technologies. Color Palette
uses colors to show how Lee Ungno’s creations are associated with artworks from
all around the world; Art Selfie deploys artificial
intelligence to match faces in artworks with photos; Art Projector shows
virtual projections of Lee Ungno’s artworks in their real-life physical
dimensions in the augmented reality; and Art Transfer transforms any photo into
an image in the style of Lee Ungno’s painting.
This
exhibition shows how the encounter of art and science is fun and delightful,
and gives everyone eye-opening experiences of beauty. Ultimately, we wish to
help visitors discover how technology links us with art and that the
technology, as a link, is already embedded deep inside our daily lives.
This summer,
immerse yourself in the world of Lee Ungno through this unique collaboration
between Google Arts & Culture and the Lee Ungno Museum.