KOCCA Music Studio opened in December last year by Korea Creative Content Agency / Courtesy of KOCCA

Metaverse, a term referring to a collective, virtual space that combines virtual and augmented reality, is becoming more prevalent in Korea’s arts and entertainment scenes, offering audiences a chance to comfortably enjoy artwork or performances in the digital realm.

Seoul Performing Arts Company, a state-run organization under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, kicked off a metaverse version of its musical “Lost Face 1895” on March 3.

The company announced late last month that it has joined hands with immersive storytelling studio GiiOii and SK Telecom’s metaverse platform provider ifland to build a 3D virtual space as a stage and digitally recreate the real-world play and its actors, using a volumetric display and AR technologies.

A local art management startup called Artscloud is preparing to launch the virtual version of its exhibition “Art in the Metaverse,” which is being held offline from January 21 to May 31.

The exhibition displays 110 pieces of art by 100 artists from 52 countries, including pieces of video art and other works that employ VR and AR technologies. The online exhibition will allow viewers to virtually explore the artworks via the Vertical Metaverse Platform. It is expected to officially launch in the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, the Korean Culture Ministry continues to strengthen the country’s competitiveness in the global metaverse market. It announced last December that it would allocate around 16.84 billion won (US$13.68 million) for metaverse content development investments this year.

Last December, the Ministry also held a star-studded metaverse concert called “K-Vibe Festa” to offer immersive performances of K-pop artists to global fans. The concert invited audiences around the world into its digital realms to enjoy different attractions like virtual traveling and extended reality (XR) concerts by top K-pop artists, including BoA, Aespa, Key of SHINee and rapper Wonstein.

The state-run Korea Creative Content Agency, under the Culture Ministry, opened its immersive music studio KOCCA Music Studio last December to offer high-tech concert experiences.

The agency initiated "ON THE K," a series of online immersive concerts, upon the launch of the studio and has been holding different virtual concerts with cutting-edge technologies to create metaverse experiences like XR, AR and immersive sound.

"ON THE K×Show Me the Money 10 Festival" held in late January is one such concert series that incorporates the latest technologies to offer an online immersive performance. In this series, contestants from season 10 of Mnet's popular hip-hop survival show "Show Me the Money" perform their hit songs and share behind-the-scenes experiences from the show.

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