The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) and the Korean Creative Content Agency (President JO Hyun Rae, KOCCA) unveiled the second edition of the “Age of Light” (Gwanghwa Sidae) to the public on January 14. The newly opened ‘Gwanghwawon (Media art)’ and ‘Gwanghwain (AI information center)’ welcomes the viewers with a various immersive contents and experiences. MCST and KOCCA planned the project to raise awareness on the immersive contents with using the state-of-the-art technology and promote the well-developed Korea’s technology and culture.

‘Gwanghwawon’ is a garden of restoration at the city center for people to relax and take rest. With the three sub themes of ‘Light of Light’, ‘Light of Communication’, and ‘Light of Eternity’, the eight immersive visual arts are available for providing people for rest, relaxation, and meditation. Via the 5G mobile communications, people can feel and enjoy media arts using images and sounds of the nature that changes based on real-time weather conditions (wind, temperatures, and etc). People can also enjoy the piece of art from famous media art group 'Universal to Universal' and German media artist Timo Helgert.  

‘Gwanghwain’ is a space where deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology is integrated. After filming by synthesizing the video and audio of a real person, the person was reborn as an AI human through deep learning. Visual model images provide a special experience as if you are having a face-to-face conversation with a real person in the same space. People who will experience the intelligence technology can communicate with the AI models on cultural heritages near Gwanghwamun and tourist attractions in four different languages (Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese). Minho from the group 'SHINee' participated as the Korean model for the AI person and Maria, who is well known for the popular TV program 'Miss Trot', took part as the English model, attracting a huge attention from fans at home and abroad even before its release to the public.

‘Gwanghwawon’ and ‘Gwanghwain’ are open all year round after opening on January 14 from 10AM to 10PM. However, due to the prevention of COVID-19, only those who have completed vaccination or those who have a negative PCR test can enter the space. ‘Gwanghwawon’ limits the number of people to a maximum of 10 people for each time slot and ‘Gwanghwain’ allows four people to enter every 15 minutes. Pre-reservation started from January 12 10AM via the official website of Gwanghwa Sidae (www.gwanghwasidae.kr). All visitors must strictly follow the quarantine guidelines, including filling out an electronic entry list and checking body temperature.