K-pop artist G-Dragon
By Gil Kyuyoung
Photos = Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
K-pop artist G-Dragon’s music and an image of his iris have been beamed into space.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) on April 10 announced the completion the day before of a joint project for space sound transmission between professor Lee Jinjoon from KAIST’s Graduate School of Culture Technology and G-Dragon.
Combining science and technology, art and pop music, the venture was planned as part of the AI Entech project promoted by KAIST and Galaxy Corp., an artificial intelligence (AI) metaverse company.
Lee created the media artwork “Iris” using AI based on an image of G-Dragon’s iris as the background and combined it with an audio message from the artist’s new song “Home Sweet Home.”
The album was transmitted via the antenna of a next-generation small satellite that KAIST developed, and the video was screened on a 13 m-long space antenna through projection mapping.
The professor said, “Iris is called the ‘mirror of the soul’ as it reflects inner emotions and identity. Through G-Dragon’s gaze, this work seeks to express ‘the infinite universe as seen through humanity’s inner self.'”
“G-Dragon’s voice and music now have begun their voyage into space,” Galaxy Corp. CEO Choi Yong-ho said. “This project is an important act of preserving music as human heritage and attempting communication with the universe.”
The media artwork “Iris” is screened using space antenna projection mapping by KAIST professor Lee Jinjoon.
gilkyuyoung@korea.kr
