Professor Lee Jin-jun from KAIST and G-DRAGON (Professor Kwon Ji-yong from KAIST) collaborated on an emotional space experiment that transcends the boundaries of science and art.
The KAIST Art and Technology Center (Director Lee Jin-jun) announced on Apr. 9, 2025, the successful presentation of the scientific art project 'Good Morning Mr. G-DRAGON,' which produced an AI art piece based on G-DRAGON's iris data in collaboration with Professor Lee Jin-jun, a KAIST Graduate School of Cultural Technology professor and world-renowned media artist, and G-DRAGON, an icon of global K-POP.
This project is part of Professor Lee Jin-jun's large art project 'Open Your Eyes,' which explores human emotions through the human eye with AI, completed as the world's first art-science fusion space transmission experiment in collaboration with G-DRAGON, the KAIST Space Research Institute, TX LAB, Galaxy Corporation, and Ama Studio.
This project, which has drawn attention as 21st century communication art inheriting Nam June Paik's 'Good Morning Mr. Orwell' (1984), is regarded as a case that expands the experimental artistic spirit in which Paik connected the world using satellites to the technologies of the 21st century. At that time, Paik humorously twisted the prophecies of a dystopian future, proving the possibilities of art. More than 40 years later, Lee Jin-jun attempted to interpret the fragments of emotion, existence, and perception through the most intimate sensory organ, the 'eye' of humans, and transmit them into space via satellites.
Professor Lee Jin-jun noted, "If Nam June Paik connected the Earth, I am sending questions beyond the Earth. I am excited to ponder what encounters with the unknown await us far beyond the universe."
The work 'Good Morning Mr. G-DRAGON' examines the emotional universe within humanity using generative artificial intelligence technology based on G-DRAGON's iris images. A visual image metaphorically representing the Big Bang of the universe was projected onto a space antenna using projection mapping technology, and G-DRAGON's music 'Home Sweet Home' was transmitted into space through the satellite technology of the KAIST Space Research Institute.
This transmission is linked to the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) 'Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)' project. SETI is a historic project that transmitted music from the British rock band The Beatles and American rapper Missy Elliott into space, making the G-DRAGON space audio transmission project the first SETI project in South Korea.
This project does not merely remain a technical achievement. Professor Lee Jin-jun pointed out, "Today, we live confined within structured perspectives, systems, and invisible algorithms, existing in an era where even our identities are permitted to breathe only within predetermined frames." He emphasized, "In an age of discrimination, hatred, division, and controversy, algorithms define individuals, and platforms fragment emotion and identity. In such times, art should restart hopeful discussions about community and existence from a cosmic perspective, transcending the earthly view."
The on-site reactions were enthusiastic. The AI video based on G-DRAGON's iris images and sound art utilizing the sound data from the millennia-old Emile Bell combined with transmissions to space, offering an emotional artistic experience that transcended time and space. In this context, G-DRAGON expressed, "If the emotions of someone living on Earth can wander through the universe and eventually touch someone else's heart, it could be a profound comfort that reaches far."
[Photo] KAIST
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