Hwaseong Dongtan Central Library 'Strata of Light' Exhibition: A Combination of Mother-of-Pearl Lacquerware and Generative AI

A media art exhibition combining traditional mother-of-pearl lacquerware and artificial intelligence (AI) technology is being held at the 'Forest of Knowledge' in Hwaseong Dongtan Central Library. According to a video from Culture Portal, this exhibition is a work that interprets the different times—such as the nature, history, and current appearance of Hwaseong City—as being layered together through the concept of 'strata'.

Mother-of-pearl lacquerware techniques and AI meet through the commonality of being a 'repository of memory'

Media artist Oh Ji-yeon, who planned the exhibition, chose 'time and memory' as the core theme of this work. The artist viewed the various temporal layers of Hwaseong City as one massive geological stratum and realized it as a space of light so that visitors could sense it. In particular, regarding the reason for choosing the traditional material mother-of-pearl, she explained, "Mother-of-pearl itself holds multiple layers of light, and it is appropriate for expressing the characteristics of different times depending on the craft technique used."

The interesting point is the method of combining the traditional craft of mother-of-pearl lacquerware with the advanced technology of generative AI. The artist mentioned that generative AI, like mother-of-pearl, possesses the character of a 'repository of memory' in that it also accumulates traces of numerous images and information to create new images. This is not simply intended to contrast tradition with modern technology, but is a choice to complete a single artistic narrative through the concept of 'accumulation of memory' shared by the two media.

AI is a 'translator of senses' that implements the artist's intention

In the working process, AI was utilized not as a simple result generator, but as a tool to concretize the artist's intention. Oh Ji-yeon stated, "I expected that AI would create new images that I had not thought of from the beginning, but in reality, it often showed familiar and universal aesthetics." Accordingly, instead of using the results made by AI as they were, the artist selected the necessary parts to perform 'Inpainting' or went through a process of partial generation and repeated modification to reconstruct them according to her intention.

The artist defined media art as "a kind of translator that changes invisible concepts into senses." She explained that the role of media art is to make abstract concepts such as time or memory directly experienceable by the audience through light, images, and movement. As the physical distance to implement ideas into actual works has shortened due to technological advancement, she emphasized the importance of using new technologies to put one's thoughts into practice.

This exhibition was conducted as part of 'Gyeonggi Art 31', an art support project targeting 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do. The artist conveyed that Hwaseong City was the optimal place for the artist to expand the theme due to its characteristics where nature, history, and the dynamic appearance of the city coexist.