TheCrossingLab Presents Metaverse Art Platform 'One of Us'
- CEO Shin Ji-ho was interviewed as part of NIPA's metaverse specialist company program.
- The company was developing AI that gives avatars automatic emotional expression and social gestures.
- One of Us was still in beta, with museum and gallery collaborations underway.
On October 19, 2022, Electronic Times covered TheCrossingLab as part of its series on companies selected for NIPA's metaverse specialist company program. The piece is a four-question interview in which CEO Shin Ji-ho describes the company and its product. He said the company was building an AI-based system that makes avatars display emotions and gestures automatically during social activity, and named high graphic quality and artwork as what sets the company apart from other technology firms.
The metaverse art platform One of Us is positioned around realistic graphics capable of reproducing artworks faithfully. What distinguishes it from other metaverse galleries and exhibition platforms, the interview said, is that it aims to be a social platform. Visitors enter as avatars to talk with artists, form patron-artist relationships, and build arts and culture communities, so a visit is not limited to a one-off viewing.
The interview grouped the platform's benefits by three parties. Artists can show and sell work to more people at lower cost than physical space, without limits of time or distance. Viewers can see exhibitions from outside their own region, or from other countries, in one place. Galleries can archive and re-show past exhibitions that would otherwise be dismantled for the next one, and can communicate and trade with collectors worldwide.
At the time, One of Us had reached beta and was in collaboration with museums and galleries. After a full launch, the company said it planned to host art fairs and performance events inside the platform and to run a system connecting artists with patrons. Its stated end goal was a metaverse environment that lowers the barrier to creating and sharing, making art and culture easier to enjoy than in the physical world.
Source : 전자신문(https://www.etnews.com/20221019000086)