Ulsan Art Museum to Open a Metaverse Museum in April
- First among Korea's public art museums to launch a metaverse venue, opening in April
- Plan produced by The Crossing Lab: visitors tour the galleries as avatars
- Copyright and administrative rules named as the main hurdles ahead
Ulsan Art Museum will open a metaverse museum in April, the first among Korea's national and public art museums to do so. The museum unveiled its opening plan on February 24, 2023, during a forum held at 1 p.m. in the multipurpose hall on the museum's first floor under the theme 'The Metaverse Museum: New Scalability and Possibilities.'
The plan was produced by The Crossing Lab. It shows a visitor entering the museum as an avatar and walking through the galleries to view the works. The museum intends to widen that experience over time so visitors can make 3D paintings, calligraphy and sculpture themselves and interact with artists.
Director Suh Jin-suk noted that most cyber museums at home and abroad remain focused on viewing alone. A metaverse museum, by contrast, can be reached by anyone regardless of distance or mobility, and works can move between online and offline settings — qualities he tied to the public access and sharing that public museums aim for. The hardware side, including the architecture, is already built; what exhibitions will fill the space is still being worked out.
The forum also flagged the obstacles. Beyond social norms such as artist contracts and copyright, administrative regulation was singled out as the steepest barrier. The closing panel brought together Shin Ji-ho of Konkuk University, Lee Seung-hwan, head of the metaverse research team at the Software Policy and Research Institute, Park Pyung-jong, HK research professor at Chung-Ang University, and Kim Dae-sik of KAIST, who discussed creation in the age of AI, the conservatism of the art world, and the strategy a metaverse museum will need.
Source : 울산매일(https://www.iusm.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=1009525)