WEBZINE ACC

‘Hindu Culture’

Jack Frost finally left the city, and the weather was fine. It was a good day to enjoy a visit to an exhibition. I was looking forward to this one, in particular, because it was a chance to experience Hindu culture firsthand. I had gotten a few glimpses of the culture through other media, but never in the form of media art. I was also excited at the thought of experiencing the Asian classic Ramayana for the first time. With anticipation and excitement, I hurried to the permanent exhibition hall at Library Park in ACC Archive & Research.

‘The Road of Ramayana’ Review

As soon as entering the exhibition space, I was greeted with cutting-edge multimedia technology. The ACC researched and searched for Asian epics that incorporate various world views across Asia, and created six “Roads of Asia.” The first is the Road of Ramayana, which highlights the epic Ramayana, which originated in India and spread across Southeast Asia. Ramayana means the Life of Rama.
The exhibition hall consists of the Media Wall, the AR Experience Zone, and kiosks with a virtual reality (VR) user interface. Inside the exhibition hall, I saw a girl. She must have come with her mother to see the exhibition. With her face mask on, the girl hopped around the exhibition hall before stopping all of a sudden. She stood before the Media Wall that covers the entire wall on one side. Her eyes were riveted to the wall, as if watching a cartoon. The lively music and the colorful graphics were enough to attract anyone’s attention, let alone that of a little girl. The media wall showed illustrations that summarize the life of Prince Rama. The modern-style illustrations provided a concise insight into his life in a way that visitors can understand it without prior knowledge.
After the introduction to the Indian epic, I headed to the AR Experience Zone for some hands-on experience. It was one of the moments that I was looking forward to. After turning on the tablet in the hall, I stood at the Spot Zone. The AR Experience Zone realizes the augmented reality (AR) technology. The AR content on Prince Rama’s adventures consisted of seven stories, including his childhood, his exile to the forest, the war, and the final victory. Each visitor was instructed to seven markers on the tablet on the graphics projected on the wall in the right order to move on to the next graphic. The next stop was the AR Photography activity. Choose a character on the screen, take a picture, and enter an email address to receive the picture taken with the character. It was one of the many exciting and joyful experiences that the exhibition offers. For people having difficulties with taking selfies, there are exhibition staffs at the site to ask for help. So, it is highly recommended for anyone visiting the event.

Media Wall

The kiosks with VR user interface (UI) provide detailed information about Ramayana. The kiosk offers a user interface in the form of a virtual exhibition hall. The virtual space provides an immersive sense of depth so that the visitor feels like they walked into the space themselves for other vivid experiences. The information researched and collected by the ACC is conveniently grouped into five categories: background information, Ramayana in media, characters, story, and architecture. To give you a pro tip, you can also find the virtual exhibition hall on the ACC website. Visit the virtual hall before visiting the actual space, and it will help you understand the background and the content of the work.

AR

Kiosks

‘Dharma’

Another main focus of the exhibition is “dharma.” Dharma represents the world view that permeates the epic. In Indian myths, time does not flow linearly from the present to the future, but creation, preservation, and destruction go in circles like a wheel, because each god plays its own role and turning this wheel of dharma. Good and evil also have their respective roles in this cycle, and dharma equally applies to all beings of the cosmos. Leaving the exhibition hall, I felt that dharma still is at work in today’s world. I took some time to look back on my life, thinking about the many roles that I must be playing now. I hope that this review on The Road of Ramayana will give you a chance to ponder the question of dharma as well.

• Written by Beom Yeong daphnestory20@naver.com
  Photography. Hwang In-ho photoneverdie@naver.com
  
  2022.2