Daejeon Museum of Art

by Lee Won-kon, Shin Bo-seul et al
Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea, 2005
224 pp., illus. col. N/A, np
ISBN: 89-92017-04-9.

Partially reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium

stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be

In the wake of its commercial and industrial development, the Korean city of Daejeon has tried to establish itself as (another?) centre for new media art in Eastern Asia. In the lively Korean art scene, that is no mean feat. Seoul has its own media art biennial, and other cities are just as hard trying to get themselves on the map. But Daejeon is ambitious, and it set the stage for an equally ambitious festival, organised by the local Museum of Art. In 2005, the museum hosted the FAST festival and conference: Future of Art, Science and Technology. In the margin of FAST, a colloquium was organised about the future of media art in Asia in general and the role Daejeon Museum of Art could play in its development in particular.

The first half of this book is a presentation in Korean of the collection and the history of the Daejeon Museum of Art. The second half contains the talks, or rather the presentations that have been given at this colloquium, in Korean and in English. It includes mainly overviews of the situation of new media art in some Asian countries (Korea, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines) and some musings over what to do to promote or support media art.

The book is about 80% percent in Korean, so I suppose it is targeted primarily at a Korean readership. For the interested English reader, it is advisable to visit the Daejeon Museum of Art website (http://dmma.metro.daejeon.kr) and maybe the city’s site (website www.daejeon.go.kr) and have a look at the FAST festival catalogue, which is reviewed elsewhere in Leonardo Digital Reviews.