Experience Korea's DMZ virtually in latest Google Arts & Culture project

Tech

Published: 22 Feb. 2023, 14:10 Updated: 24 Feb. 2023, 17:13

Experience Korea's DMZ virtually in latest Google Arts & Culture project

Google Arts & Culture's latest project "DMZ" is unveiled on the platform on Wednesday. The project is first in line to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War. [GOOGLE KOREA]

Care to take a stroll down Korea’s demilitarized zone (DMZ) — a no-man’s land that divides the Korean peninsula in half?

This has now been made possible, albeit virtually, through the “Korea’s Demilitarized Zone” project organized by Google Arts & Culture.

Google Arts & Culture, or GAC, is a mobile app and online platform that enables people to explore the world’s culture sites through an online archive containing some 3,000 cultural institutions worldwide, some of which are iconic cultural sites such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Royal Academy of Arts in London, or The Olympic Museum in Switzerland.

The DMZ project is the latest addition to the platform, in which GAC collaborated with 10 Korean institutions to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.

The project was overseen by the Ministry of Patriots and Veteran Affairs. Including the ministry, 10 institutions partook in the project, including United Nations Peace Memorial Hall, Provisional Capital Memorial Hall, National Institute of Ecology and The War Memorial of Korea.

The DMZ, a strip of land about 250 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers wide, is both one of the world’s most heavily guarded borders and also an ecological treasure trove home to hundreds of rare plants and animals. The existence of the zone itself is a symbol of the Korean War which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, between North Korea, China and the United Nations Command.

It’s not the first time GAC has collaborated with Korean institutions. The National Museum of Korea first showcased its collections on the online platform in 2012. Other collaborations include delving into Korean heritage dating back to the Silla Dynasty (58 B.C. - A.D. 935) and the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) with nine institutions. In 2020, it worked with the Lee Ungno Museum to showcase new stories and perspectives of the Paris-based Korean artist Lee Ung-no (1904-1989).

The senior project manager which oversaw all three projects, including “DMZ,” is Simon Rein, who’s been part of GAC from its onset back in 2011.

Google Arts & Culture's project manager Simon Rein speaks at the press interview in Google Korea's office in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. [GOOGLE KOREA]

“The way GAC works is that we develop a set of technologies for content hosting, curation and digitalization, then we offer these technologies to cultural partners, universities, archives and institutions,” said Rein in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the Google Korea office in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. “So we are in conversation regularly with cultural institutions, and the DMZ came up as a topic of interest in these interactions.”

The DMZ project began three years ago amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and Rein has overseen the entire thing online — his last trip to Korea was back in 2015.

The project scale is massive: Divided into three sections — history, art and nature, the “DMZ” project includes 60 online exhibitions and 5,000 historical records and stories related to the war and the zone.

Highlights make up a big portion of the history and nature sections. The former essentially tells people’s stories, of the young soldiers who participated in the war and the refugees who fled to Busan, which acted as the provisional capital during the war.

The nature section is a representative integration of Google’s technology with culture. Using Google Street View, users can take a virtual tour of the DMZ Botanic Garden and Yongneup, the only highland moor of Korea, situated within the zone. The team also recorded nature sounds for users to listen to for an immersive effect.

It’s the first time for such places to be showcased and preserved online, according to Google. The filming took time, Rein said, because perfect weather conditions and government approval had to be in sync.

"What I wasn’t initially aware of [before the project] was the natural beauty of the DMZ,” Rein said. “I pictured it more as a testament to conflict, which it obviously is, but it also has a beautiful environment and nature to offer.”

Some 1,000 images of plants and animals, some only spotted in the DMZ Botanic Garden, are accessible online through high resolution photos and 3-D modeling.

“In collaboration with the botanic garden, they have shared more than 1,000 images originally [photographed] for research purposes, which they have taken in a hard copy format,” Rein said. “Because of this project, they also designed it to make it accessible online.”

It's also the first time for photos from the garden to be shared online, according to Google Korea.

What Rein stresses is in line with GAC’s initiative, which is to make the world’s many cultures and its distinct narrative accessible to anyone, anywhere — from students to scientists and researchers.

Rein hopes the online archive can continue to grow and develop.

“What’s worth noticing is that when we do a project like this, it’s different than publishing a book. When you publish it, then you’re done, [but] sites like these live on. If, now, cultural institutions see the site [about DMZ] and if they have a story to share, it can keep on growing. That may not just be a Korean institution: Maybe an institution from the U.S. [can contribute] who has interesting perspectives to show or add to this place.

“I think this [platform] is the only place online you have all the curated experiences about [a specific] place — it's not just a few photos or data posted in the site,” Rein added, saying that school teachers often turn to the platform for assignments or use them as teaching materials.

Google Arts & Culture's project manager Simon Rein poses for the press in Google Korea's office in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday. [GOOGLE KOREA]

Rein sees Google Arts & Culture as an extension of culture the platform can offer, but he is more than well-aware that digitalization can never actually replace the physical experience.

“We never see it as a competition,” he said. “Digital and physical experience supplement each other, and obviously the Covid-19 pandemic was a very special time. We were happy to make a small contribution in keeping culture open during these times.”

As the pandemic subsides, GAC’s goal is to reach out to more institutions and its content using the adequate technology to enhance the digitalization process for GAC to become an online cultural hub.

“If we want to tell a certain story, what’s the right way of using digital technology? That’s the conversation most dominant when we talk to cultural institutions,” he said.

Google Arts & Culture is available through its website (artsandculture.google.com/partner) and app. The exhibitions are available in both English and Korean.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]