Shinsegae Square Media Art Awards celebrates K-heritage

The first Shinsegae Square Media Art Awards concluded with 18 winning works selected from 168 entries. The competition, a collaboration between Shinsegae Department Store and the Korea Heritage Service, focused on the theme ‘King Sejong, the Beginning of Creation,’ tasking creators with reinterpreting national heritage data through digital media art.

The Grand Prize in the original category was awarded to ‘The End of Night, the Beginning of Time’ by Bokbok Studio (Kwon Seol and Lee Ji-yoon). This anamorphic media art piece visualizes the creative spirit of King Sejong by tracing the exterior and internal structure of the Jagyeongnu, a water clock invented under his command.

Winners were chosen across two categories: the original category, featuring 30 to 90-second anamorphic works, and the template category, featuring 5-second clips. The winning pieces will be showcased on the large media facade at Shinsegae Square in the Shinsegae Department Store main branch throughout September. The initiative aims to promote K-heritage and Korean cultural values to a global audience by combining traditional history with modern digital technology.