Cine forest: awakening bloom

Following his pioneering Space Transmission Project Good morning Mr. G-Dragon with K-pop icon G-Dragon—which fused biometric data–driven performance with the transmission of G-Dragon’s music and voice into outer space—internationally acclaimed media artist and “Data Gardenist” Jinjoon Lee is set to premiere the world’s first large-scale, AI-driven media performance, transforming an urban forest into an immersive open-air theatre in South Korea.

Titled Cine-Forest: awakening bloom, the free public event will run from September 19 to 21, 2025, at the Bundang Central Park Outdoor Stage, introducing a new form of media art where technology, nature, and humanity converge. At the same time, his solo exhibition Champagne supernova is currently on view in Seoul, captivating audiences with the unveiling of his new AI-driven hybrid collage series, Nine reincarnation, created in the post-digital era. Together, the performance and the exhibition present a comprehensive opportunity to experience the full scope of his artistic practice.

At the heart of the performance lies a bold vision: to create a living “media symphony” of forest, city, and audience. It opens with a fairy tale about “a giant who became a star,” inspired by the legends of Pangu and Prometheus, whose breath and footsteps echo through the woodland and the surrounding cityscape. A multi-layered soundscape amplifies this story, combining a live 70-piece orchestra, a 1,000-voice citizens’ choir, and AI-generated harmonies. Field-recorded forest sounds, analyzed and recomposed by algorithms, intertwine with variations on beloved film sound tracks to create an organic soundscape that responds to audience movement and subtle shifts in the landscape.

Mapping 200 metres of natural terrain and capturing the forest’s contours and textures “as is” demanded unprecedented technical innovation. Earlier in 2025, Lee explored projection mapping in Good morning Mr. G-Dragon, a collaboration with K-pop icon G-Dragon that visualised the inner emotional universe of human beings. Building on that experiment, his latest performance deploys 16 ultra-high-resolution projectors (40,000–45,000 ANSI lumens)—the same technology used in Olympic opening ceremonies—to capture the forest’s finest details, from the grain of each leaf to the subtle movement of the wind. 3D Gaussian Splatting was used to scan the forest, while AI-assisted voice augmentation, VR-based simulations, high-powered lasers, fog, and advanced sensors merged to create a seamless, dynamic environment.

“Cine forest: awakening bloom is more than a performance to witness; it’s an invitation to linger and stroll,” says Dr. Jinjoon Lee. “It realises augmented empathy where every act of walking and breathing is woven into the narrative, and where nature and the city, technology and humans coexist organically."

Through Cine forest: awakening bloom, Jinjoon Lee pioneers a new form of public art that connects citizens, technology, and nature. By blending cutting-edge media with the vitality of the forest, Lee recreates a liminoid experience that has long been central to his artistic practice. Through the precise design of an “ephemeral performativity,” the work gives form to the boundaries of time and space. At its core, this AI-driven performance also explores the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and human creativity, challenging audiences to reconsider how technology can become a co-creator of cultural imagination. On 27 September in Guangzhou, Lee will further expand on these ideas in a public dialogue with Professor Biao Xiang, the director of the Max Planck Institute, bringing together the perspectives of an artist and an anthropologist to discuss the future of AI, art, and humanity.

Like an unfolding Oriental landscape painting, the forest becomes a Sansui media panorama, transforming a familiar everyday place into a wondrous scene that blurs the boundaries between fantasy and magic, technology and art.