KAIST launches Korean rapper G-Dragon’s music into space

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) has launched the music and iris image of G-Dragon, a Korean rapper and singer-songwriter, into outer space via satellite, marking the world's first transmission of music based on media art into space, according to the country's top science institute.

Lee Jinjoon, a new media artist and professor of KAIST’s Graduate School of Culture Technology, on Wednesday successfully transmitted the artist’s music and biometric imagery to the space satellite as part of a collaborative media art initiative, said KAIST’s Satellite Technology Research Center.

The project, titled "Emotive signal expanding the human inner universe into the external cosmos,” brings together KAIST’s advanced space technology, Professor Lee’s generative AI-driven media artwork and G-Dragon’s voice and music.

Lee heads the Art and Technology Center at KAIST. G-Dragon also serves as an adjunct professor at KAIST’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The rapper’s track "Home Sweet Home" was transmitted into space via the antenna of South Korea’s second-generation small satellite, launched aboard the Nuri rocket in May 2023. The satellite was developed by KAIST.

“The iris is often referred to as the mirror of the soul,” said Lee. "Through this work, we wanted to express the infinite universe viewed through the inner world of humanity by following G-Dragon’s gaze."

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.