The Hyundai Project: Art + Technology

In March 2015, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(hereinafter "LACMA") and Hyundai Motor announced a 10-year partnership with a shared vision which includes the support of Art + Technology efforts. World renowned artists, Random International and Diana Thater start the series of exhibitions to come to LACMA. The exhibitions part of the LACMA and Hyundai partnership confirmed until 2024 will invite artists from all over the world who investigate two significant fields of our time - art and technology - and address the intersection of the two fields.

At Hyundai, we firmly believe that any advancement in science and technology is best founded upon people-centered thought. We look forward to sharing LACMA's creativity-driven exhibitions and programs in Art + Technology which will all come under 'The Hyundai Project'.

All exhibitions presented through 'The Hyundai Project' are selected through deliberate discussions at the museum, and by principle, Hyundai Motor will exercise absolutely no influence over the decision-making process. As the presenting sponsor, we clearly recognize the confidence and command and deeply respect the decision of the museum.

Additionally, Hyundai will participate in LACMA's 'Art + Technology Lab', which offers the platform for artists to experiment with emerging technology. The lab provides grants, in-kind support from leading companies and facilities to develop prototype projects. Through Hyundai's support, the Art + Technology Lab will be sustained through 2020 and it is our hope that the public will be offered chances to imagine the future brought on by the convergence of art and technology along with the artists.

Meanwhile, you can check out now how programs supported by Hyundai is realized in terms of efforts at the museum - “sharing and openness”, “technology and art”, “a holistic view of the past and the future” - through the <HYUNDAI Meets, The Hyundai Project 2015: Art + Technology at LACMA>.

<HYUNDAI Meets, The Hyundai Project 2015: Art + Technology at LACMA> is the fourth episode of the 'HYUNDAI Meets' project, which was brought to you to share the innovative exhibitions and works presented by international artistic directors and the insights of masters of the contemporary art. Please explore the first Art + Technology exhibitions, <Rain Room> by Random International and <The Sympathetic Imagination> by Diana Thater with our HYUNDAI Meets fourth episode.

Random International, the London-based artist collective, is the artist group for the very first exhibition presented as part of 'The Hyundai Project'. The large-scale installation <Rain Room> comes alive creating a space within the museum where water falls continuously.

The exhibition space houses a continual downpour, visible, audible, and even a hint of the downpour tangible to the nostrils. Visitors step through the ever-falling curtain of water, but not a drop hits the body. Standing inside the <Rain Room>, one can hold out a sheet of paper in the surrounding downpour and not get a single drop on it. The piece was shown at Barbican's Curve Gallery in 2012 and at MoMA the following year, captivating record number of visitors from across the globe. As the first exhibition of the Hyundai Project, 100-square-meter field of rain has come to LACMA to create another overwhelming experience for the audience.

The <Rain Room> allows visitors to walk through the rain without being drenched. The immersive experience not only features the actual water falling around but also the sounds of heavy rain that surrounds the audience offering a fantastic illusion. Visitors can move freely in the room as the work uses 3D tracking cameras that follow visitor movements and relay information to a contraption that block the rain from falling in the paths of people. The <Rain Room> shares the fantastic interactive relationship between light, water, sound and human movement. Random International collective uses science and technology to explore associations of natural phenomena with behavior, responses and intuition. The creative ideas imagined by the three designers of Random International are brought to life through varied combinations of art, design and state-of-the-art technology. Through this process of manifesting ideas, the collective presents well-polished viewer-participation installations in terms of technology and art.

The founding directors of Random International, Stuart Wood, Florian Ortkrass and Hannes Koch, studied at the Royal College of Art in London and established the studio in 2005. Additional members joined along the years, and this has allowed the studio to create even more technically sophisticated works. The <Rain Room> exhibition at LACMA which opened on November 1, 2015 was planned to finish on April 24, 2016, however it has been extended until November 22 2016, thanks to the incredible response from the public.