Media Art Exhibition at Incheon Airport – Korean Traditional Culture Combined with Technology

The arts have the power of making us empathize and communicate beyond time and space. It also gives us new perspectives for perceiving objects and circumstances. Lately, with the combination of technology, it has become possible to appreciate cultural arts from a multidimensional perspective.

Incheon Airport prepared a special exhibition for all travelers who have been feeling trapped amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a media art exhibition organized in collaboration with Amorepacific and Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (SFAC), reinterpreting the traditional culture of Korea from a modern perspective. Let’s dive into it and find out more!

Screens Seen From a Different Perspective

This media art exhibition is part of the “2020 Sulwha Cultural Exhibition,” a mécénat program under the auspices of Amorepacific’s main beauty brand Sulwhasoo. The brand has been hosting this annual event since 2006, reinterpreting the traditional culture of Korea from a modern perspective and realizing communication and understanding among generations.

This year’s exhibition is themed The Screen, Overlap of Traditions and Modern Society. It makes use of the screen as a space where tradition is reinterpreted and a medium through which tradition and modernity can be seen simultaneously. Just like how our ancestors gazed through screen windows to view sceneries, this exhibition makes use of the screen as a window to modernity through media art technology!

Incheon Airport will be exhibiting two main pieces, one at a time, on the large media wall at Terminal 1 and the Transportation Center, from January 1st to March 31st, 2021. Let’s take a look at what the pieces are and who created them.

Media Art Exhibition 1) Pivotal Tree

Pivotal Tree is an exhibition that serves as a modern reinterpretation of the tree of life as a symbolic objet that represents the wellbeing of a chaotic and unstable society.

Pivotal Tree also signifies “long life” and “space for communication,” and it has been created as an interactive content to express these vital meanings through media art. This piece installed inside Incheon Airport makes us believe as if a real and enormous tree has taken root indoors.

The Pivotal Tree in the screen is not evergreen; it changes along with the four seasons—sometimes wet under the rain, and sometimes white covered in snow. After the leaves fall in winter, sparkling text grows from the bare branches as if new leaves are sprouting.

These texts are actual wishes left by actual people on the Pivotal Tree website (https://www.pivotaltree.com)! You can see just how interactive it is, right? Pivotal Tree, to which our ancestors made their wishes, has been transformed to a modern media art to console our souls.

The promotional video of this media art exhibition is also eye-catching. A dance performance of the Ambiguous Dance Company that drew a lot of attention with the “Feel the Rhythm of Korea” campaign is featured with the Pivotal Tree in the background.

The dance was inspired by “Dangsanje,” a traditional festival that our ancestors observed wishing for a good harvest. It was expressed with modern choreography and props. Thanks to the dance, the media artwork stood out well featuring the traditional culture of Korea.

The Pivotal Tree is designed by Pivotal Lab, a special group created to participate in the Sulwha Cultural Exhibition. Jang Su-ho (Visual Art Director), Yoo Jae-heon (Creative Art Director), and Chu Bong-gil (Media Technical Director) got together to create this artwork that mixes virtual and real life. They brought life to this piece by combining art with technology under the theme “reinterpretation of Korean tradition.”

Media Art Exhibition 2) Jeong-Jung-Dong, Dong-Jung-Dong

The second piece is “Jeong-Jung-Dong, Dong-Jung-Dong.” This AR piece presents floating images that make visitors experience themselves becoming one with art. The images constantly shift from 3D to 2D, from matter to non-matter, and from existence to non-existence.

After a 90-second video clip is over, the subjects inside the video appear to vanish along with the artpiece. However, the artist applied artificial reality having visitors encounter bits of the artpiece from around the exhibition. Just like the once popular Pokémon GO, visitors can scan hidden image tags to see the art pieces again. They get to explore real space overlapped with images, feeling the afterglow of the screening.

This piece is created by media artist Lee Ye-seung. Lee has held several solo exhibitions, including The Green Cabinet (2014) and Moving Movements (2015). Lee was an artist-in-residence in domestic and overseas institutions, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2011), SeMA Nanji Residency (2013-2014), Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (2015), Asia Culture Center (2016), and ZERO1NE (2019). Currently, Lee is exploring future scenarios of technology-based art, and “Jeong-Jung-Dong, Dong Jung Dong” is one of them!

“The year that we longed for consolation more than ever. Hoping for visitors to interact through the large screen in the city, and for us to get back to our peaceful lives.”

Today, we went over the media art exhibition in Incheon Airport as part of the 2020 Sulwha Cultural Exhibition. We saw how Incheon Airport is collaborating with various arts institutions to become a cultural venue. Incheon Airport will continue to provide visitors with bountiful and rich cultural experiences and become an airport of cultural arts. Stay tuned for more art-related posts! 😊

Worry-Free Parking! How to Use Incheon Airport’s Long-Term Parking Lot

How do you get to Incheon Airport? You can use public transport, such as AREX and limousine bus, or you can drive your own car. As of recently, many people have been driving to the airport due to COVID-19 and worry about where to park their car.

What if you need to park while you’re not just visiting the airport for the day, but gone away for a long period of time during your travel or business trip? Many visitors are probably familiar with Incheon Airport’s Short-Term Parking Lot, but did you know about the Long-Term Parking Lot? In this post, we’ll cover in detail how you can use the parking lot and even reserve a spot via Incheon Airport’s parking reservation services!

Make a reservation in just a few clicks!

Incheon Airport launched its parking reservation services in November of last year. Now you can park your car at your desired time regardless of parking lot congestion! Anyone can use the services to reserve a parking spot, and reserving is as easy as pie.

For starters, go to Incheon Airport’s parking reservation website (http://parking.airport.kr/reserve)! You can access the website on mobile and make a reservation on your smartphone. You can the check the parking lot location by selecting your terminal and parking lot. You can also select your dates of entry and exit when you reserve to check parking availability.

Click next, then enter your license plate and phone numbers. Voilà, your reservation is complete! If you want to check, change or cancel your reservation, click on Check/Change/Cancel on the website.

Key points to know before reserving!

Anyone who parks for 3 days or longer can use Incheon Airport’s parking reservation services, but make sure to check the instructions!

For your reservation period, you can make a reservation 3 to 45 days before your preferred date. For your use period, you can use the parking lot for 3 to 30 days.

Parking fees are the same as the currently charged rates (KRW 1,000 per hour/KRW 9,000 per day). You can pay fees at an unmanned payment kiosk or manned payment booth.

If you do not use the parking lot after you have made a reservation and you repeat 2 times or more in a year, there is a penalty that bans you from using the reservation services for 3 months.

Now, you don’t have to worry about how and where to park your car when you will be away for an extended period of time! If you don’t wish to take public transport and instead drive to Incheon Airport due to COVID-19, make sure to use Incheon Airport’s parking reservation services for your convenience!

Incheon Airport Recognized For Its Eco-Friendliness

Do you remember that we talked about Incheon Airport’s eco-friendly vision and strategy in the previous post? As ambitious as the vision sounds, the question now is how to implement it well. What if we told you that Incheon Airport not only takes eco-friendly action, but has also been accredited by external organizations? 😉 Today, we are going to talk about Incheon Airport’s eco-friendly management, certifications and awards!

Airport Carbon Accreditation! Renewed ACI accreditation level of OPTIMISATION

Incheon Airport has produced various outcomes under its strategy of advancing eco-friendly management by 2020. To begin with, Incheon Airport has yet again earned the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) level of “Optimisation,” assessed and recognized by Airports Council International (ACI).

ACA is a voluntary participation program adopted by the ACI Europe Annual Assembly in 2008, which began for climate change response in airports.

It is an international certification that evaluates the ability to manage and reduce carbon footprint of international airports. It is divided into four levels—Level 1 of “Mapping”; Level 2 of “Reduction”; Level 3 of “Optimisation”; and Level 3+ of “Neutrality”—granted depending on the level of greenhouse gas management in airports. It is quite a big certification system as 237 airports from 60 countries around the world participate.

Incheon Airport was the first airport in Korea to acquire ACA Level 3 of “Optimisation” in 2014, and earned it yet again in 2017. Level 3 is very significant, which means all carbon emissions related directly and indirectly to airport operations have been tallied and managed to strategically manage carbon. In the future, Incheon Airport will continue its various efforts, such as expanding green aprons to reduce fuel and replacing old freezers with highly efficient ones. We hope Incheon Airport can continue to maintain Level 3!

Systematic environmental management with ISO certification!

Incheon Airport obtained environmental management system (ISO 14001) certification for airport construction in 1998 and operations in 2002. Incheon Airport has also continued to maintain and improve its environmental level by implementing the requirements of ISO specifications. In addition, the airport ensures an acceptable environmental management system through post-certification review and re-certification by external certification agencies.

Incheon Airport has also completed review for the re-certification of the energy management system. With the introduction of energy management system (ISO 50001), which provides an overall operation system for greenhouse gas energy targets, Incheon Airport is committed to its responsibilities as an eco-friendly management company.

Incheon Airport obtained preliminary certification in the building category February 2012 for the first time in the world, acquired official certification in June 2014, and completed re-certification review in May 2017.

Rigorous energy management, minimizing energy waste with LED lights!

Incheon Airport has greatly improved energy efficiency with eco-friendly LED lights, which improve efficiency by 13-25% without using mercury and discharge gases. Since 2009, it has replaced old lights with LED lights, which allowed the airport to reduce energy greatly. As of the end of 2019, the replacement rate of high-efficiency LED lights has reached 97%. The airport effectively manages energy by minimizing factors that can potentially waste it.

On top of that, the airport greatly contributes to expanding the supply of renewable energy by increasing solar and geothermal power generation. It also operates the energy storage system (ESS), which saves energy during off-peak hours and provides efficient energy during peak hours.

Green airport with highest G-SEED grade!

Incheon Airport’s Terminal 2 and front-end facilities obtained Green Grade 1, the highest grade for Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED). Transportation Center 2 and Government Agency Building 2 in Terminal 2 obtained the highest grade in preliminary certification at the end of 2013 during their design phase. In 2018, the airport finally acquired the highest grade in G-SEED after the main certification review. In particular, it had a perfect score in the categories of materials, resources, and maintenance!

Terminal 2 has made multi-faceted efforts to establish eco-friendly conditions, including daylighting, ventilation and insulation design, as well as using the latest energy-efficient LED lights and renewable energy, such as solar and geothermal power, and incorporating eco-label products and green space for over 26% of the land area. By doing so, Incheon Airport’s Terminal 1 has become an eco-friendly facility with improved energy efficiency by over 40%!

Today, we have looked at Incheon Airport’s performance in environment friendly management. You can see now that Incheon Airport delivers outcomes backed by its continuous actions, not just words, right? That is why we are looking forward to the future of Incheon Airport, seeing its continued actions as an eco-friendly airport! 😊

Bird Strike – Why Aircrafts Are Afraid of Birds

Question! What do aircrafts fear most? Storms? Turbulence? No, it’s actually birds! In fact, there was an incident where birds as small as a human forearm could have claimed 155 lives.

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549, which took off from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, lost power in both of its engines after it struck a flock of birds. It occurred just 2 minutes after take-off.

This accident, where the pilot fortunately made an emergency landing on the Hudson River and saved everyone on board, was adapted into the film Sully: Miracle on the Hudson.

This phenomenon where an aircraft strikes a flock of birds is called a bird strike. Bird strikes occur quite often all around the world, costing more than KRW 1.3 trillion annually. Curious as to how and why birds much smaller than aircrafts cause such powerful damage upon impact? Let’s find out!

What makes a bird as light as 1.8 kg a 64-ton airborne bomb?

Airborne birds have what is called relativistic kinetic energy and the faster an aircraft the more powerfully it strikes birds. So, if a bird weighing 1.8 kg strikes an aircraft flying 960 km/h, it creates 64 tonnes of impact. As mentioned earlier, such incidents may lead aircrafts to crash or perform an emergency landing.

Then, why don’t birds just dodge the massive aircrafts headed straight at them? Birds are naturally programmed to avoid obstacles and even predators only if it comes within 30 meters. In other words, they do not respond to objects further than 30 meters from them. It takes only 0.3 seconds for an aircraft flying at 290 km/h to cover 30 meters. You see, bird strikes are near inevitable as it happens almost instantly.

Incheon Airport has around-the-clock bird control personnel?

What a scary thing bird strikes are! But rest assured!

While Incheon Airport saw 17 cases of bird strikes occur in 2019, there was no airplane damage or flight disruption. Currently, Incheon Airport has 30 employees designated to scare away birds around the clock. These employees are veterans professionally trained and qualified with a hunting license.

To supplement the shortcomings of hunting rifles, Incheon Airport introduced ultrasonic bird repellers, which emit sound waves to drive away birds, and successfully showed a demonstration of bird control with Korean drones in 2018. Drones were able to confirm the possibility of bird control by surveilling birds’ flying routes, and served as an opportunity to increase expectations about the usefulness of drones in places like swamps or bushes where it is difficult for people to access or visibly identify birds.

Moreover, Incheon Airport takes the lead in preventing bird strikes by conducting habitat surveys to fundamentally stop the entry of birds while in close collaborative relationships with bird control experts and relevant institutions as well as academia.

Want to learn more about Incheon Airport’s bird control activities? Go check out Incheon Airport TV!

Today, we looked at the meaning, significance and risks of bird strikes, and Incheon Airport’s efforts to prevent them. Incheon Airport will work harder to ensure and manage flight safety for passengers’ safe air travel!

Checkup Before Your Departure! COVID-19 Screening Center in Incheon Airport

Preparing for travel used to be full of excitement, but now passengers must take the utmost caution for safety. There are many things to note for your departure due to COVID-19. Some countries require arriving travelers to present a certificate of negative COVID-19 test result and other documentation for proof of health in addition to your passport.

But there is good news! Incheon Airport has set up a special place to alleviate your departure process and ensure your safety with its COVID-19 Screening Center, the first of its kind in airports nationwide.

Incheon Airport’s COVID-19 Screening Center, which begins operations starting December 31, offers one-stop services for passengers to easily and conveniently get tested for COVID-19 before departure and obtain a certificate of negative test result along with other documentation. Feel free to visit as the screening center complies strictly with COVID-19 guidelines for disease control and prevention!

Now, let’s delve into visiting the center and using its services.

One-stop services from COVID-19 testing to documentation!

Incheon Airport’s COVID-19 Screening Center provides services in 6 simple steps from reservation to medical certificate issuance.

You can make a reservation to get tested on our website a day prior. Those who want to receive same-day testing can schedule a test on the spot. While reservations must be made by the person getting tested, you can make a reservation on behalf of up to 3 people that are minors or elderly!

Wait! Don’t forget to bring your passport and ID when visiting the screening center.

When you visit the center, you will get two types of diagnostic tests: PCR* and antibody tests.

(1) PCR test

PCR test is globally considered the “gold standard,” and it is also used in screening clinics and hospitals in Korea. A cotton swab is inserted in your nose or throat to collect a sample, from which ribonucleic acid (RNA) is extracted and amplified to check whether two or more genes characterizing COVID-19 are positive.

(2) Antibody test

Antibody test is conducted with an intravenous blood draw since it determines the presence of antibodies in blood unlike other COVID-19 tests. A subject is considered to have immunity if antibodies are formed. It can also track whether you have been infected previously, so it can be used as a measure for herd immunity. It helps to establish more effective disease prevention and control measures.

Incheon Airport’s COVID-19 Screening Center is operated together with Inha Univ. Hospital, which has accumulated professional experience and competent skills from its operations of Airport Medical Center in Incheon Airport.

However, COVID-19 tests are intended to check the health status of people departing for other countries. So, please note that it may differ from typical tests designed for people with COVID-19 symptoms or those who have come in contact with COVID-19 patients.

Test results are sent via SMS text messages, and you can receive a medical certificate by visiting the COVID-19 Screening Center.

How much does the test cost?

You may be wondering about how much it costs. Fees are categorized by medical consultation fees, test fees, and health certificate fees. Medical consultation fees and PCR test fees differ depending on whether you are a Korean national or non-Korean. Medical consultation fees also vary depending on whether it is a weekday or weekend. Make sure to check for the exact fees before scheduling a test.

While test fees may be subject to change, PCR test costs KRW 80,000 and antibody test costs KRW 50,000 based on fee-for-service. Also, please note that a copy of a health condition report form will incur additional cost!

When can I check my test result?

Bear in mind, screening results are not instantaneous. We advise that you contact the COVID-19 Screening Center and check in advance how long it will take to get the result for each test before you depart since the result waiting time varies depending on the test!

While antibody test results take about an hour, it takes at least 7 hours for PCR test results to be ready.

Only those who receive a PCR test between 9 AM to 10 AM can receive the results by 5 PM or later on the same day. It’d be best to receive a test in the morning for those who have to depart on the same day!

The results of any PCR test taken after 10 AM are provided at 9 AM or later on the next day. So, keep this mind for your itinerary!

*You can only schedule a test on the spot by 5:30 PM. Please note that no test can be scheduled after that deadline.

 

Where is the COVID-19 Screening Center located?

Incheon Airport is establishing an outstanding disease prevention and control system in the frontline of COVID-19. The COVID-19 Screening Center is expected to establish a safer environment to use the airport and improve user convenience.

Furthermore, Incheon Airport’s COVID-19 Screening Center will also play an important role in a special immigration procedure implemented by the government to restore flight demand. It will become one of the pillars in airport disease control infrastructure to review new immigration polices like travel bubble, which alleviates immigration requirements, such as 2-week self-quarantine for travelers for preventing COVID-19.

Safety is our number one priority! We will work harder to make Incheon Airport safe!

 

Make a reservation for COVID-19 Screening Center