The Healing Garden of Gods, Taean — visitors' cushions rest in a field of glowing flowers beneath translucent blossom sculptures

Hayeon Shim 심하연 — Korean media artist & experience director

Building participatory worlds through theatre, AI, and immersive spatial media.

Practice

My practice begins with invitation. I design worlds where audiences move from observers into participants.

Working as a Director-as-Architect, Shim does not simply stage scenes — she designs the invisible architecture of gaze, rhythm, movement, atmosphere, and participation, translating theatrical dramaturgy into spatial systems.

Selected Works

All works →

Public / Commercial Art-Tech

Tongjeyoung: Light of Peace

2025

A ₩2B national heritage site transformed into a nine-zone digital theme park — one narrative of 'Peace and Return' told through holograms, facades, and light.

Isometric key visual of the six healing garden zones — The Healing Garden of Gods, Taean

Public / Commercial Art-Tech

The Healing Garden of Gods 신들의 치유 정원

2026

'You become a butterfly' — a six-zone immersive healing garden that drew 140,000+ visitors in its first month, the most-visited pavilion of the expo.

Public / Commercial Art-TechUpcoming

Infinity Forest

2026 (Upcoming)

An immersive night walk through a Gangneung pine forest, reinterpreting local myth through light — guided by the narrative of 'The Five Moons.'

Osam's Hideout entrance at night — starlit paw-print projections and LED facade, Gimcheon

Public / Commercial Art-Tech

Osam's Hideout 오삼아지트

2025–2026

A mischievous bear's secret hideout as a walkable children's museum — visitors wield a 'honey wand' to wake lights, hush guards, and uncover stolen treasures.

AI / Data / XR

If You Listen: RESONANCE BEYOND

2024

A multi-agent sound installation giving voice to non-human entities — stones, trees, birds — whose AI-generated monologues weave into a collective polyphony.

The Other Side of Seoul — long-scroll data artwork where suicide statistics become stars beneath the skyline

AI / Data / XR

BENEATH SEOUL

2025

The other side of Seoul — public mental health data rendered as stars and teardrops beneath the city's glossy skyline.

Experience Direction

From concept development to public delivery, Shim has led large-scale art-tech projects involving AI-generated visuals, holograms, media facades, interactive systems, and cross-functional production.

KRW 2–5B

Public project scale

130,000+

Visitors, single project

9 zones

Spatial narrative design

AI · Holo · Facade

Integrated media systems

Capabilities & case studies

Research

Current research explores AI-mediated dramaturgy, audience participation, and spatial systems for immersive worlds.

Director-as-Architect Audience as Participant AI as Co-Creator Spatial Dramaturgy

News / Updates

2026The Healing Garden of Gods (Taean Expo pavilion) draws 140,000+ visitors in its first month — the expo's most-visited pavilion
2026In production: Infinity Forest — immersive night walk in a Gangneung pine forest (PM & Concept Designer, Dotmill)
2025–2026Osam's Hideout — family interactive media art museum in Gimcheon: AI video design for the character world
2025–2026APE CAMP (Arts Council Korea) — participant, 2025 and 2026 programs
2025AI AS CO-CREATOR — in-house Generative AI masterclass for professionals at Dotmill
2025Tongjeyoung: Light of Peace opens — ₩2B national heritage media art, 130,000+ visitors

For exhibitions, commissions, talks, and collaborations —

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