KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 26th that Empty Garden – A Liminoid Journey to Nowhere in Somewhere (2020), a doctoral thesis by media artist and KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology Professor Jinjoon Lee, has been officially acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, for its permanent collection and exhibition — through formal purchase, not donation.
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean Museum is the world's first university museum, operated by the University of Oxford with over 340 years of history. It predates the Louvre (1793) by 110 years and the British Museum (1759) by 76 years, and is regarded as the starting point of European Enlightenment scholarship. Its collections include masterworks by Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Turner, alongside ancient artefacts and East Asian ceramics and paintings — over one million objects in total.
The Ashmolean is not simply an exhibition venue but an academic institution integrating collection, research, and education. Unlike Tate Modern, which engages with the contemporary art market, or the British Museum, which displays national heritage, the Ashmolean's core mission is scholarly preservation and research. The acquisition of Professor Lee's doctoral thesis here signifies that Korean aesthetics and philosophical thought have entered the public record of European intellectual history.
Professor Lee's PhD thesis Empty Garden reinterprets the concept of uiwon (意園) — an imaginary garden cultivated in the mind by Joseon-era scholars — through contemporary data and media language, proposing 'data gardening' as a methodology for tending to the philosophy of emptiness. It is a work that continues to ask fundamental questions about human sensation, memory, and existence, even within an environment dominated by AI and data.
The 10-meter hanji scroll format is itself a central feature of the thesis. As readers engage with the text, they are naturally led to move through space — physically enacting the East Asian garden tradition of 'wandering' (거닐기). The work is designed not merely to be read but to be experienced through movement and contemplation. The thesis was produced as nine hanji scrolls in total; one of these has been acquired by the Ashmolean for its permanent collection.
This thesis received unanimous 'No Corrections' approval at its DPhil in Fine Art examination at the University of Oxford in 2020, recognising its academic rigour and originality — an achievement completed in just two and a half years, where the process typically takes over four. It is an extremely rare distinction even within Oxford's 900-year history, and drew significant attention at the time.
Oxford doctoral theses are typically archived at the Bodleian Library as academic records. This acquisition is entirely separate from that process: the museum conducted an independent five-year review following the award of the degree, assessed the work on its artistic and scholarly merits, and made a formal purchase. The inclusion of a living artist's doctoral thesis in the permanent collection of the world's oldest university museum through purchase — not donation — is exceptionally rare.
Professor Shelagh Vainker, Alice King Curator of Chinese and Korean Art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, stated:
"I am delighted that the Ashmolean Museum has been able to acquire Dr Jinjoon Lee's Empty Garden for our permanent collection. The long, contemplative scroll breaks new ground in so many ways: in the materials and techniques employed, in the breadth and depth of cultural and intellectual knowledge embedded in it, and in the complexity of the presentation of different spaces — all providing the viewer with multiple perspectives and experiences. Empty Garden is the first piece by a contemporary Korean artist to enter the collection; when not on display it will be available for viewing by appointment."
— Shelagh Vainker, Alice King Curator of Chinese and Korean Art, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Professor Lee noted that during his doctoral research at Oxford, a serious leg injury left him using a wheelchair for an extended period, during which he reflected deeply on the relationship between movement, stillness, and thought. He stated: "In the age of AI, art cannot remain confined to immaterial images on screens. Data and images can only acquire depth through material forms capable of enduring time and preservation."
He further expressed his hope that Empty Garden, now housed within the public collection of Western intellectual history, would "serve as a continuing reference point connecting East Asian thought — including that of Korea — with new sensory frameworks for the age of artificial intelligence."
The first practicing artist to be appointed as a tenure-track professor at KAIST, Professor Lee currently holds concurrent positions as Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford, Visiting Senior Researcher at Tokyo University of the Arts, and Adjunct Professor at New York University, continuing interdisciplinary research across art, technology, and the humanities. Most recently, his work has drawn international attention from arts community, including Good Morning, Mr. G-Dragon, a space art project based on the iris data of K-pop artist G-Dragon, and Cine Forest: Awakening Bloom, an AI-based media symphony at Bundang Central Park in S. Korea.
This acquisition is an exceptionally rare case of a doctoral thesis entering the permanent collection of the world's oldest university museum through formal purchase, and a historic event in which a work by a contemporary Korean artist has entered the Ashmolean's collection for the first time. Korean research that poses new questions about the role of art and the humanities in the post-AI era has now found a permanent place within the public record of Western intellectual history. (End)
※ Professor Jinjoon Lee's website: https://leejinjoon.com/
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