[Photo&] Cannes Film Festival Captivates With Korean Extended Reality…Floating, Meditative Experience

An overpowering sense of immersion that dissolves the boundaries of reality, ‘BOOOOOO-PEEEEEEEE’

The moment you put on the headset and the glasses set, the physical laws of reality break down. When you follow the instruction heard at your ear—“Make a circle with your fingers”—and draw a circle in midair, the audience enters a world of an entirely new dimension. The hands in the viewer’s field of view shift into four blunt frog-like fingers, and the torso disappears while remaining empty. Along with guidance that the body has been converted into data, a sweeping sense of liberation—like gravity has vanished—washes over them. This is the revolutionary spatiotemporal experience delivered by WooBoxStudio’s extended reality (XR) work ‘BOOOOOO-PEEEEEEEE’, invited to the immersive competition section at the 79th Cannes International Film Festival.

A fusion of virtual reality (VR) and air suit—going beyond the limits of sensation

In an instant, the exhibition space transforms from a torrent-like cosmic tunnel into a quiet lakeshore as water rises up to the tip of one’s chin. By combining virtual reality (VR) and an air suit, this work perfectly reproduces the sense of volume that virtual worlds can offer—and even triggers physical illusions so convincing that it feels like the viewer’s real body floats or their breathing turns faster. Amid low mechanical hums and collapsing boundaries, viewers experience a sense of wonder as if they’ve fallen into deep meditation. The work met audiences around the world this year at the Cannes International Film Festival, earning praise for its original sensory approach. In the immersive section spotlighting immersive storytelling that incorporates advanced technology, it secured a place as one of only nine competitive works, proving the strength of Korean media art.

Writer Woo Hyunjoo · Writer Park Jiyoon—questioning the interaction between technology and humans

The main figures they met at a booth at the French Cannes seaside Film Development Committee were Woo Hyunjoo, a media artist leading WooBoxStudio, and writer Park Jiyoon. The two—alumni of the Korea National University of Arts’ video design department—set up studios bearing their respective surnames and have built distinct artistic worlds. Writer Park Jiyoon said, “We wanted to convey the contrast between a dystopian worldview and the meditative sensations the audience feels, in the form of a physical ‘volume.’” She emphasized deep exploration of how technology and humans interact. Their core strength is a serious yet accessible narrative that the public can relate to.

Cannes’ hot response—leading to the next project through global collaboration

Three press screenings held at the Cannes Carlton Hotel sold out every session, proving global interest in extended reality (XR) art. Audiences immersed themselves in the work in a variety of ways, including making circles with their hands, dancing, and watching while lying down. Writer Woo Hyunjoo recalled, “The sight of 90 audience members experiencing the work at the same time was special in and of itself.” A successful Cannes debut became a powerful source of nourishment for WooBoxStudio. The studio is planning a next project in which multiple participants unfold a single narrative like characters in an online game, and it is expected to accelerate work on the production and ramp up efforts to secure investment through global collaboration with overseas creative teams.