GWANGJU.- In 2025, the National Asian Culture Center and ACT Festival celebrate their 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, ACT Festival has explored the intersections of art and technology, articulating some of the most urgent global questions through the language of art. This year’s edition introduces a new concept: the “Neuroverse,” combining “neural networks” and the “universe.”
The Neuroverse refers to a contemporary worldview in which humans, machines, and the world itself operate as a living network, akin to the firing of neurons. Artificial intelligence has emerged not merely as a tool but as an entity that thinks, responds, and interacts with us in everyday life.
Rather than simply glorifying or fearing technology, ACT Festival confronts the layered realities that arise from the entanglement of human and machine. Within this complexity, the festival seeks out the possibilities of artistic resonance and habitation.
The program encompasses exhibitions and performances built on AI, brain–computer interfaces (BCI), extended reality (XR), and immersive sound. Alongside audiovisual concerts and a series of conversations with international artists and researchers, ACT Festival 2025 raises fundamental questions about technology and perception, existence and ethics.
ACT Festival 2025: Neuroverse—Sailing Through the Sentient Universe marks the first sentence of a collective response to these questions, and the beginning of a shared voyage into the future.
Highlights
On September 5, at ACC Theater 1, world-renowned artist Daito Manabe will premiere SSNN (Sound Synthesis Neural Network), an audiovisual live set that translates neural firing patterns into real-time soundscapes. Following this world premiere, he will present Phase Forms, shown for the first time in Korea.
Participating artists include Daito Manabe, Ting-Tong Chang × Blast Theory, Yeom Inhwa, SMACK, Eliza McNitt, Keisuke Ito, Gwenaël François, Boris Labbé, 2ENTER, and ACC Sound Lab (Lee Byung-moo, Park Hoonmin, Shin Eunsong, Jang Junho, Jeong Hye Won).
Venues: National Asian Culture Center (ACC), ACC Theater 1, ACC Creation Exhibition Space 5, International Conference Hall, Immersive Sound Workroom (B4)
