K-pop star G-Dragon's music has been launched into space

K-pop star G-Dragon launched his music and an image of his iris into space on Wednesday (Apr 9) in collaboration with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Galaxy Corporation, an artificial intelligence (AI) metaverse company. 

The Space Institute of KAIST said on Thursday that the G-Dragon Space Sound Transmission Project was successfully held at its institute at 8pm KST the day before. 

The project was conducted by Lee Jin-joon, a contemporary artist and associate professor at KAIST, who used generative AI technology to create Iris, a media art piece based on an image of the singer-rapper's eye, in partnership with the K-pop star.

Along with the image, the Big Bang frontman, whose real name is Kwon Ji-yong, created the music beamed into space using Azure OpenAI’s Sora, an advanced AI service provided by Microsoft’s Azure platform, which included a sound from the Emile Bell, an over 1,000-year-old bronze bell from Korea and G-Dragon’s hit Home Sweet Home.

The audio was transmitted via a satellite antenna on the Nuri rocket, while the iris image was projection-mapped onto a 13-metre space antenna.

“The iris is a symbol reflecting inner emotions and identity, often referred to as the mirror of the soul. Through this work, I aimed to depict the infinite universe seen through the inner self of humanity by following G-Dragon's perspective," said Lee about the artwork.

According to his agency, who described the project as a groundbreaking milestone for the future of entertainment tech, G-Dragon’s project is evaluated as “an artistic experiment that attempts to permanently preserve human culture in space and communicate with other civilisations”.

Since last year, Galaxy Corporation has established a collaborative partnership with KAIST, where the K-pop star also serves as a visiting professor at its Department of Mechanical Engineering, delivering lectures on leadership. 

G-Dragon rose to stardom as the leader of the K-pop boy band Big Bang. In February, he released his first full-length album in more than 11 years. 

In October, he will also be performing at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2025.