Jemulpo Photo Studio

2022 · Interactive Art · 인천시립박물관-Incheon Metropolitan Museum

Jemulpo Photo Studio is an interactive media installation that reimagines the aesthetics of early Korean “New Women” magazine culture from the colonial era. Visitors’ portraits are captured in real time and transformed through AI-based face swapping and neural style transfer, producing reinterpreted covers that blend modern identity with early 20th-century visual modernity. Each portrait—stylized in the vibrant, liberated tone of Jemulpo’s early photo studios—is automatically framed, displayed, and archived in real time on a virtual wall, turning the gallery into a living archive of self-modernization and historical reinterpretation.

Engine: Unity
Framework: AR Foundation · OpenCV for Unity
Software: Photoshop · After Effects (graphic composition)
Languages: C# · Python
AI Frameworks: Unity Barracuda (segmentation) · OpenCV (face detection & swap)
Hardware: PC (NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super) · DSLR Camera · Display Monitors
Networking: TCP Server for live data and image archiving

Pipeline

Face Capture & Detection
Real-time facial detection using OpenCV DNN models integrated in Unity.
Extended detection region to include hair and head area via post-processing on facial landmarks, ensuring style transformation affects full portrait.

Face Swap & Style Mapping
Implemented a custom face-swap system merging visitor features with pre-designed 1920s “New Women” portrait references.
Style filters layered through custom shader-based watercolor and pointillist noise blending, referencing early magazine printing textures.

Segmentation & Background Replacement
Applied Unity Barracuda-based person segmentation to separate subjects from background.
Replaced the backdrop with vintage magazine-style layouts dynamically mapped to color palettes extracted from 1920s Korean publications.

Archiving & Exhibition Display
Generated portraits sent via TCP connection to an external display wall,
where results appeared in a looping slideshow simulating a virtual photo gallery.
All portraits auto-saved in timestamped folders for archival record and curatorial review.

Artistic & Theoretical Significance

This project investigates how historical aesthetics can be reactivated through AI and real-time media art. By merging colonial-era “New Women” imagery with contemporary digital interfaces, the installation creates a space where visitors can temporarily inhabit a reimagined past, exploring the interplay between gender, modernization, and visual media.
The live archiving process reflects on photography’s role as both documentation and performance— turning spectators into participants of a digitally reconstructed modern history.