[Well-curated] Immersive media art and Korean crafts for your eyes, chewy bagels and craft beer for your taste buds

Explore Seoul's vibe with immersive media

What's your image of Seoul when you think of the city?

A media art exhibition “Seoul Vibe” at Gallery Gwanghwa, located near Gwanghwamun Square, offers a new interactive and immersive experience of the city we know through digital media technology. Ten different sections of the exhibition shed new light on the image of Seoul.

When you first enter the space, 12 zodiac animals on the screen will greet you. Scan the barcode of the ticket, and the machine will tell you your fortune for the day.

Head on to the next room behind the curtain and you will find words flowing like a river on a screen. Visitors can write messages and add them to the stream.

The rooms that follow each have different concepts where you can take photos with multi-cameras and mirrors, or fall into an illusion of endless space inside an eight-sided mirror room.

Downstairs a media show with 16 different themes is continuously played on five screens. Two huge mirrors reflect the screens, expanding the sense of immersion. The total running time is about 40 minutes.

The show features glittering neon signs and dynamic signboards like those found in back alleys; and serene scenery such as waterfalls and a moon above a hanok.

The ticket costs 15,000 won for ages above 14, and 10,000 won for children 13 and under.

The exhibition opens from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., until April 30.

Korean crafts' impact on fashion

Seoul Museum of Craft Art in central Seoul has opened a special exhibition that walks you through the craft elements found in the work of Korea's first generation of fashion designers as well as the history of Korean attire culture.

The show titled "Crafts in Fashion" introduces the function and structure of clothes in part one “To Wear,” and examines clothes from modern formal attire at the following section "To Show." The highlight of the show is how craft elements are found in designs by Andre Kim, Noh No-ra and Choi Kyung-ja.After visiting the craft museum, you can grab a craft beer at Kiwa Taproom nearby located in a nearby alley. As the first hanok pub in Samcheong-dong area, the space was renovated from a traditional house.

The cozy craft beer place under a charcoal tiled roof offers a variety of types of craft drinks, including Orange Bianco, Kristall Weissbier, Playground Brewery Black & White and Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. The menu includes lamb ragu pasta, mac and cheese and buffalo wings.

Irresistible chewiness of wood fire oven-baked bagel

Bagels were less popular than buttery croissants or fancy-looking donuts in Seoul before London Bagel Museum in Bukchon, northern Seoul, became an online sensation last year.

Lists soon spread of must-visit bagel cafes in the city. but long before that, Kokkiri Bagel was already popular among bagel connoisseurs.

Kokkiri Bagel, which adheres to Montreal-style baking by adding eggs to the dough, adds an extra chewiness to its bagels by finishing them off in a wood fire oven.

As well as plain, butter-salt, chive and triple cheese options, Kokkiri also offers bagels also in sandwiches, there is a limited number of bagels sold at its three stores located in Yeongdeungpo, Yongsan and Seongsu.

Its flagship bagel is the cream cheese bagel, which is more filling than bagel. Try to visit the shop early in the day, because there is a long queue even before the store opens at 8 a.m. Most of bagels sell out by lunchtime.