Out of 35 million refugees worldwide 300.000 are North Koreans. Every year, hundreds are sent back to North Korea to be tortured and killed. But many South Koreans are blind to their presence. Together with the UN’s refugee agency, a South Korean advertisement and digital marketing agency, Cheil Worldwide has tried to raise public awareness for the refugees.
Cheil staff interviewed refugees, took their photos, produced three-dimensional mini figures based on their actual images. The results, dozens of figures displayed in hidden places like windowsills and corner of shelves in an exhibition center.
Unlike a typical exhibition, visitors have to look for the figures and when they find one, they can scan the QR/NFC codes inserted in each figure, to listen to the real refugees’ stories.
“Although 3D printing itself is a cool technology, the reality is that we have seen too many dark sides of it, such as copyright infringement issues or weapon manufacturing. Through this exhibition, we would like people to recognize 3D printing as a good-will technology. By experiencing 3D technology and touching stories, visitors would have better understanding of refugees”, said Shin Seok-jin of Cheil Worldwide.
This campaign formed an emotional bond between visitors and refugees by using 3D and mobile technology and generated a great impact over the Korean nation.