Media artist Jinjoon Lee’s doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford, “Empty Garden – A Liminoid Journey to Nowhere in Somewhere” (2020), has been officially acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in the United Kingdom. It will be permanently housed and exhibited, marking the first time a work by a Korean contemporary artist has entered the museum’s collection.
 
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean Museum is the world's first university museum, operated by the University of Oxford with over 340 years of history. It predates the Louvre (1793) by 110 years and the British Museum (1759) by 76 years, and is regarded as the starting point of European Enlightenment scholarship. Its collections include masterworks by Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Turner, alongside ancient artefacts and East Asian ceramics and paintings — over one million objects in total.
 
It is highly unusual for an institution of this kind to formally acquire a living artist’s doctoral thesis and include it in its permanent collection. In addition, the acquisition of Lee's doctoral thesis here signifies that Korean aesthetics and philosophical thought have entered the public record of European intellectual history.
 
In particular, it carries symbolic weight in that a Korean inquiry—one that reconsiders the role of art and the humanities in the post-AI era—can now continue to be interpreted within the international sphere of public knowledge.

Lee's PhD thesis “Empty Garden” reinterprets the concept of uiwon (意園) — an imaginary garden cultivated in the mind by Joseon-era scholars — through contemporary data and media language, proposing 'data gardening' as a methodology for tending to the philosophy of emptiness. It is a work that continues to ask fundamental questions about human sensation, memory, and existence, even within an environment dominated by AI and data.
 
The 10-meter hanji scroll format is itself a central feature of the thesis. As readers engage with the text, they are naturally led to move through space — physically enacting the East Asian garden tradition of 'wandering' (거닐기). The work is designed not merely to be read but to be experienced through movement and contemplation.
 
The thesis was produced as nine hanji scrolls in total; one of these has been acquired by the Ashmolean for its permanent collection.

Professor Shelagh Vainker, Alice King Curator of Chinese and Korean Art at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, stated:
 
"I am delighted that the Ashmolean Museum has been able to acquire Dr Jinjoon Lee's “Empty Garden” for our permanent collection. The long, contemplative scroll breaks new ground in so many ways: in the materials and techniques employed, in the breadth and depth of cultural and intellectual knowledge embedded in it, and in the complexity of the presentation of different spaces — all providing the viewer with multiple perspectives and experiences. “Empty Garden” is the first piece by a contemporary Korean artist to enter the collection; when not on display it will be available for viewing by appointment."
 
Lee noted that during his doctoral research at Oxford, a serious leg injury left him using a wheelchair for an extended period, during which he reflected deeply on the relationship between movement, stillness, and thought. He stated: "In the age of AI, art cannot remain confined to immaterial images on screens. Data and images can only acquire depth through material forms capable of enduring time and preservation."
 
He further expressed his hope that “Empty Garden,” now housed within the public collection of Western intellectual history, would "serve as a continuing reference point connecting East Asian thought — including that of Korea — with new sensory frameworks for the age of artificial intelligence."

References

• 카이스트 보도자료 (KAIST Press Release)