SEOUL, July 23 (AJP) -Korean technology firm Indik said Thursday it has launched a platform that converts museum exhibition catalogs into curator-verified digital archives.
The launch comes as museums prepare AI and digital transformation projects for 2027, with budget planning set to begin in September.
Based in Jeonju, Indik has developed museum exhibitions, catalogs and cultural heritage content using public data. The platform, called ARTFACT, extracts artifact records, images and exhibition narratives from museum catalogs, linking every record back to its original source page.
Indik calls the resulting database a "Digital Master" reviewed, corrected and approved by museum staff before it becomes part of an institution's verified knowledge base.
Museums often produce extensive research and exhibition documentation, but much of it becomes scattered across PDF files and image folders once a show closes, Indik says.
Curators then have to locate and reorganize the same material for the next exhibition or education program. Collection management databases, though widely used, do not always preserve the curatorial interpretation and narrative connections that catalogs contain — a gap ARTFACT is designed to fill by linking structured collection records to that broader context.
"Adopting new AI tools alone will not complete museums' digital transformation," Indik CEO Kwak Hyun-hae said. "Institutions first need reference materials that allow AI to verify sources and context."
The process begins with a single representative exhibition catalog. ARTFACT generates a preliminary Digital Master, and staff compare each record against the original pages and images before revising and approving the data.
Indik has begun offering consultations for museums, galleries and cultural institutions considering AI or digital transformation projects for 2027, including those that have yet to determine project scope or budgets. The sessions assess the condition of existing materials, the feasibility of building a Digital Master, integration with current collection databases and review procedures ahead of September budget planning.
Indik plans to expand the platform with a "Planning Engine" to help curators draft exhibition proposals, educational materials and production guidelines from approved Digital Masters. Its longer-term goal is a "Discovery Platform" that maps relationships among artifacts, historical figures, regions and past exhibitions to support future research and exhibition planning.
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