OCI Museum of Art to Spotlight 'Silicon' Linking White Porcelain and Semiconductors

Roundtable “Who Knew It Was All Silicon” on Nov. 20
Four art and science experts to give presentations and join discussion

OCI Museum of Art is hosting an event highlighting silicon (Si), a material common to Joseon white porcelain and semiconductors.

OCI Museum of Art, 2026 Round Table poster. OCI Museum of Art.

OCI Museum of Art announced on the 13th that it will hold a roundtable titled “Who Knew It Was All Silicon” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on November 20 in the auditorium on the fifth floor of the museum in Susong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Four experts in art and science will take part, exploring how two different fields have developed using the same material.

The event was organized to mark the 10th anniversary of the designation of the museum’s signature work, a white porcelain bottle decorated in underglaze blue with an inscription referring to Unhyeon and a wan pattern, as a Seoul Tangible Cultural Heritage. The piece is known to have been commissioned and used at Unhyeongung, where Heungseon Daewongun lived in the 19th century.

The clay and glaze used in white porcelain, as well as polysilicon, a semiconductor raw material, are all based on silicon. The beauty of white porcelain and the purity of polysilicon depend on how precisely their raw materials are selected and refined. Polysilicon used in semiconductor wafers is made by refining silicon from minerals to a purity of 99.999999999% (eleven nines).

Part 1, “Silicon: From White Porcelain to Polysilicon,” will feature presentations by experts in each field. Jang Gi-hun, head of the Culture Division at the Korea Ceramic Foundation and director of the Gyeonggi Ceramic Museum, will introduce how white clay for Joseon white porcelain was mined and supplied. Lee Jeong-yong, a potter and professor at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, will discuss the sculptural beauty of white porcelain, achieved through shaping and firing the clay.

Han Min-su, a professor in the Department of Heritage Science and Technology at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, will explain differences in the composition of white clay from different production areas and changes in the crystal structure of silicon dioxide during firing. Kim Ki-seop, who oversees R&D infrastructure at OCI’s Central Research Institute, will describe how silicon is refined into polysilicon, drawing on his experience working for about seven years at OCI Terasus in Malaysia.

Part 2, “Experts’ Stories About Silicon,” will feature a discussion on the uses of silicon dioxide and process characteristics shared by Joseon white porcelain and polysilicon manufacturing technology, followed by a question-and-answer session with visitors. The discussion will be moderated by Yoo Je-wook, a curator at OCI Museum of Art. Applications to participate will be accepted through the museum’s official Instagram account.

“We took inspiration from the fact that it is difficult to find anywhere silicon is not used, from Joseon white porcelain moon jars to the smartphones we hold and the preservatives in food packaging,” said Lee Ji-hyun, director of OCI Museum of Art. “Silicon is like Janus, a material that looks toward beauty with one face and technology with the other.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.