• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.39
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• pp.59-83
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• 2015

Magical realism, blooming and improving in Latin America, opened the new vision about reality and rationalism, coming out from the out-styled frame of past. While having common points with unrealistic literature, which uses fantastical components, magical realism is different from Surrealism and fantasy literature that is focusing on reality and realizing reality intensely. In the early stage of this research, magical realism was restricted by the characteristics of literature of Latin America, but the research of magical realism is expanding in planning Post-Modernism nowadays. Lately, the influence of magical realism is identified in literatures, arts, films, and animations over the world; according to the research, however, research about magical realism in animations was not done in Korea before. A Korean independent animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword" was evaluated positively in many international film festivals is valuable as the research of magical realism. Throughout this study, this animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword" was analyzed by its narrative and images. The analysis of narrative consists two parts. One is about the form of narrative and the other is about contents through the story. Analysis of Image is also divided into two parts: background image and character image. In this animation, the protagonist is narrating about the fantastic accidents in his life and his own feelings towards it. The narration leads audience to understand his situation and feelings in meta-fiction. On the surface, audience watches the love story of a normal girl and coffee vending machine in this artwork, but deep inside the animation, it is visible that the directors tried to make audiences think about the life of 880,000-won Generation in Korea. The background image was represented as real places in Seoul including the landmark of Seoul, making mimesis of reality in Korea. The character image has two conflicting aspects with reincarnated warrior, Jinyoungyoung and a coffee vending machine. It is a hybrid-character transmogrifying between two characters. Likewise, "A coffee vending machine and its sword" has the characteristics of Korean magical realism through form, content and image. Through analyzing the Korean independent animation "A coffee vending machine and its sword", this research tried to find a way of using factors of fantasy, of representing reality as a dramatic device and of using magical realism of Korean animation for bond of sympathy with audience.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.22-34
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze commemoration characteristics of fifty-nine Vietnam war memorials in Korea(VWMK) including monuments and national cemeteries from landscape architectural point of view such as location, spacial characteristic, landscape detail, sculpture, and interpretive text. Based on the commemoration characteristics of the analysis, the commemoration culture among Vietnam, the U.S.A., and Korea were studied and differences compared. The results are as follows. First, monuments were mainly located in public open space such as national cemeteries, parks, and plaza, and some of them were elected along with Korea war memorials to honor Vietnam war veterans at the national level. Second, because the monuments were relatively small and memorial towers were conventionally built on a square platform, the memorial style had been simply standardized to stereotype the commemoration characteristics. Third, outmoded memorial towers, stone plates, emblems, and memorial walls were used as main landscape details and standardized facilities were considered from an artistic and social point of view. Fourth, realistic soldier statues to show heroic and humanitarian image were in majority, while symbolic and abstract sculpture were small in number, they were mostly conventional and unexpressive. Fifth, the causes of participation in the Vietnam War were predominantly expressed as 'defending freedom', 'keeping world peace', and 'national economic development' based on anti-communism and patriotism, and also the collectivity of Vietnam War veterans by troop and local level was emphasized through engraving each veterans's name on towers, plates, and walls. VWMK are mostly conventional and stereotyped in style and show strongly national official memory and the collectivity of veterans from a sociopolitical perspective, and aim for anti-communistic patriotism ideologically. Further study and projects will be required to make creative and innovative memorials and to study how to rethink sublime fundamental themes like war, death, and the individual veteran's experience in VWMK.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.42-53
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• 2023

This paper explores the recent development of environmental aesthetics and critically examines the main agendas, claims, issues, and implications of everyday aesthetics, which is emerging as an important branch of environmental aesthetics. Environmental aesthetics began in the context of cultural change and environmentalism in the 1960s and expanded in the second half of the 20th century with a solid theoretical foundation. At the beginning of the 21st century, it entered a process of diversification of objects and subjects. Having reached academic maturity, environmental aesthetics has expanded into theoretical territory considering the urban environment and the human environment, providing practical coordinates as a discourse for planning and designing urban environments and landscapes. The most notable achievement of environmental aesthetics since the mid-2000s is the establishment of 'everyday aesthetics'. Yuriko Saito, who is leading the research on everyday aesthetics, expanded the objects and scope of aesthetic theory to everyday objects, events, activities, and environments. She excavates the microscopic and sensory aspects of everyday life, which have been overlooked by conventional art-centered aesthetics, through the lens of aesthetics. She reinterprets various layers of phenomena in contemporary urban landscapes and analyzes how the 'power of the aesthetic' hidden in everyday life profoundly affects the quality of life and the state of the world. Saito examines the appreciation of the distinctive characteristics and ambiance inherent in everyday objects and environments and proposes a 'moral-aesthetic judgment' to alert citizens to the environmental, social, and political consequences of everyday aesthetic appreciation and response. This paper identifies the issues and implications of everyday aesthetics as first, the expansion of aesthetics and the ambiguous everyday, second, the moral-aesthetic judgment and the aesthetics of care, and third, urban regeneration landscapes and aesthetic literacy. In particular, the moral virtues of everyday aesthetics that Saito proposes, such as care, thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and respect, provide a critical reference for the practice of contemporary urban regeneration landscapes. The 'aesthetic literacy' is a key concept demonstrating why an environmental aesthetics perspective is necessary to interpret everyday urban environments and landscapes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.26-44
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• 2017

Regarded as Korea's traditional pond, Gungnamj Pond was surmised to be "Gungnamji" due to its geological positioning in the south of Hwajisan (花枝山) and relics of the Gwanbuk-ri (官北里) suspected of being components to the historical records of Muwang (武王)'s pond of The Chronicles of the Three States [三國史記] and Sabi Palace, respectively, yet was subjected to a restoration following a designation to national historic site. This study is focused on the distortion of authenticity identified in the course of the "Gungnamji Pond" restoration and the invention of tradition, whose summarized conclusions are as follows. 1. Once called Maraebangjuk (마래방죽), or Macheonji (馬川池) Pond, Gungnamji Pond was existent in the form of a low-level swamp of vast area encompassing 30,000 pyeong during the Japanese colonial period. Hong, Sa-jun, who played a leading role in the restoration of "Gungnamji Pond," said that even during the 1940s, the remains of the island and stone facilities suspected of being the relics of Gungnamji Pond of the Baekje period were found, and that the traces of forming a royal palace and garden were discovered on top of them. Hong, Sa-jun also expressed an opinion of establishing a parallel between "Gungnamji Pond" and "Maraebangjuk" in connection with a 'tale of Seodong [薯童說話]' in the aftermath of the detached palace of Hwajisan, which ultimately operated as a theoretical ground for the restoration of Gungnamj Pond. Assessing through Hong, Sa-jun's sketch, the form and scale of Maraebangjuk were visible, of which the form was in close proximity to that photographed during the Japanese colonial period. 2. The minimized restoration of Gungnamji Pond faced deterrence for the land redevelopment project implemented in the 1960s, and the remainder of the land size is an attestment. The fundamental problem manifest in the restoration of Gungnamji Pond numerously attempted from 1964 through 1967 was the failure of basing the restorative work in the archaeological facts yet in the perspective of the latest generations, ultimately yielding a replication of Hyangwonji Pond of Gyeongbok Palace. More specifically, the methodologies employed in setting an island and a pavilion within a pond, or bridging an island with a land evidenced as to how Gungnamji Pond was modeled after Hyangwonji Pond of Gyeongbok Palace. Furthermore, Chihyanggyo (醉香橋) Bridge referenced in the designing of the bridge was hardly conceived as a form indigenous to the Joseon Dynasty, whose motivation and idea of the misguided restoration design at the time all the more devaluated Gungnamji Pond. Such an utterly pure replication of the design widely known as an ingredient for the traditional landscape was purposive towards the aesthetic symbolism and preference retained by Gyeongbok Palace, which was intended to entitle Gungnamji Pond to a physical status of the value in par with that of Gyeongbok Palace. 3. For its detachment to the authenticity as a historical site since its origin, Gungnamji Pond represented distortions of the landscape beauty and tradition even through the restorative process. The restorative process for such a historical monument, devoid of constructive use and certain of distortion, maintains extreme intimacy with the nationalistic cultural policy promoted by the Park, Jeong-hee regime through the 1960s and 1970s. In the context of the "manipulated discussions of tradition," the Park's cultural policy transformed the citizens' recollection into an idealized form of the past, further magnifying it at best. Consequently, many of the historical sites emerged as fancy and grand as they possibly could beyond their status quo across the nation, and "Gungnamji Pond" was a victim to this monopolistic government-led cultural policy incrementally sweeping away with new buildings and structures instituted regardless of their original space, and hence, their value.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.39
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• pp.33-67
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• 2021

This paper aims at revealing the core concept of Injon (Human Nobility). The concept of Injon is one of the salient fundamental ideas which makes Daesoon Jinrihoe recognizable as Daesoon Jinrihoe. The concept of Injon has the basic meaning of 'human nobility,' but within the context wherein the nobility of humankind is considered to be greater than the nobility of Heaven and Earth. Although the religious and ideological interpretations of Injon (human nobility) that have developed over time have been quite diverse and abundant, these interpretations are all limited in that they generally assume the relationship between 'Heaven and Earth' and 'Humanity' to be antagonistic. However, if human nobility is relativized in that manner, it can reduce the potential broader meanings of mutual beneficence and the earthly paradise of the later world. These interpretations are grounded in the view of semiotic interpretation. Such interpretations have composed their view point via the semiotic meaning of the words. The semiotic point of view suggests that meanings of words consist in the relation of the word and the object to which it denotes. We will introduce a new view point which can be termed the transcendental view point. This view focuses on how the exact interpretation of words and sentences depends on the comprehension of the triad of systematic relations among the word, object, and speaker. In the Daesoon Thought, the Former World is considered to be the world wherein all creations unfolded according to the principle of mutual contention. This led to the accumulation of grievances and grudges which condensed and filled the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. The Former World was dominated by Western material civilization, selfishness, and exclusivism. It was also a world where humans suffered from various natural disasters such as floods, droughts, plagues, and wildfires. The Former World lost the constant Dao and was overwhelmed with all kinds of disasters and calamities. That world fell into various kinds of wretchedness. The causes which made the Former World so cruel came from humans misunderstanding their relation to nature and life in general; including human life. The anthropocentric modern cosmology insisted that the human race was the only one to have the powers and rights to exercise dominion over nature. On the other hand, there is the Later World, which means the ideal and perfect, immanent eternal world for all humankind in Daesoon Thought. This world consists of life, peace, and equality and is also characterized by three typical attributes: goodness, peace, and all kinds of life. All living beings previously struggled for survival, but in the Later World, those lifeforms will embrace each other; even across different realms. In Daesoon Thought, the world and cosmos contain diverse forms of life, and human have both an earthly life and life in the after world should they die before the Later World. There are also the lives of divine beings and animals, and other such living entities. Daesoon Thought subsumes pan-vitalism, which allows they acknowledgement of myriad possible lifeforms. The concept of the Later World in Daesoon Thought, which mainly revealed in The Canonical Scripture and the words of Sangje (Kang Jeungsan), suggests that all kinds of life, including humans, animals, and even spirits in the afterworld, can live together in a perfect coming earthly paradise which is immanent. The concept of Injon can be interpreted though the view of transcendental pragmatics as an alternative to the typical views discussed in Daesoon Thought. Thinkers should attempt to improve current discourse on Injon in Daesoon Thought by focusing on the point that all kinds the original teachings demonstrate a value of all lifeforms. Therein, Injon would indicate not only the human nobility and dignity but also the nobility and dignity of divine beings, divine humans, and all other forms of life that have existed across time. The dimension of time allows for recognition of lifeforms from the Former World, the afterworld, and the Later World. This revised appraisal of Injon could further accommodate denizens of the afterworld, animals, ghosts and spirits, the earth and cloud souls of humans, and other lifeforms held to exist in the cosmology of Daesoon Thought.