• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.168-178
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• 2015

This article analysis the aesthetics of metal-body of (1989) and its metamorphosis of dehumanization through visual desires expressed by body images. This paper suggests theoretical analysis based on aesthetic views to understand the underlying meanings. The research categorizes three types of images; surreal image, grotesque image and eros image from the metamorphosis of dehumanization and transformation throughout the film. As the surreal image, the metamorphic process of transformation, demolition, derangement, illusion, and human desire continues to reflect the evil side of a human in everyday life. It also visualizes the images of exaggeration through weakness and bizarre side of metal-body. The grotesque image of body metamorphosis displays and symbolizes double-sides of bizarre and weak side of human in the everyday environment when malformation reaches its peak when Tetsuo finally shows his transforming figure. Finally, the eros image is analogized as a man's inner self and self-destruction in surreal world and a grotesque figure when overwhelming desire of transforming into rebirth of a perfect metal-body, Tetsuo. The surreal image, grotesque image, and eros image portraits human desires inner and outer-self into visualized image and that represents the means of excessive desire for dreaming of world domination with merging non-organic medium of metal and organic body to create a perfect body-image.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.3-20
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• 2001

The concept of "modernism" has always posed problems in definition from the beginnings of "early-modernism" to our age of post-modernism and multi-culturalism. And yet, the concept has been consistently aligned with the search for new paradigms of thinking about "modernity" as the age experiences it. In this sense, this study tries to explain the meaning of the term "modern," why it still matters in the study of literature, and how to apply it to the examination of Kim Soo-Young′s poems. Kim is one of the leading poets who understood the importance of modernism in the development of Korean modern poetry. But, despite his dedication to the western literary style and modernism, Kim also attempted the renewal of traditional Confucian thought in his poems. The result of such efforts can be seen in poems such as "Difficulties of Confucius ′Everyday Life," in which Kim tries to juxtapose the ancient life of Confucius with life in a much-westernized modern Korea. Another poem "Grass" shows his eagerness to transform traditional eastern aesthetics into a new mode of thinking that encompasses both the influence of the west and changes in 20th-century Korea. Through the study of Kim′s poems in relation to the critical reception of modernism in Korea, we can conclude the following: that Kim led the modernist movement in Korea; that modernism still matters in post-modern Korean literature; and that, because Kin tried to bring together the ideas of western modernism and traditional Confucianism, his poetry not only spoke to his own time but speaks also to our multi-cultural age.

• Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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• no.48
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• pp.289-332
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• 2012

In this paper, based on the theory of performance studies and community-based theatre, I venture to explicate the socio-political significance of director Yim Jin-Taek's community-based performance called 'madanggut', which is heavily based on elements of indigenous culture. Yim's madanggut utilizes elements of indigenous cultures and searches for 'the Korean ethnic (arche)type' as 'the ideal Korean type' or 'genuine Korean-ness' for the reconstruction of 'the Korean ethnic community.' This paper interrogates the major task of Yim Jin-Taek's madanggut, which ideologically promulgates the idea of ethnocentric patriarchy supported by the traditional (mainly Confucianist) notion of 'community' - inquiring if this type of theatre can provide useful and practical prospects for imagining a more democratic and plural civilian society in Korea today, when the interaction of globalization, nationalism, regionalism, and localism simultaneously impact our everyday life and cultural identification. Regarding the recent global phenomenon of the resurgence of nationalism, I looked at madanggut's use of symbolic resources from the past for imaginative communal bonding as a nation. But, the claimed homogeneity of the national past by means of 'nation conflation' of different social groups is an illusionary conceptualization, and the national historiography silences memories of the marginalized groups and denies their histories. It is certain that in Korea nationalism has historically performed an important function during the colonization and democratization period. Nevertheless, as Yim's Nokdukkot realized, it cannot be overlooked that as a representative of 'the Korean ethnic community,' 'the protecting man/the sacrificial woman' is contradictory to the plural and lateral thinking of participatory democracy in community-building. It is time to think about a new political language that relates individuals to the community and nation. 'The ethnic type' cannot represent the whole nation and the members of the nation should be the examples of the community they belong to for a more democratic society. I have selected Yim's several community-based works mainly from the 1970s to the 1980s since the works provide grounding images, symbols, metaphors, and allegories pertinent to discussing how 'the Korean ethnic community' has been narrativized through the performances of madanggut during the turbulent epoch of globalization. I hope that this paper presents Yim's grounded aesthetics of community-based theatre with fully contoured critical views and ideas.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.4 s.117
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• pp.1-17
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• 2006

This study emphasizes users' participation, a living-transforming visuality, as users have appeared to be a central element of landscape design but ignored before. Also this study tries to propose meaning of extended visuality in contemporary landscape design on the basis of visual criticism on simple perception-and contemplations convention-based landscape design. For these purposes, this study reviews characteristics of visual changes appeared in modern reductionist paintings. In other words, arts can be interpreted in polysemous ways through bodies' experience. Deconstructive concepts derived from the theoretical reviews can be categorized into three including the participation of the users' bodies from a contemplative point of view, textuality and intertextuality, and experiences from works. Those concepts were used to criticize the previous discourse on landscape designs and to analyze various issues in the theories, themes and techniques in contemporary landscape design. The significance of the expanded visuality in contemporary landscape design is that it brings the users' voluntary participation. This structure can serve as a tool to obtain the users' perceptive effects. At the same time, it can be regarded as a process of establishing the relationships between the users and the works. Thus emphasis is placed not only on the influences of the effects structure of the works themselves, but also on the many different dimensions related to the users' bodies. It implies that the meaning of design is not determined by the designer but a product resulted from the voluntary relationships between users and works. These findings lead to ambiguous distinctions between arts everyday life, and eventually to the end of the concepts of formative dichotomous aesthetics and their effectiveness. Finding of this study call for not only redefining the space where landscape design is created and communicated, but also reconsidering the concepts of landscape design and its ontological meanings.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.1 s.63
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• pp.243-252
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• 2006

This essay studies local design style in globalization era through investigation of the restaurants which are located at suburb of big cities in Korea. All regional memory and history is disappeared in 'The world time' and world design style in globalization era. Thus to study local design means to study the history of certain region and the memory of the people who lives in that area and how they represent their past and memory. Post colonial theory, everyday aesthetics and the way of using past and memory are preresearched for the theoretical background. Post colonial theory is discourse for the countries which have the experience of colonialism. History and memory are used for defining present political, social, economical and cultural situation. In this essay, the way using past and memory were classified in three dimension - by government, company, and individuals. The past which is represented by government is conceptual and defined as only sign without on going history. When it is represented by company, it is also uses as a sign and imitation without contextual meaning. However, when the past is used by individuals, it is alive in daily life. This essay argues that those restaurants which have the style of 'the Koreaness' symbolize the suppressed desire to represent the lost past and memory which are forced to be exduded during the colonial period and fast modern development. And the design style can be defined as epic design, for it has it's own main character, story, memory and plot too. This word 'epic' imply the main point of local design style. In conclusion, this essay will ask the role of design in the country which has colonial memory in globalization era.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.66-87
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• 2022

This study explores the possibility of creating new experimental hanbok designs by accommodating the latest world fashion trends and the changing needs of consumers, in order to attempt to overcome the limitations of traditional Korean fashion design. To do so, We analyze works by contemporary Korean fashion designers to investigate current developments in Korean fashion design and to identify areas of improvement within hanbok design. The results show that most contemporary hanbok designs repeat stereotypes of traditional hanbok with minor modifications. So there arises a need to create new hanbok designs that are clearly distinct from traditional hanbok but also maintain its core features. To develop such designs, I apply the techniques of deconstruction fashion, which allow making experiments with form, composition, and materials use to realize new aesthetics. The use of CLO 3D fashion design software also proves to be very efficient for developing experimental designs. The study results make meaningful contributions to the development of virtual clothing and 3D fashion for hanbok, particularly as metaBUS, a cloud-based research synthesis platform, is rapidly gaining ground, and reality and virtual reality are increasingly mixed in everyday life. This attempt at 3D design of hanbok is expected to trigger more creative experimentation in hanbok design.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.34
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• pp.7-41
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• 2014

This article examines magical realism in contemporary european film, which is considered to be one of the most popular styles in the present culture, with regards to Antonio Negri's theory of art. Magical realism is "alternative approach to reality" (Maggie Ann Bowers, Magic(al) Realism) and defined as "a fictional technique that combines fantasy with raw physical reality or social reality in a search for truth beyond that available from the surface of everyday life" (Joan Mellen, Magic Realism). The term of Magic Realism was coined in 1923 by Franz Roh, German art historian, as the concept for the post-expressionist painting in Germany. It has flourished in the Latin-American literature during the 1950s to 1980s and spread worldwide. Since 1980s magical realism is considered to be a universal artistic mode. Since 1990s magical realism is to find in the various novels, and since 2000 one encounters magical realism in the cinema very often. Antonio Negri writes about the relationship between life, imagination, art and the political in his book Art et Multitude. According to Negri, the hard life of people in the present society liberates the imagination and this creates the art as "the excess of the existence". In this process the aesthetic becomes to the political. Negri calls this space of art as "magical time and space". Claire Denis' film Vendredi Soir is analyzed as a contemporary magic realist text, which realizes Negri's concept of art: vendredi soir (friday night) in Vendredi Soir is the magical time, when the impossible becomes the possible, and paris in the public transportation strike is the magical space, where the individuals meet the other in a new situation. The film analysis associates itself with Negri's theory of art: in Vendredi Soir, it is to see, that the excess of the existence liberates imagination and creates the magic reality both in the movements of things and the human relationship. The phenomenon of magical realism in contemporary culture can be understood as the symptom of the emotional and existential pains of contemporary people in the current world. The contemporaneity of the magical realism can be read in the film as "the metaphor for contemporary thought" (Alain Badiou, Cinema). As Antonio Negri writes, art can become "the aesthetic redemption" (Negri, Art et Multitude) for us. At the same time "(t)his is where aesthetics can be transformed into the political." (Lee, "Communism and the Void")

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.6
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• pp.35-50
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• 2024

"Culture refers to the behavioral and lifestyle patterns that a society has shared and transmitted within the community over a long period. Ginseng, frequently encountered in the daily life of Koreans through tools, crafts, folklore, and poetry, holds a deep place in the behavioral and lifestyle patterns of the Korean people. Ginseng, engraved in everyday objects, crafts, and poems, is symbolic in our culture as a representation of longevity and well-being. Ginseng elegantly depicted on ceramics serves as a symbol of longevity along with aesthetic beauty. The common inclusion of ginseng in ritual items in mountain deity beliefs, particularly represented by the 'Bullocho' (不老草) ginseng, reflects a strong belief in the mystical qualities of ginseng associated with longevity and prosperity. The incorporation of ginseng into commonly used everyday tools such as rice cakes, dining tables, decorations, matches, and fans suggests that ginseng was considered a talisman symbolizing health and longevity, kept close as a wish for good fortune. Rice cakes, often presented at ceremonies like ancestral rites, 60th-anniversary celebrations, weddings, and birthdays, had ginseng patterns carved into them as a way for our ancestors to inscribe the spirit and health-symbolizing ginseng onto the food. In family communities, ginseng patterns are frequently found on utensils related to eating, such as chopsticks, spoons, tea cups, and trays. Among the various folklore related to ginseng being passed down, the most prevalent are anecdotes illustrating its efficacy. Ginseng, gifted and exchanged as a symbol of gratitude in letters and poems, goes beyond being a mere medicinal herb to embody friendship and blessings. The symbolism of ginseng, as revealed in everyday objects, artworks, poems, and letters, can be summarized as follows: 1. In folklore and legends, ginseng symbolized filial piety offered to parents. 2. It represented gratitude sent to respected teachers and close friends. 3. Ginseng depicted on daily objects and artworks not only showcased aesthetics but also played a magical role in symbolizing longevity and well-being. Ginseng patterns on items like rice cake molds and dining tables embody the spirit of a caring community, wishing for longevity and prosperity."

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.215-220
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• 2023

Network technology used as a physical interface to retrieve, store, and exchange data is leading the era of data capitalism in the 21st century. The capacity of network technology dominates almost all communication in everyday life, and makes social understanding and experiences in the physical world visible in cyberspace. The movements of human bodies and objects in cyberspace are placed in a social context. This paper paid attention to these phenomena and examined the cases of activism that raised real problems through cyberspace. In particular, the focus of the study is the digital activism of the Electronic Disturbance Theater, which combines critical art and thinking for democracy with the realm of information and demonstrates aesthetic imagination. The first chapter of the main body briefly outlines the meaning activism as a social movement in cyberspace. The second chapter looks back on the alternatives of <FloodNet>, which represents the early activism performance of EDT. And then in the last chapter, the poetic significance of the <Transborder Immigrant Tool> is analyzed. Through this process, this paper demonstrates that the activism performance of the EDT is a critical aesthetics that encourages imagination for alternatives. It also argues that Electronic Disturbance Theater has contemporary value as an avant-garde art that actively utilizes the medium of network technology and integrates performance art and politics.