Trip to Gangwon-do with students

This year, I’m the adviser of the sophomore students at Digital Media Design Dept so they told me that I need to lead the team of students to their fall M.T. (Membership Training) Trip. What Koreans call, “M.T.” is actually not exactly a Membership Training. It is usually referred to the college kids’ trip during semester. They usually pick a destination and rent a bus and go for an weekend over night trip and there are usually few professors involved. This time around, it was only myself + one administrative T.A then, 48 students. Hmmm…. I felt like a real adult.

However, it turned out that they were more orderly and organized than I was. What kind of college kids are having fun until midnight playing different team games but no alcohols? (They did pack bottles of Soju, beer and others) They started to drink after midnight but, nobody was hung over next morning. They’ve cleaned after themselves with proper recycling bags. Wow! I’m impressed. I need to corrupt these kids a little bit…, note to myself.

Beside the fact I had to give up my weekend, it was pretty good to smell good fresh air and see funny looking sheep and play with youthful students! Half of them are taking my Interactive Communication Theory class so it was nice to play with familiar faces.

About Sheep: They are bigger than the grey sheep I saw in Ireland but very friendly. Their fur is so thick so that when I poke my finger deep into their fur, they didn’t even blink an eye. They are so peculiar but, soooo cute! I did look for a sheep with a star mark on it…. just like in Haruki Murakami’s ‘Wild Sheep Chase’

(laughing sheep. It was sunny but very very windy in the filed)

(students after BBQ porkbelly + potatoe)

 

Seoul Media Art Biennale 2008

‘Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame’ by Suzann Victor

A week ago, I decided to bike to Seoul Museum of Art near Duksu Palace since I finally had a real day off + weekend. It was to go see Seoul Media Art Biennale for the second time after the opening ceremony I went two weeks ago. It’s always lovely to walk by the old palace wall. How should I explain it? it’s narrow and curvy with stone wall one side and park like street the other side. It’s just a very cute path and the museum is on the hill where it ends. It was a warm autumn day so by the time I parked my small bike, I was sweating already. Uh-oh, I hope I won’t meet anyone I know.

The selection of arts are very impressive at exhibition, titled “Turn & Widen”. It’s very well curated and well displayed. (The curators are Maarten Bertheus, Raul Zamudio, Tohru Mtsumoto and Andreas Broeckmann.) I liked how they carefully laid out how people move art piece to piece. Media arts are exhibited in 3 floors and it is definitely worth to visit at least once if not twice. There are several art projects that I really found interesting.

(will get back with more writing here…)

Meanwhile I’m posting some of art installations that I was able to grab with my small digital camera. I biked back and didn’t bump into anyone I know…

“Augmented sculpture series” by pablo valbuena

 

BFA students project, “Hope” – a marionette project

“Hope” a marionette project by Joohyun Jin, Laewoo Kang (Digital Media Design dept. BFA, Hongik University)

This movie is a low resolution with lots of noise (as it was raining cats and dogs during the final presentation in Interaction Design Studio) but, you will get the idea. Below is their project site that has a better presentation. “Hope” by Joohyun Jin & Laewoo Kang

A little description about this project. The marrionette is hand-sewn by Joohyun Jin & the project was a collaboration between two students. The translated abstract is below.

사람과 사람사이의 갈등,
치유할수 없는 상처

슬픔과 악몽의 수확자,
그래서 깨어날수 없는 존재의 슬픔.

Conflict among people

untreatable wounds

Receiver of sadness and nightmares

Tragedy of un-wake-able being

I see that this project can be improved by more dramatic expression in sound on what they are trying express & cleaner mechanical presentation. However, over all it was an interesting project.

It was frightening to watch it move on late afternoon with pouring rain outside.

 

My new bike to stroll the city

I finally bought a small bike to stroll around the downtown of Seoul. It’s a 12 Kg, 16 inch wheels, foldable bike made by Benneton. Yes, it’s green & it’s fashionable. The problem is that I only have 4 days a week to bike around the city and with recent mass rallies in my neighborhood, it’s quiet difficult to ride a bike among 30-40,000 crowds – although when public transportation is blocked, it’s a good & only way to travel other than walking. On top of that, it’s been raining last few weeks right after I got my new bike. Funny, huh? It rained today as well. I was just about to go out & stroll the hood.

If you see a girl with pigtails riding a bright green bike a bit clumsily near Gyungbok Palace area in Seoul, that is me! Believe me, you won’t see that many grown up girls with pigtails…

 

“Happier Tears” a guerilla exhibition by some of my students

I’ve been thinking about showcasing some of my students’ work at my blog… as we are running multiple community blogs as they are documenting their design process for requirement.

This afternoon, I’ve gotten a delightful email from a student of mine which starting as, “how’s your weekend? ….” He is graduating this semester and he is running a weekly physical computing workshop among students at Digital Media Design department. I’m aware that they also started a weekly discussion meetings. Good kids. All they needed was a little motivation.

Anyway, I was delightfully happy to see the first result. After introducing arduino workshop last semester (thanks, David & Tom for your support!) students got really excited for different possibilities. Now, from sophomores to seniors are gathering on their own to create something at their physical computing workshop. For design school where students mostly depended on their visual art abilities, this is a significant change and for interaction designers who design for 5 senses, it’s a good direction to go.

Their first group project is called, “Happier Tears” A simple group portrait. <see above movie> It was hung in 4th floor hallway of our building without any approval ahead of time – a guerrilla exhibition. Go students! I told to Leo(leader of this group) that he can throw a guerrilla exhibition in front of my office.

* Note about “Happier Tears” - I think, this title is based on “Happy Tears” by Roy Lichtenstein which has become a scandalously famous art piece in Korea by Roy Lichtenstein because of recent incident regarding Samsung Group’s Executive’s wife’s purchase of “Happy Tears” which raised a suspicion of money laundering. Read this article if you are not sure what this is about.

 

spring is here loud and clear

Last two weeks have been warm in 60s & 70s with soft breeze in the air. It’s really hard not noticing these blossoms everywhere even if I was spending most of my time indoors working in front of computers or in front of a projector & students. Luckily, I have a wall of large windows in my apt looking down the street and I found all the trees are green all of sudden. Now, I have natural shades to walk pass by in the street in my neighborhood. Colorful flowers are everywhere trying to remind me it’s spring. Pink, red, white, yellow…with baby green.

Spring is nice but, it’s also tough. It’s hard to concentrate on work when weather is this nice and also, I wish I could go away somewhere with someone special.  hmmm… I guess that’s why girls get wandering feelings in spring more than guys… it asks me to get out and smell the air! ( also not to forget to look at the mirror one more time before I walk out. )

Students were also looking at me like ‘why should we stay in this dark room with a projection?’ so I had two classes outdoor last week. I found an architectural looking sculpture in the sculpture garden and declared it as my outdoor office. I asked them to smell, listen, touch, see everything they could feel in any kind of ways – while they wait for their turn to get one to one advising session with me. They will deliver a photo image that they took to represent what they felt. I’m waiting for it so will see what they bring me back with. Interaction design is designing for five+ senses that human experiences in, therefore they should tune into all their senses, not just visual sense.

This post is totally mumbling but, please forgive me. It’s spring and it’s very loud and clear in Korea. I’d better enjoy every bit of it while it lasts.

 

Walking into CineCube — Seoul Version of Angelika Film Center

CineCube in Gwanghwamun, Seoul

For a New York Junkie like me, it’s fortunate to live near such a theater like ‘CineCube’ in Seoul… I always lived in walking distance near Angelika Film Center and Landmark Sunshine theater in New York City so, I’m spoiled about easy access to non-mainstream movies in general. Anyway, I haven’t had many chances to catch up movies this winter unfortunately and I just had a free time after some work @ the cafe Di Bibe near my place. I wanted to go see ‘No Country for Old Men’ or ‘There Will Be Blood’ and so on. When I searched in Naver.com in Korean (Naver.com is Korean version of popular search engine with a very successful marketing campaign with green search box but, you don’t get much results), ‘No Country for Old Men’ was listed as no longer in theater…. as I recalled it only played in two theaters in Seoul… I guess it’s not the kind of Korean main stream moviegoers like to watch. With my disappointment, I decided to just take a look at this theater near my place that I knew for sure they play some good indie or foreign films. There it was, ‘No Country for Old Men’ was playing. (Hey, thanks for nothing, Naver!) So I decide to walk there after a home cooked dinner.

At the front of the ticket counter (it’s Friday!) I said, “Do you still have any seat left for No Country for Old Men?” The lady said, “There is one seat left & that’s the last one” “Oh, please give me that one to me please!” She added it’s the second row seat but, I didn’t mind since I knew this theater is like Angelika Film Center… small theater rooms. However, it felt kind of funny to purchase the last ticket left. I was glad that I came alone.

As I was waiting for the theater to be available to get in, I looked around the posters… as you can see they are not main stream movies in Korea. Hmmm… I can believe that they are playing “Sicko” now… but, I was really appreciating to have this kind of theater in my neighborhood. This theater is operated by donation of corporations so there are no commercials or trailers before the featured film. It plays straight to the movie. That was something.

The movie, No Country for Old Men was great. I really liked it. Again, I appreciated Cohen brother’s film & really glad that I was able to watch in a big screen. I don’t think dvd will do it for this kind of film. During the film, I couldn’t help laughing (that leaves bitter after taste) where other audience didn’t as they were reading the subtitles… This is another fun experience I have in theaters here in Seoul. I get to read in Korean and listen in English and can observe reaction of the Korean movie audience… it’s a particular experience I enjoy… sorta multi-tasking, I would say.

I guess I will stroll to this CineCube theater often from now on.

 

Return of an acquaintance who I associated with a funny hangover experience

You might be wondering about this strange title. (This blog is more for my friends.)

I have told a funny story about this acquaintance of mine to many of my friends last summer and most of my NY friends teased / accused me of having a lesbian experience. Oh, those New Yorkers with dirty minds — Anyhow, I never wrote about it in my blog… well, due to little bit of embarrassment I suppose.

I usually start this story with, “oh, I woke up at the girl’s dormitory room after drinking a lot in Seoul …” then most of my friends’ usual reactions are “what?!”

Nothing happened, really.

The real story goes like this. My first 4 months in Seoul (that was when I had stronger stomach,) I used to go to this one particular bar and drank and hung out with the regulars as well as my accompanying friends. The regulars are mostly filmmakers including professors and grad students, photographers, writers, designers, artists, musician… yeah, artsy but very down to earth. As I saw the same faces several times, I often was asked to join this group of filmmakers. Usually, there was one other girl in this group whenever I joined them after drinking with my friends. She is a film grad student from China who is studying in Seoul. Her Korean was limited but, pretty good so we used to talk a bit.

One evening, it was my friend’s birthday. I ended up that bar as third round. When we were about to be done for the night, this group came in and seemed to be happy to find me there & asked me to join them as usual. So, I’ve joined after two of my friends left. The professor guy wanted to call our mutual friend and he actually showed up within 30 min. (Wow, amazing mobility for a drink call! ) so we continued to drink… I should have stopped there but, when you are drunk, I guess you lose track of how much you drink… I think I drank few more glasses of wine. The problem is that from that point, I remember but, although I hate to admit it but, with some blind spot.

We stepped out of the bar to eat around 3 am or so. I remember talking about things with them and eating late night food but, the strangest thing is that I don’t remember what I ate! I remember who I ate with but, didn’t remember what I ate! I saw my friend left drunk trying to grab a taxi & I was kind of thinking how the hell am I going to take a taxi alone this drunk and won’t it be dangerous… Like she read my mind, she said that she knows exactly where I could stay that night. She took me who hardly walk straight to her dorm. I do remember this part clearly so don’t imagine things! Her roommate was away so I could use her roommate’s bed. She gave me some baggy tees to change and we said good-night.

Next morning, I woke up with a pounding headache… you know the usual why-did-I-do-this-to-me kind of hangover. I immediately cleaned up quickly and tried to leave as soon as possible after saying ‘Thank You” as I was embarrassed. She said, “wait!” “I would like to give you a token of gift for your visit to my dormitory room.” (This is where my friends find it questionable.) She gave me a hand phone accessory from China. I think I left pretty quickly right after saying “Thanks a lot” again. Oh, how dreadfully long that subway ride was due to my condition that morning. All I wanted to do was to go home & sleep, not 50 min subway ride!

After some resting, I felt a lot better then, I really appreciated her hospitality and thought she is a really cool person. But, I didn’t have her contact info & I had to fly out to the US next day for over 2 months so, I lost a track of her. Last fall & winter, I did bumped into other guys in her group but never saw her at that bar. I also didn’t go out drinking much since last fall due to my stomach problems. Then it just remained as a funny experience I had and a story none of my friends seem to forget.

Yesterday, I got an email from her. She found my email address from the school site. (I don’t even know where that site is, honestly!) She wrote that she wanted to see me before she went back to China but, she didn’t have my contact. She added that she remembers that I kept saying that I would love to visit China oneday. She is teaching Film in a university in Dalian and asked me to contact her if I ever want to visit China and I should visit Dalian where is only one hour flight away from Seoul. What a pleasant surprise! I wrote her back in Korean, wishing her all the best and I did try to contact her through one of the people in her group to say “Thank you” – which was true.

Hmmmm…..I guess I will be visiting China some day. Life is funny.

 

“Oasis Cleaner Attack Incident” – A play

Theater Oasis Cleaner

(Sorry about my laziness… where I posted only photos but not blog for days)

As I frantically traveled across the pacific ocean for 10 days in the order of; Seoul – LA – Portland – Seattle – Vancouver, BC – Seattle – Seoul, a friend of mine in Seoul booked a ticket for this little independent theater, “Oasis Cleaner Theater” in Off-Dahak-Ro (Dahak-Ro is like Broadway in Seoul, Theater District.) Thanks to her, I was able to see this lovely play and actually she was surprised to see my appearance while my 5 day stay in Korea before taking off to New York, re-acrossing the pacific ocean and the US.

When I brought up about checking out some independent small plays in Dahak-ro while we had some drinks & chat, she mentioned “Oasis Cleaner Attack Incident.” I was very interested since I knew that I missed it when it came to my campus during Spring Festival 2007. So we’ve decided to see before I was stressing over the finals along with sudden visit of my mother who needed a medical care. The ticket only costed $10. This is extremely inexpensive considering high profile musicals or plays cost about $40-$60 per ticket in Seoul.

To find this unfamiliar small theater, we had to walk in a small old streets where it seemed like time stopped there as if it’s still 1970-1980. When we found the cleaner like sign on a small building, we were excited. The theater was small & pitch black dark inside when the light is off and was located in the basement with only 100 seats- oh well, they are literally chairs or cushions on the floor. During the play, I hoped that there won’t be any fire because there was only one small staircase down to this hole of theater… and you know what that means. That was the setting anyway.

To my surprise, the play was delightfully well written and well acted out among 9 actors & actresses. This is a story about a middle age cleaner owner who’s been running a small cleaner for half decade, two generation in modern Seoul city… I won’t spoil it by writing a plot here but, the last scene where these money-corrupted people being washed together in a giant washing machine was pretty impressive. It’s definitely a feel good play and highly recommended for a date. (Too bad it wasn’t a date for my case but, I was with my close friends from junior high school so, can’t complain it. )I really look forward to finding more indie plays that are going on every corner at off-theater district in Seoul.

Below is another shot from street in the main theater district.

 

New Year’s Note

Well, I don’t have any good new year’s photo so I decided to use this old photo that was taken at my campus. My second half of year 2007 has been very difficult. I wouldn’t go into the details but, I’ve been very stressed physically and emotionally. I’m glad it’s almost over. I’m still having stressful tasks to finish before Feb is over but, as long as I get 7 hours of sleep at night, I might find back my usual optimism.

The above photo was taken really early morning around 7:40 am. It was Sunday but, I had to go to the campus by 8 am in order to full fill some administrative duties. Yeah, there are 300% more administrative work than teaching at the universities here & they never tell you the schedule until few days before. It’s like a reality show on TV when you get a special note from the host to tell you what to do next. Every semester, my sleep schedule gets wacky – meaning sleeping about 3, 4 hours a day during school days… after 8 months, I got sick. Perhaps everyone else is immune at not sleeping enough hours and working around the clock even they are at their 40’s here but, I’m certain that I’m not made for that.

However, teaching is a blessing. Teaching my talented students is like resting in a beautiful island in the middle of storm. I guess teaching them & getting summer and winter vacations are barely keeping me here…although I begin to wonder if I’m shortening my lifespan by taking so much unnecessary stress from this unchangeable society. I need to figure out how to get by without stress… This is a new challenge since I’ve never had this intense stress before. First thing is to figure out what really stress me. Then I could see what would improve the situation. I usually don’t have New Year’s resolution but, perhaps “Being free (almost) from stress” would be the one this year. Happy New Year!!!

I think I can be cool if I can get enough sleep a day. That’s a bottom of it. What to do about it…huh?