b2project

b2project entrance
B2Project is a gallery / cafe house in the quiet alley of Dahak-ro (Haehwa-dong), Seoul; next to traditional old houses (한옥) that are few left in that area. It’s owned by my friends, sisters.  Its interior is full of different kind of lightings, large plant and the German vintage objects and furniture.  The gallery is located in the basement and I’m planning to fill that space with interactive media art projects eventually.

Anna & I often use this lovely quiet cafe (with free wifi) as our design office & the owner always greets us warmly and we chat about daily stuff.  I also admit that I got hooked to their cheese cake that has an ice cream filling.  mmmmmmm~

Anna and I secretly want to keep this space only to ourselves since it’s really a rare gem in Seoul…. but, I believe in sharing and open-community & I would like to see this space beoming artists’ communial space.  One weekend, I’ve invited media artists colleague from my research lab to introduce them to each other.  Somebody once called me “Nokia – connector” — If I’m profiled as in “Tipping Point” by Cromwell, I would belong to Connectors.

Outside of the back alley, from the broad street, Dahak-ro may seem like a very caotic place, just like Time Square in NYC.  This area is called ‘Theater District’ and you can imagine lines of people to watch all sort of plays, musicals and many bars and restaurants….drunk people.  However, if you don’t mind walking deeper into the back toward hill, you will find artsy bars, cafe and galleries.  There is also a Robot Museum. 

From my childhood memory, Dahak-ro used to be a major place for college protesters.  Yes, I grew up in a neighborhood not so far from here.

 

Spring Fever

spring flowers in the street

It is spring at last. It has come a bit earlier but, we know that it will get chilly with its whimsical wind. The first sign of spring is cherry blossom in the street as well as yellow spring flowers called “Nari” but, when you start to see these brilliant spring flowers (photo above) you know Spring has come to us finally. These flowers are everywhere in Korea, in the street, in the campus and even in the rooftop gardens.

I walked around to buy a new external hard drive (how dry & geeky?) and was delighted to find colorful scene in my neighborhood. New born green leaves, very colorful spring flowers cheers me up a bit at least.

Spring makes my heart pumps a little faster with unknown mysterious hope.

 

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

 

Park(ing) Day

http://parkingdaynyc.org/

It was last weekend when I was working with my leftover energy to run a UbiComp workshop after a long nights of a proposal writing.  Since the workshop was about sustainability in Ubiquitous computing, the subject headline of the alumni list caught my eyes. If you are not familiar with The Park(ing) Day, please click on the link above. I think it’s beautiful. I wish I could hang out in NYC street in a small park in a parking lot.

Then, I thought how lovely it would be to have a parking spot turned into a small park here in Seoul. It would be tough though. There aren’t street meter parking lots here much. Well, I haven’t seen one. The parking lots in Seoul city are generally run privately instead by city. The only possible parking lot in the street is the one in the Hongik university area in Seoul. It’s usually packed with cars and people until 2 am but, if some people decided to leave their cars home and decorate the parking spots into a series of parks, it would look lovely and artsy as the neighborhood stands for.

People in Korea, some of them(many) own cars to show their status, not because they really need them. The public transportation here excels. You can get anywhere basically – faster and reliable and inexpensive. However, people prefer to bring their fancy cars to small streets of traffic jams so they can feel better about themselves. I’ve got asked several times why I don’t own a car like I should have one because of my profession. They almost think it’s not cool that I don’t own a car. Not that would effect me how I feel about having a car in a city where is full of air pollution and traffic jams. I usually answer them like this, “One less person with a car would be good for the environment and for the city.”

I have a driving license and if I really feel the need, I would drive. For example, if I live somewhere I won’t have public transportation and if driving is the only option of getting somewhere. Beside I can always rent a car if I want to drive.

 

seoul update

bike @ bakery

파티세리. 비 patisserie, Bi is a small french bakery store across my building. I biked to Cinecube this afternoon to buy movie tickets then strolled a bit. It was a bit hot but, there were enough breeze to cool my sweat. This cute pastisserie has good sandwiches. I had an egg sandwich & capuccino. It was a lovely sunday afternoon.

Indian restaurant, Dal in Chungdamdong, Seoul, Korea.

I’ve been having Indian food craving so Jia took me to this newly opened Indian restaurant near Dosan Park area. There are several decent restaurants in this area. The prices are steep but, you never get disappointed.

Dal was also great. great food, great presentation. We sat at the balcony and talked some more about new book idea together. It was a lovely evening…until she drove me to my neigbhourhood.

Every road on the way to my neighourhood were all closed with the military policemen’s buses – again. I asked her to drop me off at the closest place where I could walk home. After walking along a wall of mp officers and buses, I found an open spot where they let me pass. It was so empty and quiet when I across the police line. I could walk through empty 16 lane wide roads which is usually filled with running cars. wow, it was so surreal – like NYC with black out in 2003. I felt like being in the eye of hurricane. In that surreal setting, I walked home leisurely. Oh, I eat beef anyway.

“I’m Not There” – Cinecube Theater

Are you a Bob Dylan fan? Then you should definitely go see this movie. This 135 min Mocumentary style movie was pretty experimental. It’s not the best film but, it was interesting enough to see how the director, Todd Haynes created 6 characters who are not Bob Dylan but has characters of Bob Dylan in different times and names. Still, not as interesting as Bob Dylan’s music itself but, it’s definitely worth watching it. I guess I liked this movie better than I would have… which means I had a good company to watch with. Someone who is like my long lost twin.

It wasn’t so bad tonight. I mean the rally. They usually block more streets than tonight. I passed by Sejong theater center and saw a policeman kindly taking some photos for tourists in the middle of military policemen and their buses. We couldn’t help not laughing. The breeze was really nice tonight. I wish I could have taken a long walk but, it was too late for that.

 

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…

 

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.

 

Subway Line 2 – the green line

(photos shot while my train moving away from the track.)
Subway has been a part of my life in Seoul unlike of my previous lifestyle in NYC. I used to walk or took yellow cabs or bus. My usual subway ride is on line #2, the green line (see the map above.) Its route is shaped as a large circle that goes around the downtown Seoul city where Han river goes across in the middle… I go to Hongik University area often since my good friend Jiyeon lives in that neighborhood but, it is exactly a half circle far from Samsung station. I’ve actually measured the travel time in both direction for experimenting and both takes exactly about the same time – 45 min – 55 min. Another thing to watch out is that subway doesn’t run all night long like NYC… if I need to take subway back to the south of the Han river (let me put it this way, if I don’t want to spend about 22USD for my taxi ride) So, I’d better get into the subway before 11:10 pm unfortunately… by that time, no bus available either. I have taken the last train of the day for that reason several times

The subway in Seoul got very complicated over years… I think it’s catching up with NYC subway map. The inside of the subway trains are very clean and spacious compared to NY subway. It’s interesting that subway is wheel chair accessible. There are wheel chair lift on staircases and also elevators. I’ve actually seen a guy in a wheel chair inside the subway and understood why it’s spacious and open in the middle in the carts. Very often you could find many people sleeping or watching satelite TV stations / movies or playing games on their phones. It’s annoying sometimes a passenger sitting next to you does lean on your shoulder time to time. When I finally catch the last train of the day (as usual,) the majority of passengers are drunk…some alseep… it’s Korea, the land of drunkers.

Speaking on the phone in the subway is considered rude so you could find people covering their mouth with their hands when they speak on the phone inside of subway carts. Also, there are always vacant seats right next to crowds standing next. They are priority seats and unless passengers are pregnant or elderly, they don’t sit there. I don’t know how many times I was tempted to sit over there while like 20 people standing next to me.

Somehow, I quickly got these unwritten habit of subway riders – good or bad.