Tag Archives: Seoul

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How crowded is crowded?

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Copenhagen differs from Seoul. In Copenhagen, I have ample opportunities to feel emptiness. When I go to a shopping mall (Kronen Vanlose) at 5PM on a weekday, it is literally vacant. Only few are spotted.

 

 

In Seoul, people constantly bump into people on street. By default, I feel crowdedness. When I go to Costco Wholesale at 8PM on any weekday, I should stand in line more than 10 minutes to meet cashiers.

 

 

Feeling emptiness or feeling crowdedness affects us. According to marketing research, social density shapes how we value products in a space. I find this research interesting and insightful, but it does not say much about how (objectively) crowded is (subjectively) crowded. While Koreans find a store or mall empty, Danes may find the same space crowded.

 

 

This article is about social space and material objects for sale within that space. We draw primarily on Goffman’s (1971) concepts of use space and possession territories to predict that as the social density of a given space increases, inferences of the subjective social class and income of people in that space fall. Eight studies confirm that this is indeed the case, with the result holding even for stick figures, thus controlling for typical visual indicators of social class such as clothing or jewelry. Furthermore, these social class inferences mediate a relationship between social density and product valuation, with individuals assessing both higher prices and a greater willingness to pay for products presented in less crowded contexts. This effect of inferred class on product valuation is explained by status-motivated individuals’ desire to associate with higher-status people. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first to reveal the link between social density, status inferences, and object valuations. As such, it makes a novel contribution to what has come to be known in sociology as the topological turn: a renewed focus on social space.

 

 

 

Cases

Seoul: Past vs. Present

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While Seoul grew rapidly from the ashes to become a metropolis, this city lost much of its uniqueness and beauty, in particular, a set of organically linked traditional buildings. Two miniatures at the Seoul Museum of History showed stark contrast.

 

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Seoul became the capital of a sovereign nation in 1945, with Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, and three years later, it was upgraded to “Special City” status. However, the city was plagued by poverty as refugees poured in from North Korea and masses of ethnic Koreans returned to their homeland from overseas. Making matters worse, the Korean War broke out in 1950, and soon the city was in ruins. After the war, economic development returned, and Seoul began to transform into a huge, modern metropolis. The construction industry advanced steadily with the pressing need for more water mains, sewage systems, roads, subways, housing and schools to accommodate the explosive population growth. Streets were laid in the area south of the Hangang River, and the boundaries of the Seoul metropolitan area continued to expand. The ‘Miracle on the Han River’ brought industrialization, economic growth, democratization, and governmental decentralization to the nation.

(1945 – 2002, Period of Rapid Growth Seoul, Rising from the Ashes to become a Metropolis)

 

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Cases

Yido, a modern Korean pottery

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Yido is a widely-known premium pottery brands in Korea. It was found by Yi, Yoonshin, a ceramic artist. She successfully established herself in the business world not only because her work reinterprets traditional Korean ceramics in refined contemporary design but also because she paid attention to the two marketing lessons.

First, she listens to market. Recently, Yido launches a new collection called Cera/Mano. Differently from other collections which has four pieces of bowls for a family of four, this newly launched collection consists in only one piece designed for single family buyers.

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Second, she goes beyond products. In the four-story flagship store, only one floor is dedicated to ceramic-ware sales. on other floors, a Italian restaurant, a brunch cafe, a ceramic academy, and a art and living store run. If other ceramic designers learn these marketing lessons, I assume, they will be able to become market-savvy designers.

Reference

Joo J. & Peterson, S. (2012), “Learning about innovative risk mediation strategies from entrepreneurs in creative industries,” AAG 2012, Working with Freedom: Learning about innovative risk mediation strategies from entrepreneurs in creative industries, New York.

Creative entrepreneurial ventures are characterized by uniquely personal branded offerings with enormous potential for profit, combined with huge market and execution risk. What differentiate creative entrepreneurial ventures from that of technology ventures are their dependency on a few individuals’ intangible breakthrough ideas. The absence of process control and metrics for evaluating cost, risk and required time commitment makes Return On Investment (ROI) impossible to assess.

Consequently, private investments are virtually unattainable. The subsequent extreme financial pressure combined with ineffective processes leads to destructive behaviors. Traditionally, three independent and mutually supportive approaches exist to mitigate risk and increase profit in creative ventures. These are: (1) Education: Providing market and executions knowledge and experiences through schooling, internships and apprenticeships, (2) Funding: Government and/or trade association backed with coaching and financing, and (3) Collaboration: Pooling of resources and creative talent to leverage individual talents and mitigating risk.

We propose using Design Research, Design Thinking and technology venture insights to develop methods and tools for sustainably running creative entrepreneurial ventures. First, we will identify best practices, by qualitative research within the creative fields of design, music, game, movie and art in the cultural settings of Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Seoul. Secondly, we identify knowledge transfer opportunities and conduct brainstorming sessions to synthesize new methods and tools. The outcome will be a creative portfolio management matrix, outlining how to best take ideas from concept to commercialization as a function of market and execution risk for the examined creative disciplines.

Cases

An eye-catching sculpture in Seoul

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A gigantic sculpture standing in front of the MBC media center is called Square M-Communication. It looks like two people touching their hands. According to Young Ho Yoo who made this sculpture, the red frame represents media and two human sculptures represent the contemporary people who actively interact with media. This artwork represents the meeting between media and people symbolically. Some advances interpretation and saying that this work represents the ambition that media should not abuse its power as a big brother but aims to communicate with people as a friend.

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How could we design a better fire extinguisher?

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Since we spend most of our time in buildings, we are literally surrounded by fire extinguishers. It consists of a hand-held cylindrical pressure vessel containing an agent which can be discharged to extinguish a fire (Wikipedia). In general, we do not pay attention to them until needed. For me, I have never used any fire extinguisher in my life and have no interest in it. Interestingly, designers have noticed their problems and came up with two fairly different but equally interesting solutions.

Typical fire extinguishers have two critical problems. First, they are often ignored and difficult to be located. Even though they are red colored, fire extinguishers merely stand still and fail to grab our attention. Further, they do not go well with walls or interiors.

Recently, I found a series of eye-catching fire extinguishers at a store. In order to solve the first problem, some designers changed the appearance of the fire extinguishers. They painted skins to make them visually appealing and to make them go well with the walls. Some of the newly painted fire extinguishers look so nice that I even wanted to buy them for home decor.

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The second problem is that typical fire extinguishers are difficult to use in emergency situations. Therefore, instruction manuals are prepared. A practice session runs for those who want to try to use them in advance.

Recently, I found another, newly designed fire extinguishers in a building. Designers changed the size and the container material so that the shape “says” how to use. Now, we do not have to spend time on learning how to use them; instead, we can simply  pick up one or a few water-bottle shaped fire extinguishers and throw them on a fire.

These two fire extinguishers teach me what designers do for us. Designers change the appearance of a product; alternatively, they change the way we use it.

Cases

Standing desk: New way to work

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I suffered from minor shoulder – and wrist pain for a long time. In order to lessen the pain, I decided to train my left hand for using the computer mouse a few years back.

Certainly, using mouse with my left hand was very challenging in the first couple of years. However, 3-year of intensive practice paid me off. I could click, drag, and drop icons using my left hand without noticing that I did so with my left hand.

After having succeeded this “experiment,” I made another decision recently to relieve back pain; standing up while working. I first searched for standing desks or stand-up desks, then read online posts (e.g., reviews by Mark Luckch and Alan Henry), and then created my own standing desk by putting together empty paper boxes.

My DIY practice showed the effect Instantly. I became free from back pain, paid more attention to my tasks, and most importantly, became exhausted at evening as I “exercised” all day long. In short, I was tired at day and slept well at night. Finally, I bought a height-adjustable table from Varidesk. 🙂

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Cases

Electronic Vehicle Charging Station in Seoul

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An EV charging station stands in the parking lot at my university. DML_EcarProbably, the department of automotive engineering installed it and owns the electronic vehicle. My first impression about them is that they do not interfere the traffic flow inside the busy parking lot because the charging station occupies a tiny space and it charges a small BMWi. However, I was concerned what happened when strangers mistakenly/intentionally unplug it although the screen said, “please do not unplug while charging.”

Electronic vehicles are popular in California. Interestingly, many EV drivers found it difficult to locate the charging station. A recent news said that some building owners promote their buildings having the charging stations at their parking lots. I hope to see more electronic cars on the road and more EV charging stations in Seoul.

 

 

Cases

Sterilizer in beauty stores

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Must buy items in Korea are skin care products. As the Korean entertainment programs including TV programs, movies, and music videos became highly popular in Asia, the beauty products made in Korean enjoy its strong brand power. Many cosmetic stores in Seoul are crowded by foreign visitors.

I have noticed in the stores that many foreign visitors avoid trying on samples because of their hygiene concerns. Interestingly, many cosmetic stores have their own sterilizers, like labs or hospitals. Visitors can use them by simply putting the skin care or body care products or beauty tools inside for 5 minutes.

DML_Cosmetic sterilizer

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Rooftop presentation of Seoul history

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I attended an interesting event at the Art center Nabi in Seoul. At this event, Robert Fouser, Associate Professor of Korean Language Education at Seoul National University, introduced the history of Seoul with a series of his own black and white photos of Seoul. His Korean-speaking presentation impressed me deeply; his photos remind me of my own student life (e.g., highways and Soju bottles).

More importantly, I noticed from his presentation that he love Seoul and spend much time on discovering my home town, while I pay attention to my second home town, Toronto. Thanks to his presentation, I came to open my third eye and, academically speaking, be mindful to enjoy the present moments in this city. Making familiar things unfamiliar will be the biggest role that artistic events could do to us.

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I also learned that the Art center Nabi is worth visiting; it is located at the center of Seoul and had a 15 year history for supporting artists. The website says,

“Art Center Nabi aims to act as an intermediary that transforms the cultural desires into vital activities. Our goal is formed around the idea of humanizing technology that technology is fully integrated with human’s cultural life to open a new space for creative practices. This can be achieved only after the fruitful collaboration and understanding among science technology, humanities and arts. Thus, Art Center Nabi maintains the following three ideas; being a ‘critique’ of contemporary culture independent from technological benefits; possessing ‘creativity’ which opens people’s mind to regard a new perspective and enables a new form of expression; creating ‘community’ where these ideas are shared and the new world is dreamed of. Art Center Nabi is at the center of this new culture, where artistic sensibility is combined with the technological possibility to bring out the power of change and creativity.”

 

Cases

Hanjin Shipping, the box project

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DML_Hanjin

MMCA (national Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is a representative museum located in the center of Seoul, Korea. In the museum stood an eye-popping art piece. It is “Home within Home within Home within Home within Home” and sponsored by Hanjin Shipping, the 8th biggest shipping company following Maersk, MSC, and CMA-CGM. Probably, it will take ages for a shipping company to obtain some artistic flavor. However, its effort will be paid off in the long run. Even a financial company such as Hyundai Card goes with musicians and support creative talents.

 

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… Hanjin Shipping The Box Project is an MMCA’s ambitious project through which Seoul Box is accoutered with artists’ ingenious and stimulating ideas. MMCA has selected Do Ho Suh (1962- ) as the protagonist for the Project’s first chapter held in celebration of the historic opening of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea’s Seoul Branch…

This huge fabric installation of Suh entitled ‘Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home’ is specially created to epitomize the vital spatial property of Seoul Box that can be undeniably characterized by its abundant natural light coming through its glass walls and the historical attribute of the Seoul branch’s compound in which traditional, modern and contemporary buildings embrace each other…

This work is comprised of a life-size (12 meters in height, 15 meters in width) replica of the three-story town house at Providence, Rhode Island, which was the artist’s first residence where he lived as a student in the United States in 1991 and ‘Seoul Home,’ a reproduction of his family’s traditional-style Korean house in Seoul, hanging in the middle of the former…

As one can infer from the title, the work elucidates and conjures the ever-expanding concept of space: traditional Korean house within Western-style house; Western-style house with Seoul Box; Seoul Box within the Seoul branch; the Seoul branch within Seoul… (written by Chuyoung Lee, Associate Curator. Click here for the complete introduction)