Modern to hypermodern: The theater as a fantastic space
Photo by Dr. Michael W. Hurt.By Michael W. HurtI've just finished the final stage of a book with professor of sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, titled, “Beijing to Seoul, Modern to Hypermodern,” which visually documents the former city's journey through modernity, and takes the latter as an example of the cradle of hypermodernity that will soon engulf all of humanity.This short text essay and longer set of images is just one of 15 such chapters in the book.There are different types of space in cities, ranging from the pragmatic and leisurely therapeutic, all the way to the fantastic such as the theater, which is a special staging area for otherworldly experience. The cinema has always been a handmaiden to modernity, the magical screen through which modern populations caught a glimpse of a wider world and all its modern charms. Like the department store, the movie theater has always been a place of consumerist leisure, where only modern subjects could enter, or at least with enough time spent inside it, one eventua
