The Korea Times

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

Jun 29, 2019By Michael W. Hurt

Modern to hypermodern: The theater as a fantastic space

On the importance of space and social empathy

DJ Steve Aoki's photographer?―?Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter?―?snaps partygoers at the Walker Hill Hotel in 2008, when Korean youth were quickly learning debauchery-filled, Western-style, branded DJ parties as a market-sanctioned mode of adult play. The Cobrasnake's pictures (and their display on his website for the world to see) were part of a process in which Korea was subjected to and defined by a global gaze, which helped Korea and Koreans see it and themselves in an increasingly global way. Photo by Michael HurtBy Michael HurtI'm in the middle of the final crunch leading up to the publishing of a book with professor of sociology Ikki Kim that compares Beijing and Seoul at different stages of their development, with the former as an example of that city's journey through modernity and the latter as an example as the cradle of hypermodernity. This small essay is just the beginning of a couple of samples from the book, with later, finished installments to include pictures from both professors' work. In a hypermodern age in which identity is fractured and is something bas

Jun 8, 2019By Michael Hurt

On the importance of space and social empathy

Flashed flesh, 'pay models' and entrepreneurial femininity in the creative economy of Korean Instagram

This photograph has many uses in both the model and photographer's Instagram feeds. It is not only a provocative picture of a Korean Instagram “pay model” (@so_lexy), but a calling card for the brands of both the model and a photographer looking for more gigs. It complies with Instagram's flesh exposure policies even as it pushes the edge of what is socially acceptable according to still-extant conservative social norms for young, Korean women. It is not a mere statement of narcissism or lasciviousness on the part of the model, but is an act of business, even if “art” is perhaps only a delivery vehicle, a kind of aesthetic cover. Photo by Andika Ahn (Instagram @andika_hendro_wibowo)By Michael HurtThe more I do work as a visual sociologist and ethnographer in Korea, the more I am fascinated by the many rabbit holes I am pulled down. The hypermodern Korea I live in ― and Korea's hypermodernity has permeated through society to differing extents and in different ways ― is most apparent when entering virtual spaces and interacting with people's many avatars an

May 7, 2019By Michael Hurt

Flashed flesh, 'pay models' and entrepreneurial femininity in the creative economy of Korean Instagram

The rhizomatic, hypermodern cinematic universe of BLACKPINK's 'Kill This Love' video

Off-duty model Kang Yu-rim (@about_ego) sports the hypermodern, ready-for-the-world techwear look that is even showing up in BLACKPINK videos. In a few months, you will see a watered down version of this on the streets of Seoul.By Michael HurtWelcome to the Rhizome As a visual sociologist, I started this article a long time ago by talking about the fantasy worlds of BTS. But in the time that has passed since this video was released, BTS has been upstaged in my mind by BLACKPINK, whose amazing, interstellar video brimming over with cosmic bling must now come first. The space in which BLACKPINK or BTS moves, from stage to stage, scene to scene―is a rhizomatic hyperspace―a hypertext version of the normal spaces in which music videos often place themselves. Basically, a rhizome is a complex system of nodes in a plant root network, in which one can plot a path non-linearly, punctuated by nodes from which you can go in any direction. Rhizospace uses the spatial logic of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure™ books of my youth, the links of the World Wide Web, Facebook, and all social media.

Apr 13, 2019By Michael Hurt

The rhizomatic, hypermodern cinematic universe of BLACKPINK's 'Kill This Love' video

Clothing, social empathy and the power of stepping into someone else's shoes

Korean model Dahye Lee (Instagram @ssoodor) models a modern Vietnamese ao dai dress from Hanoi designer and brand Le Lam in front of a traditional Korean wooden door in the Insadong district in central Seoul.By Michael HurtThere is a power in stepping into someone else's shoes, as the old American expression goes. But it must be done without stepping on the toes of the person who owns them. What one does in deciding to don the accoutrements and attire of the other is symbolically place oneself into their subject(ive) position. When that act of embodying is recorded into a picture, the clothing and the photographic subject all become elements placed into a larger conversation with environmental elements such as other people, buildings, or other objects in the culture. This is one way to place objects and people from different nations, places and cultures into direct semiotic (aesthetic) conversation. And when the conversation is part of a good-faith effort to promote bridge building and promote direct, empathetic understanding, much can be learned. My work these days involves the conc

Apr 6, 2019By Michael Hurt

Clothing, social empathy and the power of stepping into someone else's shoes

Seoul Fashion Week: On the runway of diversity

Model Jo Lee (Instagram @jolandh) broadens the aesthetic range of Korean tradition as he sports Joseon-era gentleman's attire on the Seoul Fashion Week street “runway,” in what is surely a nod to the runaway Netflix hit “KINGDOM.” Photo by Michael HurtBy Michael HurtThe most recent Seoul Fashion Week was a staging ground for diversity and diverse projects. I've been crowing about the way the unique space of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) has offered itself for all sorts of social activities, including the independent and organic formation of the largest fashion runway at Seoul Fashion Week, and it's comprised of everyday folks, not industry insiders. Ever since Seoul Fashion Week inaugurated the DDP space in October 2012, it has become a stage where various pockets of cultural diversity and hybridity in Korean culture come to network, show off and present their projects. Various agendas are in motion, from Instagram models trying to get free, well-shot pictures to gain more followers, to models trying to get discovered, and designers clothing said models in

Mar 30, 2019By Michael Hurt

Seoul Fashion Week: On the runway of diversity

The material girls of Pyongyang: theorizing gendered consumption in North Korea

Aspirational cosmopolitanism as style is clearly on display in state-steered, North Korean popular culture, because it is in line with state goals of futurist, science-driven development that mixes with traditional notions of gendered beauty. Scanned photo courtesy of Alek SigleyBy Michael HurtThis time around, I'm going to issue a “trigger warning” for my article. If words on a page require you to concentrate, think hard, and carefully digest the concepts being thrown at you, it is likely you will simply skip this article this week and thumb over to something else.If all long or unfamiliar words that denote pretty big concepts (that are actually defined in the piece) all appear as “jargon” being used merely to frustrate, you should probably move on to the Buzzfeed version of this piece (which really exists) and look at all the nice pictures, because they actually are quite nice.Or you can read the New York Times piece that expresses continual surprise that North Korean people actually think about fashion at all. Either way, I warn you that you will likely not

Mar 3, 2019By Michael Hurt

The material girls of Pyongyang: theorizing gendered consumption in North Korea

Dragging K-Pop onto the global stage

By Michael Hurt Much ado has been made about K-POP. And these days, even more social attention has been placed on things such as gender and the politics of belonging, along with the changing nature of seemingly “simple” identities. Put simply, there's a lot of talk about shifting definitions of male and female, as well as the rights that are attendant to those identities and expressions of sexuality within them.As a researcher and visual sociologist, I am personally quite interested in looking at what is going on in the realm of clothing amongst young Koreans struggling with the burden of finding and asserting personal identity in an age when it's no longer handed to them, gift-wrapped and ready-to-wear as one-size-fits-all solutions, e.g. Korean, young, single woman, or whatever job one manages to find― doctor, lawyer, schoolteacher. So I have been looking at street fashion in Korea for more than a straight decade now as a metric of social changes. In a hypermodern society in which you are what you buy, or at least you are judged by your consumptive choices and a visible

Jan 26, 2019By Michael Hurt

Notes from Seoul Fashion Week, October 2018

A lovely, quirky, and frankly a tad awkward fashion-obsessed high school girl several seasons ago. I photographed her when she was sewing her own hats and dresses by hand. I know she's been working, but haven't seen her in years. Now her length of bone has served her well, as she has lost about 25 pounds and gotten into an agency. She told me she walked at 11 shows this Fashion Week. All photos by Michael HurtBy Michael HurtI just finished covering Seoul Fashion Week, and man now at Vietnam International Fashion Week to look at the fashion and Korean influence on it, which I have seen and been told is considerable.Rather than extended prose description, I will allow the photos and captions from Instagram to speak for themselves.Enjoy the pictures and I will leave you with the paraphrased words of ur-anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss: “Korean fashion is good to think [with].”The point when Levi-Strauss wrote this was that the significance of animals on a totem pole was not that they tasted good and hence warranted being graven into wood for all to see in the same way we s

Nov 11, 2018By Michael Hurt

Notes from Seoul Fashion Week, October 2018

The Korean Style: The medium and message of Korean fashion

Vietnamese model and Instagram influencer Salim poses in hot Korean brand Greedilous in the Old Quarter of Hanoi after Vietnam International Fashion Week, which took place last week. Korean fashion is hugely influential in Vietnam. Photo by Michael W. HurtBy Michael W. Hurt Lately I have been exploring the way a Korean style defines the snowballing interest in Korean popular culture that is quickly spreading across the planet.It is an avalanche with varying degrees of stickiness, to be sure, but its advance is as undeniable as it is unstoppable. Yet, the problem I see with this theoretically is that scholars and other pundits tend only to pay close attention to a pop culture “wave” or other kind of social phenomenon when clear, and by definition, exceptional cases burst forth into the popular consciousness.Examples of this are PSY's “Gangnam Style” video breaking the YouTube meter, BTS showing up on another numerical metric of success multiple times (Billboard magazine), or any Korean director winning a prize at Cannes, or frankly, any Korean receiving an acco

Nov 3, 2018By Michael W. Hurt

Fashion Field Notes