Boing Boing » korea

Bookcase/staircase/slide!

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:21:30 +0000

Architects Moon Hoon designed a house in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, that uses a staircase as a slide, a library and a room-divider. My goodness, it is lovely.

The basic request of upper and lower spatial organization and the shape of the site promted a long and tin house with fluctuating facade which would allow for more differentiated view. The key was coming up with a multi-functional space which is a large staircase, bookshelves, casual reading space, home cinema, slide and many more…
The client was very pleased with the design, and the initial design was accepted and finalized almost instantly, only with minor adjustments. The kitchen and dining space is another important space where family gathers to bond. The TV was pushed away to a smaller living room. The attic is where the best view is possible, it is used as a play room for younger kids. The multi-use stair and slice space brings much active energy to the house, not only children, but also grown ups love the slide staircase…An action filled playful house for all ages…

Panorama House by Moon Hoon (via Neatorama)

South Korea lives in the future (of brutal copyright enforcement)

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:13:13 +0000

The US-Korean Free Trade Agreement came with a raft of draconian enforcement rules that Korea -- then known as a world leader in network use and literacy -- would have to adopt. Korea has since become a living lab of the impact of letting US entertainment giants design your Internet policy -- and the example that industry lobbyists point to when they discuss their goals.

One of the laws that Korea adopted early was the infamous "three strikes" rule, where repeated, unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement leads to whole families being punished through restriction of, or disconnection from their Internet connections. Now the Korean National Human Rights Commission has examined the fallout from the country's three strikes rules, and called for its repeal due to high costs to wider Korean society.

Here's the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Danny O'Brien with more:

The entertainment industry has repeatedly pointed to South Korea as a model for a controlled Internet that should be adopted everywhere else. In the wake of South Korea's implementation, graduated response laws have been passed in France and the United Kingdom, and ISPs in the United States have voluntarily accepted a similar scheme.
But back in Korea, the entertainment industry's experiment in Internet enforcement has been a failure. Instead of tackling a few "heavy uploaders" involved in large scale infringement, the law has spiraled out of control. It has now distributed nearly half a million takedown notices, and led to the closing down of 408 Korean Internet users' web accounts, most of which were online storage services. An investigation led by the Korean politician Choi Jae-Cheon showed that half of those suspended were involved in infringement of material that would cost less than 90 U.S. cents. And while the bill's backers claimed it would reduce piracy, detected infringement has only increased as more and more users are subject to suspensions, deletion, and blocked content.
This Wednesday, Korea's National Human Rights Commission recommended that the three strikes law be re-examined, given its unclear benefits, and its potential violation of the human rights to receive and impart information and to participate in the cultural life of the community.

Korea's three strikes rules are similar to the "Six Strikes" rules that America's leading ISPs have voluntarily adopted and just put into effect. If you want to see the future of American Internet policy, and its fallout, look at Korea.

Korean Lawmakers and Human Rights Experts Challenge Three Strikes Law

Jimi Hendrix on a gayageum

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:09:47 +0000

Luna Lee performs Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" on a gayageum, a "traditional Korean zither-like string instrument" (Wikipedia). She freaking nails it. There's lots more if that strikes your fancy.

Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna (via Reddit)

Google adds North Korean death-camps to maps

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:42:53 +0000

Google Maps has added notorious, secretive North Korean prison camps to its maps of the country. The data is gleaned from user contributions, including a first-person account of Shin Dong-Hyuk, who escaped from Camp 14, a death camp where he was born and raised.

Called Map Maker, Google’s information for the country’s layout comes primarily from visitors and from former citizens who defected, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The mapping idea stemmed in part from a 28-year-old South Korean who tried to use Google maps on a trip to Laos four years ago, but found it unhelpful, at best. He ultimately helped devise the Google map application for North Korea.
“I thought if I could fill in information on North Korea, it might be useful in an emergency or tragedy if Google can provide a map for aid agencies,” the South Korean told the Wall Street Journal.

Google maps North Korea, including prison camps [Cheryl K. Chumley/Washington Times] (via /.)

J Rabbit, "Happy Things" (music video)

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:11:49 +0000

A talented Korean musical duo on their way to becoming a YouTube sensation. Video Link They're on Facebook and Twitter, here's their website, and here's their YouTube channel. (via Reddit, where there is a gross and racist comment thread so just ignore that please, thanks Joe Sabia)

Covert assassin weapons from North Korea

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:29:24 +0000

CNN reports on the arsenal discovered on the North Korean assassin arrested in Seoul last year: a poison-dart pen, a pen-pistol, a flashlight-gun, and more.

Disguised to look like a Parker ballpoint pen, it contains a poison needle and is practically impossible to identify as a weapon.
The second pen shoots a poison-filled bullet which penetrates the skin and releases the toxin and the third weapon is a flashlight, loaded with up to three bullets. They all look completely innocuous but all three will kill...
... That target was anti-North Korea activist, Park Sang-hak, who has since been given round-the-clock police protection by South Korean authorities. We showed Park the footage of the weapons intended for him. He was shocked.

'Poison' pen mightier than sword for would-be North Korean assassin (Thanks, polymorf!)

Quack medicine pills made from babies and super bacteria smuggled from China to South Korea

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:00:01 +0000

The South Korean customs department is going to target its inspections in order to intercept shipments of Chinese quack medicine tablets made from the flesh of babies and foetuses, which are sometimes infected with superbacteria. From the BBC:

"It was confirmed those capsules contain materials harmful to the human body, such as super bacteria. We need to take tougher measures to protect public health," a customs official was quoted as saying by the Korea Times.
Inspections are to be stepped up on shipments of drugs arriving from north-east China, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said that capsules were being dyed or switched into boxes of other drugs in a bid to disguise them.
Some of the capsules were found in travellers' luggage and some in the post, customs officials said.
Allegations that human flesh capsules were being trafficked from north-east China into South Korea emerged last year in a South Korean television documentary.

The thing I don't get is why the rip-off artists who sell these things don't just fill the tablets with sugar and say they're full of powdered baby. It's not like the credulous dunces buying the stuff will be able to tell the difference, and surely sugar is easier to get hold of.

S Korea 'to target powdered human flesh capsules' (via JWZ)

Ai Weiwei’s “Gangnam Style” parody video

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 02:18:01 +0000

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei covers PSY's viral hit. At WaPo, Max Fisher writes more about the video here. What's with the handcuffs he pulls out about halfway through? This. (thanks, Oxblood!)

Post-"Gangnam Style," America wakes up to K-pop

Xeni Jardin — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:28:57 +0000

“Factory Girls,” a [paywalled] New Yorker piece this month by John Seabrook, explores the rise of the two billion-dollar Korean pop music industry and "its fraught entry into the Western music market" despite the YouTube-driven viral success of PSY's "Gangnam Style.”

Typical K-pop “is an East-West mash-up,” writes Seabrook. “The performers are mostly Korean, and their mesmerizing synchronized dance moves, accompanied by a complex telegraphy of winks and hand gestures, have an Asian flavor to them, but the music sounds Western: hip-hop verses, Euro-pop choruses, rapping, and dubstep breaks.”

My brother Carl Hamm, a club and radio DJ who regularly spins K-Pop nights (including one this Friday night in Richmond, VA), says, "This is one of an endless stream of articles I have read that sort of 'warns' of a pending K-Pop invasion. But the fact is, it's already happened. Not just PSY, but groups like EXO (which they mention), BIG BANG, SNSD/Girls Generation, SHinee, and 2NE1. All are well on their way to being huge over here among young American kids. And yes, the whole thing about manufactured, assembly-line personas of the artists is, for the most part, true. But despite the much-rumored dark side of this business, many of them really are gifted performers who have worked hard to reach where they are, love their fans, and enjoy what they do." "Incidentally, Big Bang are playing 2 dates in Los Angeles and one in New Jersey this November," Carl adds. "Tickets sold out in less than 4 hours! And 2ne1 also recently played to huge crowds in the US last month. See here and here."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJozNa2AXrQ

PSY foam-art

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:31:18 +0000

Redditor DivineBaboon posted an unattributed photo of an espresso drink with a beautiful PSY (of Gangnam Style fame) portrait in the foam.

My friend ordered a cappuccino and this is what he got.. (i.imgur.com)

Shamans of the modern age

Ju-min Park — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:57:26 +0000

Colorful flags snapped in the sea breeze as more than a dozen Korean shamans, dressed in bright colors, danced and chanted prayers in front of a huge cow's head stuck to a trident.

The ceremony on a ship was designed to exorcise demons that threaten fishermen and bring good luck to everybody on board. The presence of several hundred spectators underlined how the ages-old trance rituals were going strong again, having been shunned as recently as 30 years ago.

"People are trying to understand more, learn more, and see more. They are very interested in this," said Kim Keum-hwa, one of South Korea's most famous shamans, who led the ceremony.

Though an ancient practice, Korean shamanism - in which singing and dancing are used in trance rituals addressed to specific gods, often to get an answer to specific questions - had long been suppressed in Asia's second most Christian nation.

In leaping from poverty to rapid modernization, the county's dictatorship in the 1970s tried to eliminate shamanism, claiming that shamans deluded the world, while some Christian missionaries demonized them and their followers.

But today, visiting a mudang - shaman priest or priestess - is so common that politicians consult them seeking answers to questions such as whether they should relocate their ancestors' remains to ensure good luck in the next election. Shaman characters have also featured in popular television shows.

"Public perception towards shamanism has improved a lot, with popular TV dramas contributing to shifting these views," said Park Heung-ju, an authority on mudang at the Kut Research Institute in Seoul."You can find repose by meeting with mudang."

Much of this is due to the pressures of modern life in South Korea's high-stress society, said Shin Kwang-yeong, a sociology professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

"Nowadays, many Koreans feel strong uncertainties and life seems unstable in many ways, so they want to find something that can give them a sense of security," he said. "The same things have also created a dramatic increase in the number of people who follow religions here in Korea."

EXORCISING SPIRITS

To start the on-board ceremony, the shamans light a bundle of straw and float it on the water with offerings of food to exorcise evil spirits.

Later they go into a trance, speaking directly to spectators to wish them good luck and good health to the accompaniment of lively music from pipes, flutes and drums.

At the end, shamans and spectators mingle as one group, dancing in a circle to the fast-paced music.

"Shunning shamanism is not right. Today's event is meant to be for praying for the sake of families," said Lee Sung-soo, who said he was a Buddhist but danced with the group nonetheless.

In one sign of how mainstream shamanism has become, one mudang shaking bells in front of the laden altar was Hendrikje Lange from Switzerland, who credits shamanism with lifting her out of a debilitating depression.

Lange, 45, encountered shamanism as part of her studies of Korean percussion instruments, but resisted actually taking part in a possession ritual until several accidents and visions convinced her she needed to change her life.

Now, she is one of dozens of shamans initiated by Kim, including a handful of foreigners.

"All I can say is that something is happening with energy. I feel that the longer it keeps going, the stronger the energy is," she said.

Shin, the sociologist, said an additional part of the mudang's appeal was the sense that it was personal.

"People may have faith in other religions, but those religions seem vague and not tailored to them personally," he said. "People go to see shamans because they all believe their stories and situations are unique."

Jung Mi-soon, a participant in the ceremony, said that shamanism spoke to her directly.

"I felt something from my heart. This ritual has everything in there - happiness, sadness, anger and fun," said the 46-year-old housewife who has had more than 10 surgeries which she attributes to spiritual sickness.

"Sometimes tears pour out from my heart. Sometimes it's just fun when everyone is dancing and bowing. And, it's healing."

Story: Ju-Min Park / Reuters. Photos: ReSearcher at Wikimedia Commons and Parhessiestas at Flickr

Pray away the Gaga

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:42:46 +0000

photo: Reuters/Lee Jae-Won

Christians attend a prayer meeting being held as they pray to stop the concert of Lady Gaga, at a church in Seoul April 22, 2012. The Christians blame Lady Gaga for promoting indecency and "homosexual love." Gaga performed live in Seoul today, despite the incantations. Below, her performance during the MTV Video Music Aid Japan event in Chiba, near Tokyo, last year.

photo: Reuters/Issei Kato

Large fabric replicas of houses

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:02:28 +0000

Seoul's Leeum Samsung Museum of Art is exhibiting Do Ho Suh remarkable "Home Within Home" until June 3. Suh's piece consists of several large-scale hanging fabric recreations of the houses he's inhabited.

An important characteristic of Suh’s “homes” can be found in the fact that they respond to the spaces in which they are exhibited and by doing so, bring about new interpretations to them. His artistic attempts in the unique Rem Koolhaas-designed architectural space at Leeum are especially remarkable in that light. Suh installed Reflection near the sloping passageway that leads to the exhibition galleries so that the work can serve as an introduction to the exhibition. In the Ground Gallery, he also built a home out of a soft, light, and translucent fabric that stands in a stark contrast with the almost overwhelming space made out of concrete. Suh first received wide attention from the international art world with a work in which he recreated, using thin jade-toned Chinese silk, the traditional-style house (hanok) in the Seongbuk-dong neighborhood of Seoul where he spent his childhood and adolescence. In addition to this work, titled Seoul Home/Seoul Home, he also presents in this exhibition other homes he has had in New York and Berlin. Through their placement in a museum, these private spaces become spaces for others that are open to interpretation through viewers’ experiences.
The Black Box, an especially distinct feature of the Koolhaas building, is like a “home within home” that floats inside the enormous space of the architecture. By placing two works, Fallen Star-1/5 and Home within Home-1/11, together in this space, Suh draws out an interesting conversation. Specifically, Fallen Star-1/5 expresses the emotions the artist experienced while living as a foreign student in the United States through the form of a hanok that fell and crashed into an American apartment building. On the other hand, Home within Home-1/11, taking the form of a hanok lodged inside an American house, represents the state of becoming gradually familiar with a new culture. While works like these grow out of the artist’s private experiences of cultural collision, they also symbolize more broadly the experience of the contemporary being, who constantly experiences clashes arising from individual, cultural, and regional “differences” and struggles to adapt to them. In A Perfect Home: The Bridge Project (Leeum Version) and Gate (Leeum Version), also installed inside the Black Box, Suh tries to give new meanings to “home as both boundary and passage.”

Home Within Home (via Geisha Asobi)

Using bundles of PVC pipes to make motion-blurred sculptures

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:02:48 +0000

Kang Duck-Bong is a Korean sculptor who makes pieces from bundled PVC pipes that appear to be in rapid motion.

Disguise 1: pvc pipe, urethane paint, 90x28x55cm, 2011 (via Kottke)

Diablo III delayed

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:40:26 +0000

Epic action-RPG Diablo III will not be released in February. Rumors persist that the game is finished, but Blizzard will not launch it unless the game's real-money auction house, where players may buy their way up the loot ladder, can go live on day 1. The problem: it's been ruled illegal gambling in South Korea, the home of Blizzard's hardest-core audience.

So, Dog Cafes are a thing. I did not know this.

Xeni Jardin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:41:03 +0000

Via Reddit, today I learned that just as there are "cat cafes" in Tokyo, there are "dog cafes" in Seoul. Redditor oddipus visited one such establishment, and shot the photo above. Corgis do, in fact, gotta corg.

I've been to a cat cafe, but wonder if any Boing Boing readers (perhaps some of you in Korea) have ever visited an establishment that caters to canine preferences?

(thanks, Tara McGinley!)

Human forms created from densely welded chains

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:57:26 +0000

Korean sculptor Yeong-Deok Seo works with densely welded bicycle (and other) chains, creating beautiful, hollow forms with strange, irregular surfaces and voids.

(via Colossal)

Seo young Deok :: 네이버 블로그 [blog.naver.com]

Welded-steel fantasy characters toting badass weapons

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:11:44 +0000

So Hyun Woo creates amazing, weird steel-welded beloved fantasy creatures from classic children's literature, often toting large and impressive armaments. Many appeared in a show called "Cruel Fairy Tales 3" at the Song Eun Art Space in Seoul.

Children’s Book Characters Arm Themselves for the Looming Fairytale Apocalypse [thisiscolossal.com]

Korean Air jets being fitted with three bars

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:52:52 +0000

Korean Air is outfitting its new A380 jumbo jets with three bars -- two open bars in business, one staffed bar in first. No bars for coach passengers, natch.

That's right, an unspecified portion of their new A380 jumbo airliners will feature three "Celestial Bars," two in Business Class and one in First Class. Amazingly, the two bars in Business Class will be self-service. I guess that will be okay... I mean, most people who like to drink alcohol usually know when to stop, right? I'm sure it will be fine.

Airplane Upgrade: Boozeness Class