During the Summer break, I spent most of the time conducting archival research at several institutions in Seoul, South Korea, including The National Library of Korea, The National Assembly Library, and Korean Film archive. My primary goal in this archival study was to collect relevant materials and data for my doctoral research project on “techno-fantasy” that had formed in the course of post-Korean War modernization. To facilitate this project, I needed concrete materials to shed light on how this kind of fantasy was enacted in South Korea’s visual culture in the 1960 and 70s. Thus, I pulled out various kinds of magazines, such as children’s, women’s, and science fiction magazines, from the libraries. These magazines offered evidence that there had existed enthusiasm for making Korean society better with the prospect of advancement in science and technology. Such an atmosphere deeply permeated into popular media culture in the 1960s and 70s.
At Korean Film archive, I was able to watch not only live action films but also animations that had dealt with dreams of a high-tech society. Those materials will benefit my research as I plan to create a concrete structure of my dissertation prospectus during this academic year. In addition, I went to attend a couple of exhibitions that displayed South Korea’s popular culture in the 1960s and 70s. One was titled “Asian Diva: The Muse and The Monster” and held at the northern branch of Seoul Museum of Art. The other was a special exhibition of Korean Film Museum, “100 Years History of Korean Film and Popular Music.” Through both exhibitions, I was able to grasp that there had been intimate relations between visual and audio cultures in Korea. With the great support from Korea Institute, my summer research was fruitful and productive.