Being Political Popular: South Korean Art at the Intersection of Popular Culture and Democracy, 1980-2010

Conference, Film Screening, and Art Exhibit
South Korean Art, Popular Culture, and Democracy

THURSDAY (9/20)
5-7pm Film Screening
King of Pigs (96 min., 2011) Q&A with
DIR. YEON Sang-ho and Producer CHO Young-kag
McCormick Screening Room

7-8pm Art exhibit opening and dinner reception
Being Political Popular: South Korean Art at the Intersection of Popular Culture and Democracy, 1980-2010
Curated by Sohl Lee
www.ucigallery.com
Exhibition continues until November 20, 2012

8-9pm Keynote speaker Kim U-chang (Korea University)
(introduction by David E. James)

FRIDAY (9/21)

9:30-12PM
Television and Cinema

Josie Sohn (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
“A Langlois Affair in Seoul: The Politics of Diversity at the Theater”

Hyun Seon Park (UC Irvine)
“The Sublime Objects of Affectivity: Shoes, Vampires and Local Culture in Park Chanwook's Thirst (2009)”

Discussant: Kelly Y. Jeong (UC Riverside)

Lisa Ho (UC San Diego)
“The Drama of Reunification in Athena: Goddess of War”

Michelle Cho (Brown)
“The Cultural Politics of Androgyny: K-Drama's Transnational Subjects”

Discussant: Jung-Bong Choi (NYU)

12-1PM
Lunch in HG 1010

1-3PM
Art

Sohl Lee (University of Rochester)
“Being Political Popular: South Korean Art at the Intersection of Popular Culture and Democracy”

Wan-kyung Sung (Inha University)
“Capital, Arts, Politics: The Ambiguous Landscape of South Korean Art Today”
*Please refer to exhibition catalogue for text

Chunghoon Shin (SUNY--Binghamton)
“Korean Art in the “Age of Mechanical Reproduction”: The Work of Hyonsil kwa Paron in the Early 1980s”

Discussant: Bert Winther-Tamaki (UC Irvine)

3:30-5:30PM
Literature and Theater

Suk Man Kim (KNUA)
“Sori Gut A-Gu and Factory Light: the Birth of Madang Theater in Korea”

Susie Kim (University of Virginia)
“Remembering ‘5.18’: The Kwangju Uprising and the Politics of Memory”

Bruce Fulton (University of British Columbia)
“Genre Elements in New Millennium Korean Fiction”

Discussant: Christopher P. Hanscom (UCLA)

5:30-7PM
Dinner Reception at University Club

7-9PM: Film Screening
Miracle on Jongno Street (dir. Lee Hyuk-Sang, 2011, 115 min.)
McCormick Screening Room

SATURDAY (9/22)

9-11:30AM
K-pop and More

Hyunjoon Shin (Sungkonghoe Univ.) and Keewoong Lee (Yonsei)
“Protests, Negotiations and Love Songs: South Korean Poku Song (folksong) and Minjunggayo (People's Song) in the long 1980s”
Soojin Kim (University of Cincinnati)
“A Crossroad of Politicized and Popular Soundscapes: Songs at the Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies, NaGaSu and Yi Hyori”

Discussant: Kukhee Choo (Tulane University)

Hyo Kyung Woo (University of Pittsburgh)
“Reading Transnationality in a National Context: “Hallyu” in Korean Audition Programs”

Young-chae Seo (Hanshin University) and Youngju Ryu (University of Michigan)
“Vengeful Song, Democratic Laughter: Politics and Entertainment in the Age of the Monstrous”

Discussant: Dal Yong Jin (Simon Fraser University)

11:30-1PM
Lunch in HG 1010

1-3PM
Body, Space, and the Thumb Culture

Albert Park (Claremont-McKenna College)
“Society, Space and Modernity: The Role of Architects in the Construction of the Public in Modern South Korea”

Se-woong Koo (Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
“Dressing the Korean Body: Luxury and National Identity in Contemporary Korean Fashion”

Kwang-Suk Lee (Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
“Reappropriating Digital Culture in Korea: A Recent History of Cyberactivism”

Discussant: Todd Henry (UCSD)

3:30-5:30PM: Film Screening
No Name Stars (dir. Kim Tae-il, 2010, 101 min.)
McCormick Screening Room

5:30-7PM
Dinner Reception in HG 1010

7-9PM: Film Screening
The Journals of Musan (dir. Park Jung-bum, 2010, 127 min) @ McCormick Screening Room