Presentation at the first peer sessions

The first peer sessions is held on Tuesday 17th November from 7-9 p.m. at Niina's studio in Brixton. Niina will be showing new work and Hyemin Son will be showing details of a proposal Dual Mirage that she would like feedback on.

Dual Mirage – London/Seoul

I propose a publication project in order to explore specific concepts around mirage as a metaphor. This project will create a space for this with a number of events in close collaboration with artists, writers and designers between Seoul and London.

My publication project will look at two core questions:
- Does mirage actually exist?
- If so where is it and what is it?

To identify mirages in the post-modern era, one must be willing to wander around the endless concrete jungle rather than the endless desert. The mirage appears in the form of a brand new tower block, a construction site, an architect’s blue print, a property advertisement, or development scheme for a new city, I would like to explore a number of questions; how the mirage appears in the past, present and future for a town, a city and a nation? If the mirage appears in the form of micro-Utopia, what is the condition of this? Why do we need another utopia and why do we need to move on from the plan we have created? Furthermore, if the mirage appears right now, can we sense a dystopian paradox from the images, urban plans and property advertisements, as a subject of the powers of finance capital and urban gentrification?

I would like to frame these questions by looking at contemporary Seoul and the city’s new urban design schemes and planning images as a critical point of departure in order to examine the transition from a fast track developing city to a globally developed city. For example, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) appointed Seoul as the World Design Capital™ (WDC™) in 2010 and major projects are currently in development for WDC Seoul 2010: the Seoul Design Olympiad, U-Design International Competition, construction of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, the city’s participation in the IDA World Design Report, a Youth Design Creative Camp, as well as initiatives to encourage citizen participation in WDC projects. At this moment, I imagine multiple mirages arising on the horizon of the city of Seoul.

I want to begin by collecting images: plans, posters, photographs, advertisements, architectural drawings, web pages and moving images in various locations based on the WDC Seoul 2010 city scheme, and to examine how these archives correspond to government plans and standards of contentment (our utopia or your utopia). From planned images to failed images (ones that failed to be actualised), concentrated capital figures to political schemes and the idea of improvement to discontentment. These facts and images possess duality at their core; planned utopia and the fantasy of dystopia.

The focus of my project will be to critically acknowledge these images in and of themselves as well as to rearrange these images - urban planning, architectural, and advertising – and ask what would be created by juxtaposing things that are not intended to be seen together, what might happen if the images and plans are displaced from their original context? By opening these questions up to a wide range of materials and resources, I want to create a space for discussion, engagement and presentation. ‘Rearranging’ urban schemes, plans and images - I am particularly interested in the awkward gaps in the process of rearrangement - enables me to connect critically with various notions of urban development. A crucial process given that the fantasy of our present utopia has become distorted and arises like another mirage in our dreams.

Proposed key theme and Timeline
- First publication: Does a mirage actually exist? If so where is it and what is it?
- Second publication: Tourists dream

- Third publication: Plan & Site: The town is just a blur on the horizon - London/Seoul