Modernism/Universalism/Exorcism: Designing for the 1988 Summer Olympics

About the lecture: Despite the suppression of Shamanism in the previous decade under the Park Chung-hee regime, folkloric motifs such as samtaegeuk, sasindo, and saekdong were revived to represent Korea during the 1988 Olympic Games. Analyzing the logic of modern branding that tightly controls the brand image, Dr. Jung argues that through modern design, these symbols were “exorcized”—rather than “modernized”—and deprived of spontaneous uses and redesigns by the people. Dr. Jung concludes that the motifs, which once had the power to protect and influence people’s lives, were reduced to mere logos and supplementary graphics, adding only superficial value to Korea's brand image, which was monopolized by the state.

About the speaker: Seungyeon Gabrielle Jung is an assistant professor of Art History at the University of California Irvine. She researches the politics and aesthetics of design with a particular interest in modern design’s utopianism—its aspiration to make the world "a better place." Her current book project, Toward a Utopia Without Revolution: Developmentalism, Globalization, and Design, examines the problems modern design created as well as resolved in postwar South Korea during its rapid economic development. By looking at the dire and enduring political and aesthetic ramifications of state and corporate design projects, Toward a Utopia challenges the widely accepted definition of design as a problem-solving method.