The last Funkytown

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

It is good to know a word like ‘Funkytown’. I could see how people, including our group members, enjoy saying, ‘Funkytown’. People probably expected that our presentation would be such a fun because of the word. The reason that we tried to present in a more light hearted way was not only for the audience but also for ourselves. We wanted to try to empathise with the audience, regarding ‘Funkytown’.

While I was travelling to Barcelona, Rome, Cinque Terre and Milan with Chris, I asked him that what was the most important thing to him, when he traveled. He said that he usually liked watching people and walking around the cities.

What about myself?
I’m used to visiting well-known tourist places, where we feel we must go, as per the guide book. I am always in a rush and do not want to miss anything.
What I remember about countries I have visited?
One day, I visited well known tourist areas in Singapore. There were many huge shopping malls and clean streets, which Singapore is well known for. However, I found out the tourist places are not always what they seem. When I visited my Singaporean friend 2 years later, she showed me around Singapore villages and we ate so many local foods, which was so cheap and delicious. I had paid a lot of money for poorer food, on my first Singapore trip. I enjoyed much more my second Singapore trip, compared with the first because I could see how Singaporeans live, which is different from in Korea. How their houses look, what kinds of food they have and so on. Two times travelling but are totally different journey, although, I was traveling in the same country. When I heard Chris’s answer, it reminded me of the two different kinds of Singapore trips.

I had started to be interested in the life of humans and different cultures through friends in the design ethnography department. I decided to see not only tourist places but also, to study people, their habits and how they communicate. I felt this would be helpful to the ‘Funkytown’ project. We had a breakfast, lunch and dinner in a local restaurant and saw what those locals ate and how they enjoyed talking with other people. We also found similar places in Barcelona. Local people gather together to play guitars, sing songs, listen music and chat outside. It was very late at night but there were many people and making friends seemed to be easy, maybe through music and chat. Their impression was of peace and relaxation. This seems to happen every night.

I made so many friends in Milan through the design fair, just because we all had the same interests and came from the same country. To share the same things or thinking brought people closer naturally. The Korean friends I met in Milan made our group name (‘Gandi’) and we arranged to meet again when we get back to Korea. That was amazing. How we became close to each other so quickly and enjoyed meeting more people. It seemed to me that we had formed a new community.

There was no coordinator, no pressure and no plan to make a community. What a natural gathering! How can we bring these natural ways of becoming a community in a town? We recognised, at least, why reconnected community is important through our own proposal and other’s presentations.

To me, this project was a good opportunity to open eyes to think about gathering people, in my subconscious.

LEISURE

Wm. H. Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

I’m such in a rush of works I have to finish before I leave for the trip. My English supporter sent this poem to me today. This shows exactly how I struggle against my works.

Between work & trip

Friday, 03 April 2009 Wednesday, 08 April 2009

work before trip

Half of our group are going to travel to Spain and Italy during the Easter break. This plan is to have as its inspiration, Gaudi’s works in Barcelona and the international design fair in Milan. Well… It is not the best of timing since I have so much work to do. More than half of classmates already cancelled their trip. What I am trying to do is balance both, my work and the trip.

Chris and I decided to try to finish the ‘funky town’ project in advance, before we leave. We usually work together. I prefer this way because I sometimes need some help to progress our project. Chris is a buddy and also, one of my study advisors. Whenever I am in trouble, I ask him for help and he helps me out of difficulties. Thank you so much, Chris!
Oh! Actually, all of my classmates are so nice to me, too! I could not manage my work without their help. I always appreciate that of everyone.

I am afraid that if that my talking is getting away from the point at the moment. So, how can we create better communities through cultural events? We had an enjoyable chat about what happened in our own countries. I enjoyed talking about this topic. Comparing different countries for one topic is an exciting subject for me. My mind is always open to learn something new. This is also the reason why I am here. Chris’ point was related to how to bring reconnected communities to a city like New York, where he had previously lived. My point, as a Korean, was how to create a community to bring together all the generations.
Let’s go back to work. Our proposal seems very good so far. We have almost completed the ‘Funky town’ proposal. Let me think of how to present it! I remember that the presentation for the 2108 project was so much fun. Our group enjoyed preparing the presentation, as much as the real presentation time. I hope that the ‘Funky town’ presentation will be as enjoyable as the title suggests!! We should not disappoint them. Ok. We are ready to leave now. Let’s get grand inspiration for ‘Funky town’ from these exciting cities!

My childhood

Tursday, 26 March 2009

Funkytown

The project has reached its middle phase, so we tried to assign tasks to each member to probe into our research. We were willing to take the responsibility of each task. It was suitable way for me because of my lack of English. Some work, such as writing, takes too long, so it is better if take a certain part that I am better at. This is one of the advantages of group work as if we can share abilities each other. My tasks this week are looking for background to our research and calculating, on the basis of actual prices, for the one year period.

My childhood

During the research, I realised how fragmented communities make people feel lonely. Let me look back to my memories of childhood. Korea has changed from being agricultural to being an industrial society so quickly, within my parent’s generation. I listened to their childhood stories so many times. They maybe wanted to explain how different things were in these days. Whenever they needed help, neighbours gathered together to help, on the other hand, when neighbours needed help, my parents always helped them. I’m not saying that we should, necessarily, go back to being an agricultural society but I feel that we need to bring touch back among humans.
My childhood was quite happy. My family lived close to our relatives. All of father’s side of the family met in my uncle’s house at least once a week and stayed until the next day. I grew up with my brothers and cousins, all together. All of my cousins are like my real brothers and sisters. One of my aunts arranged a gathering called ‘Garamhoi’ for her nephews and nieces, including me. Once a month, she took all of us somewhere for a picnic. Our parents gladly paid for that. We had so much fun at that time. We learned to roller skate and to ride a bike. Of course, I still have good relationships with all of them.

After I grew up, friends and I sometimes talked about our childhood. Nobody else seemed to have the lovely memories I have of my youth. They were always jealous. Korea has become more mobile, people live as nuclear families and, apartment buildings are anonymous. By a change of environment, they still miss the hug relationship.

2nd tutorial with Hamid

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

2nd tutorial with Hamid

Our group tried to amend a document, as Hamid advised and showed him it again. Taken as a whole, our research is going fine. He suggested to us to participate in any cultural event in Dundee, as an experience. Yes! We should. Actually, our team are active characters, so we are often invited to events, such as a band performing or a ceilidh. At first, we were just curious as to how Scottish culture would appear and then we really had a great time. There are no reasons for not attending more, especially when, it was helpful in settling down international students. In my view, there are plenty of communities in Dundee who might indicate opposition to the ethos of the research question (Figure 1). Figure 1 shows a map that compares the sense of belonging in UK communities in 1971 and 2001. Dundee is one of the weakest in terms of communities.

Whenever I join in events, I can see a mix of races and ages. That means that popular cultures are well ingrained in the mass of people. I know that I often compare between Korea and the UK, where I stay at present. I can’t help doing this because there are so many different cultures displayed.

Koreans seem to be segregated in terms of age, generation or personal propensity. For example, there are particular areas, even public spaces, specifically for young people or old. A park in the middle of city, called ‘Pagoda’, is more likely to be occupied by older people. A lot of live band bars around the University of Hong-ik are obviously, primarily for young people. While I was studying at The University of Hong-ik, I don’t think that I ever saw any older people in the area. A town called ‘Lee-tae-won’, is known as a popular town for foreigner. If you visit there, you will think that you are no longer in Korea. I saw three older people who were exercising in the gym at The University of Dundee last weekend. Initially, I felt a little bit strange but I ended up mixing with all generations, which was really good. The gym belongs to the university, therefore, that only younger people would use it. You may think I am weird!! One of my former professors used to swim in the pool belonging to my undergraduate university and everybody whispered about him. I also didn’t understand why he used the university pool, which I thought should be only for younger people. Now I know better!! This way of thinking is totally wrong. It shows personal prejudices and I think that prejudice fragments communities.

Tutorial with Hamid Van Koten

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Tutorial with Hamid Van Koten

Our group had tutorials with Hamid for two weeks. His research background is also concerned with ‘Connected Communities’. In the first tutorial, we showed him our drafts and he started to talk quietly. He picked out the main points we missed, in comparison with the ‘Project Checklist’ document which Tom had produced. Rob recorded every word Hamid said, by typing on his laptop. Chris and Fi are such amazing speakers. I think that I need more confidence to speak in front of people, especially in, more formal situations, even if I do not yet speak English fluently. I am sometimes afraid that I may give the wrong answer because I don’t always understand what people say or I may repeat something someone has already said. In this time, I was very quiet, which, for me, is abnormal! I am still managing to improve my English. And therefore, I look forward to speaking at the next tutorial.

Draft of Funky town

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Funky town
Draft

Thanks to the ‘Project Sketch’ form, we could finish the first draft proposal easily. I realised that fragmented communities brought serious problems, long forgotten.

Koreans are interested in electronic equipment, as one way of communication, since technology has developed speedily in the country. I can remember seeing many people using devices such as a mobile phone or PDP in public spaces, even on the street, when they were waiting for transportation. Koreans do not seem to have time for face to face contact. In my case, I don’t know neighbourhoods very well because I have always been on the phone or listening to music on earphones. When I did not do this, I felt that I was missing something. What about at home? I know my family very well, of course but we don’t have time to talk. I usually spend time on my computer talking friends through messengers on online. Many children have portable game players and they always bring them with them. In fact, some of my cousins and nephews are out of control as a result of constantly using such devices! It is not only a problem of my relatives.

This is common situation nowadays in Korea. We are keeping communication in virtual world but we are becoming more isolated and lack the social skills needed in the physical world. We are losing touch, which only really occurs in the physical world. Touching (both literally and metaphorically) among people is never replicated in the virtual world.

Last Friday night, I joined in ceilidh with my classmates. It was a good example of a cultural event in Dundee. There was a mixture of young and old people, who came from different countries. At first, I watched how they enjoyed themselves and this made me feel excited too! Young and old men were wearing kilts and, even Sam was wearing one. It looked fantastic! I was only supposed to stay for one or two hours but in fact, I stayed to the end! We were dancing together, laughing cheerfully together, sweating together and greeting each other face to face. This can only happen within a real community, in the physical world.