아줌마와 그들의 디지털미디어 사용에 관한 이야기, The story about ajummas and their use of new media (e.g. smartphones)
It’s been almost 1 year since I’ve submitted my PhD project. Now I’m waiting for the graduation ceremony in this Dec. YAY!!!
I planned to start doing a new project from this year but I haven’t started it yet because there’re so many things to be done by end of May. But I will try to start doing a new project asap. Also I should keep writing blog entries as well. FOR SURE!!
About this project: https://smart-ajumma.com/2016/03/03/digital-ppal-let-ter-project/
Now you can watch this Digital Ppal-let-ter video on YouTube as well.
I just uploaded.Please enjoy watching Digital Ppal-let-ter!
디지털 빨래터 비디오를 이제 유툽에서도 볼 수 있습니다!
많이 봐주시고 더 많이 즐겨주세요!
Digital Ppal-let-ter is a new digital space which illustrates the interactively remediated space and time of both the wash place before the 1960s and Kakao Talk’s group chat room in the 21st century. Digital Ppal-let-ter will encourage audiences to consider the existence of middle-aged and married women’s communal space that has formed and has been developed by those women from the non-digital (pre-smartphone) era before the 1960s to the digital (smartphone) era in 2015.
Digital Ppal-let-ter will take both analogue and digital technology to present a new digital space where ajummas communicate with each other. It is an imaginary space located in a time of coexistence between the face-to-face communication era and the mobile digital communication era. In other words, Digital Ppal-let-ter is located in an in-between space and time of actuality and digitality. For this reason, the creative project of Digital Ppal-let-ter is a converged metaphorical space of communication that transcends time and space among middle-aged and married women in Korea.
I tried to do an installation art but I’ve changed to produce a video instead.
Digital Ppal-let-ter is an imaginary space that does not exist in the real world. However, it asks audiences to think about how communication amongst middle-aged and married women in Korea has always existed even though various communication tools and the locations of communal spaces have changed over time. Digital Ppal-let-ter aims to emphasise that specific features of communication have developed subliminally through continuous interactive communicating among middle-aged and married women in Korea.
Middle-aged and married women used to be considered a peripheral group by the digital technology industry in Korea whereas younger female groups were given attention. However, it is time to look intensively at how these middle-aged and married women, ajummas, communicate with each other in the pre-digital communication era before the 1960s to the digital communication era of today. In general, ajummas used to be considered a group of ordinary middle-aged and married women but they are not ordinary when people look at them with affection. The group ajummas now attract respectful attention from the digital technology industry and Korean society. The creative project Digital Ppal-let-ter presents how the ordinary but not ordinary ajummas build their own communal spaces and have their own ways of communicating which have developed in line with technological developments in communication
Digital Ppal-let-ter is based on Korean sentiment but the convergence of digital and analogue technology in the project is universally relatable. To create this complicated but poetic and new experimental media art project that includes interdisciplinary academic research and mixed media art forms.
Digital Ppal-let-ter is a new digital space where the wash place before the 1960s and a Kakao Talk group chat room in 2015 coexist together. As an imaginary space that has been planned and created based on interdisciplinary research and creative concept of thinking, I have carefully considered how to present the concept of Digital Ppal-let-ter to audiences. Initially I planned for Digital Ppal-let-ter to be exhibited in a gallery or other space in the form of an installation. However, the plan changed to using video due to the difficulty of installing a reproduction of a wash place and the Kakao Talk group chat room. Through the video, the audience can experience the wash place prior to the 1960s with village women and a Kakao Talk group chat room in 2015 with Smart Ajummas at the same time.
The project will also encourage audiences to reconsider the communal spaces, the ways of communication and the communities of middle-aged married women, ajummas, in Korea from the past to the present. Furthermore, it can be expected that this opportunity will increase interest in ajummas and their ways of communication among audiences and the general public. Hence, both the creative project, Digital Ppal-let-ter, and the research project, Smart Ajumma, will awaken thoughts and value about the existence of ajummas and their unique way of communicating that has gone unnoticed.
For my PhD thesis, I had to write a dissertation (thesis) and make a create project. This creative project is generally called as a project-led research but my PhD project is different. I rather call my creative project as ‘research-led project’. Digital Ppal-let-ter project (Creative project) is mostly based on academic research then I put my imagination to create this Digital Ppal-let-ter project. Without advanced academic research about ajummas and their use of smartphones in everyday practices, Digital Ppal-let-ter couldn’t be created at all. 
To create this project, I tried to use many different ways of ‘making’ an art work. I’m not an artist and my background is fully media studies. I had various experiences of working in the media industry and I worked as a script writer, producer, video editor, etc. I know how to use tools for making a film but I don’t want to make an actual film for this project. I rather try to experiment using non-professional filmmaking tools for this project. I always admire people who propose a new method so I tried to find a new method for this project. Through this blog, I will explain how I made this video with my own ways of using tools and softwares.
Firstly, I used still photos for Digital Ppal-let-ter project. The photos for the Digital Ppal-let-ter project were all taken on a iPhone 5 over a period of 2 years from 2014 to 2015. The majority of photos were taken in Seoul, South Korea. The subjects of the photos are mostly middle-aged women, ajummas, in Seoul. The photos were taken randomly in Seoul during the field research in 2014 and 2015. The reason why an iPhone was used as a camera for this project is because it has many advantages such as portability, convenience and instantaneous viewing. Using an iPhone camera for making this creative project has reminded me of the diverse theories about digital communication technology, especially the use of mobile communication devices (e.g. smartphones).
An iPhone allowed me to take photos whenever I found suitable subjects.I became a ‘phoneur’ (2006, Luke) as I took photos while observing people and the city in Seoul and it became a natural part of daily life during my stay in Seoul for the field research in 2014 and 2015.
The subjects of the photos that were used in the video were not asked for permission, however their faces were covered by a hand-drawn sticker of a smiley face to protect each subject’s privacy.
Most photos of ajummas that were used in the video are not taken from the front and some of them are blurry. Consequently, the subjects in the photos that were used in the video are not recognisable. In addition, the video in the Digital Ppal-let-ter project is not made for commercial use, rather it is produced entirely for a creative project which is a part of the PhD research project. For this reason, the privacy issues of photos that were used in the video should not be a problem at all.
Through various and deeper ways of study such as an academic research (e.g. literature research) and qualitative/quantitative research (survey and deep focus group interview), I could realise and identify who ajummas are and their behaviour of mobile communication through using smartphones in their daily lives. Digital Ppal-let-ter project is a part of Smart Ajumma research project that expresses my research findings and interpretations metaphorically through a video humorously but the stories are still based on academic research in order to avoid losing the purpose of this research project.
I was amazed through enjoying this research project for last few years. Ajummas in Korea, they actually have their own communal spaces and keep doing communication with each other by their own ways. We didn’t know about their communal spaces and their ways of communication because we just stared at them rather than looking inside deeply.
After I found that there are communal spaces for ajummas’ own through doing field research, I could keep continuing this creative research project. And I thought about Ppal-let-ter (wash place)!
Of course, there are many countries had wash places but a wash place in Korea can be considered as a characteristic place than other countries’. As I mentioned so many times, a wash place in Korea is more likely a women’s communal space before 1960s. There are sill wash places in Korea but those places haven’t been used as a wash place for a long time. They rather became tourist spots today because we have washing machines at home to do our laundry instead of going to wash places regularly.
Whereas, going to the wash place regularly was a matter of course for village women (or ajummas) not only doing their laundry, but also meeting other village women (or ajummas). In other words, the wash place was a place for ‘socialising’ and ‘communicating’ for middle-aged and married women in Korea during 1960s.
They don’t have an appointment with each other, but they could meet someone whenever they visit the wash place. So it was possible to have conversations with each other about various topics from complaining patrilocality to boasting their children. The wash place functioned as more than ‘wash place’, rather it played a role as a women’s communal space. Thus, I got inspired by this important but being forgotten wash place to start doing my creative project so called as ‘Digital Ppal-let-ter’.
Even though there are various types of women’s communal spaces such as hair shops and jjim-jil bang (sauna), the reason why I chose a wash place as a key space to do my creative project is because I thought a wash place is one of women’s communal spaces and it has sentiments of Koreans and Korean culture.
In the late 18th century, ‘the wash place’ by Hong Do Kim shows how a wash place in Korea could be a women’s place even though there were no law and regulations that prohibited men from coming to a wash place.
Through survey and focus group research, Kakao Talk’s group chat room was the most preferred way of mobile communication among ajummas. Some of interviewees responded that they purchased smartphones only for using Kakao Talk’s with their friends and family. Like this, Kakao Talk’s group chat rooms were now newly used as communal spaces or the ways of communication today.
Of course, Kakao Talk is one of mobile chatting applications that anyone can use freely. However, I discovered that Kakao Talk’s group chat room in 2016 and the wash place in the before 1960s have much analogy with each other in many ways. (I already wrote about the 6 similarities between wash place and Kakao Talk’s group chat room in my blog)
These two dissimilar places that came from totally different time are very much similar with each other. This makes me so exciting.
These two places are dissimilar, it is so true. However I realised that they are very much similar with each other at the same time. We’re now using smartphones and the use of smartphones allow us to do many things that we never imagined in pre-smartphone era.
I think ajummas in Kakao Talk’s group chat room and their communication in mobile space are not an entirely new things that could be possible due to the development of new technologies. Maybe, they’ve been communicating with each other in their own communal spaces by their own ways of communication.
In other words, the wash place in the before 1960s was not disappeared at all, rather I consider the wash place continues to exist with us in the shape of Kakao Talk’s group chat room.
We’re now using different communicative tools and methods. And we’re communicate in dissimilar communal spaces compared with pre-smartphone era. Even though many things had been changed, we shouldn’t forget one thing that middle-aged and married women in Korea have been communicating continuously regardless communicative tools, methods, time and spaces.
Digital Ppal-let-ter is not a new thing at all. It is a women’s communal place today.
The communicative method (from face-to-face to mobile communication), communicative tools (from direct dialogue to smartphones) and communal spaces (Ppal-let-ter (wash place) to Digital Ppal-let-ter (Kakao Talk’s group chat room) are changed, I expect that communication among ajummas will be evaluating continuously with their own ways.
Thus, a discovery of Digital Ppal-let-ter is very important and it must continue to research how this Digital Ppal-let-ter will developing or changing in the future. We shouldn’t be overlooked ajummas in new media and communication research. They’re one of unique female group in Korea and we’re ready-to-be ajummas in the future as well.
In the post about ‘Kakao Talk vs Wash Place‘, I wrote what wash place worked as women’s communal place in Korea and how Kakao Talk and wash place could be similar with each other even though these places are located in dissimilar space and time. Kakao Talk’s group chat room of ajummas is located in the mobile space where we cannot do actual visit, whereas wash place was the actual place where village women could visit. In other words, wash place is a physical space and Kakao talk’s group chat room is a non-physical space that is located in the third space.
However, I think these two different places are very much alike with each other. In my research, I found six similarities between Kakao Talk’s group chat room in 2016 and wash place in 1960s. One of those similarities is both Kakao Talk’s group chat room and wash place act like a bridge between pre-meeting to post-meeting. Here is what one of my interviewees told about Kakao talk’s group chat room during having focus group interview. She explained how Kakao talk’s group chat room works for meetings with her friends.
R Hwang:
Chatting in group chat room is also like an epilogue. After the actual meeting we can review about the meeting. And we suggest ideas for next meeting as well.
Like Kakao Talk’s group chat room, wash place in 1960s was also a bridge that connected previous meetings to following meetings. When village women came to wash place, they continued to talk about stories last time and they maybe meet again for the next time again in this same wash place. They probably didn’t make a confirmed appointment of meeting in wash place, but they could meet with each other again in wash place for the next time because these village women had to come to wash place for doing their laundry regularly. For this reason, Kakao Talk’s group chat room among ajummas and wash place in 1960s among village women are like a bridge that connect to the previous meeting to the following meeting.
Arts Hub video playing at VCA 2015 from Jung Moon on Vimeo.
My videos, ‘Digital Ppal-let-ter’ were played in Arts Hub foyer at VCA (University of Melbourne) at the beginning of December 2015. The videos will be uploaded in this blog soon.
Thank you.
디지털 빨래터 비디오 프로젝트가 지난 12월초에 멜번대학교 VCA 아트 허브 빌딩에서 전시 되었습니다. 제작된 비디오는 곧 블로그를 통해 보여드릴 예정입니다.
감사합니다.
스마트 아줌마 Smart Ajumma 