Some guy gave a lecture on urban renewal in Seoul. If anyone cares to kill 80 minutes, you can watch it here.



Seoul is an urban-scale blank canvas, under a constant process of macro-sized upgrading. But for every two steps forward, one step must be taken backward, inconveniencing, relocating, and even sometimes killing citizens. In this lecture, we will examine that one step backward.

Urban renewal in Korea is like nowhere else in the world (beyond a handful of superficial similarities to neighbouring China and Japan). Large plots of land are cleared for "New City" megaprojects, with little thought to urban planning and sensible development. We will look closer at the phenomena created by this process, including moon villages (달동네), nail houses, and evictee movements and modes of resistance. There will also be a focus on the conflicting forces of demolition and preservation techniques, highlighting the sometimes-violent struggle between evictee groups and governments. Urban redevelopment cases discussed will involve Cheonggyecheon, Yongsan, Hongdae, and some of Korea's earliest apartment buildings. The presentation will mainly focus on the past ten years, with glimpses back into the distant past.

Just finished it, that was really great.

So with the evictee movements, are they usually displaced elderly people, or is there often a mix of anti-government people like in the Yongsang disaster?

Also what exactly are the art camps? They kinda seem like a bunch of artists just come in and paint stuff, but it seemed like some were the government sponsoring them to create art while I think you said another was used to protest the development.

Posted by catdog23 Just finished it, that was really great.

Thanks for watching; I haven't taken the time to watch all the way through yet.

Posted by catdog23 So with the evictee movements, are they usually displaced elderly people, or is there often a mix of anti-government people like in the Yongsang disaster?

The elderly tend to be heavily represented in any evictee movement, mainly because they're the most vulnerable segment of the poor class. They also can likely remember days when the fight for democracy in Korea was pretty violent.

Any protest that gets enough attention will attract more radical groups, starting with the evictee protest associations that have their own kind of politics, and later anti-government activists who are more interested in pointing a finger at the government and not so concerned with the protesters getting what they want. That sort of thing can really paint a target on the evictees.

In Yongsan I knew one anarchist living in the area who later got involved with Duriban, and I think I mentioned this in the Q&A period. I don't have a huge problem with anarchists, though I find they have too many rules, but I always caution people that there are some pretty radical politics out there they may not be comfortable with.

Posted by catdog23 Also what exactly are the art camps? They kinda seem like a bunch of artists just come in and paint stuff, but it seemed like some were the government sponsoring them to create art while I think you said another was used to protest the development.

Most of the ones I mentioned are in the LDB. All are quite different, with some just being artists taking advantage of a temporary available space, and others being heavily radicalised.

http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=29606
Doha Army Base/Geumcheon Art Camp was operated by the local district government, providing art education for the locals and youths, as well as residencies. I tried working with one of the resident programs, run by a mildly popular musician, and found out one of the girls hanging around there was Korea's most infamous tagger, who's laying low because there's a bounty on her head.

http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=27977
Space Beam was an abandoned brewery in an area set to be demolished to make way for an overpass. It was taken over by artists, who managed to rake in quite a great deal of money from the city government. I got a couple thousand to do a photo exhibition there and print booklets. The overpass project is either delayed or cancelled, and the artists have been supporting various projects to improve the neighbourhood. I just saw one today that they're going to change how the curbs are designed to make it easier to park there without blocking the narrow road.


http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=26462
Dooriban was an extremely ugly eviction zone I'd been watching for a few years. All the people here were treated terribly, so when the restaurant was violently evicted, they began their 500+-day protest, inviting bands in and having the big music festival. This was all done for the benefit of one family, in exchange for the use of the space I guess. It radicalised a big corner of the music scene and gave a huge boost to many musicians' street cred, for lack of a better word. After this ended, many of the musicians went looking for the next battle to fight, and the next one ( http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=30300 ) was far more violent leading to them losing motivation.

I also mentioned Mullae Art Village, an area filled with machine shops that is suspected to be redeveloped in a few years. As each machine shop closes, an artist or live music venue moves in.

http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=27711
And I mentioned Sewoon Arcade, the long row of four buildings cutting through eastern downtown. A similar thing is happening there with artists taking notice and moving in. The plan to demolish those is halted during this mayor's administration, but next time the city swings toward the right, it'll be gone.

Thanks for answering my questions! Crazy how quickly all these places get rebuilt. You've really filled in the UEDB for Seoul, so much neat stuff to look through!

Posted by catdog23 Thanks for answering my questions! Crazy how quickly all these places get rebuilt. You've really filled in the UEDB for Seoul, so much neat stuff to look through!

I'm just grateful there is anyone willing to wade through any of it.

I've been lucky enough to be one of the very few people paying attention to this process in this one part of the world, so I've gotten to see a lot of crazy stuff. It took me quite a while to figure out how my stuff fits in on this site, because it didn't look like the usual abandonments people posted.