[Commlist] CFP: "Surface Tension: Popular K-Arts vs Korean Arts in the Hallyu Era"

Update: CALL FOR PAPERS*

Deadline extended to December 20, 2023


Surface Tension: Popular K-Arts vs Korean Arts in the Hallyu Era

AAPlab’s 3rd International Conference on February 22-24, 2024

University of Montreal (UdeM)

Montreal, Quebec, Canada



“We carry the past into the yet-unknown future we are shaping now in the 
present.”

—Jin-me Yoon, Korean Canadian artist


“We will only escape from the major crises of our era through the 
articulation of: –a nascent subjectivity; –a constantly mutating socius; 
–an environment in the process of being reinvented.”

—Félix Guattari, The Three Ecologies (1989)

The Asian Art Publication Lab (AAPlab) will hold its third international 
conference “Surface Tension: Popular K-Arts vs Korean Arts in the Hallyu 
Era” from February 22nd to 24th, 2024, at the University of  Montreal 
(UdeM) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Here the term “K-Arts” refers to 
Korean popular arts such as K-Drama, K-Pop, K-Cinema etc., while “Korean 
Arts” refers to both traditional and contemporary artistic production.


This conference aims to examine how environmental, geocultural and 
geopolitical issues are represented or silenced in the K-Arts while also 
acknowledging the groundbreaking achievements of the Hallyu or Korean 
Wave in changing global perceptions of Asian arts and culture. With its 
central question “Can the arts speak up?” the conference responds to 
Guattari’s notion of ecology, which incorporates the social and 
subjective into the environmental and thus can equally be applied to our 
living conditions, sustainability, ecosophy and equilibria as expressed 
through the arts


The conference welcomes papers from a wide range of disciplines, 
including Cinema and Media Studies, Film Philosophy, Geoculture, 
Geopolitics and Asian Art History, on topics including but not limited to:


  *

    K-Arts (popular arts) vs Korean Arts (traditional and contemporary 
arts)

  *

    K-Film, K-Drama, K-Webtoons (manhwa), K-Pop, digital media, new media

  *

    visual and interactive arts

  *

    technology and social media

  *

    aesthetics of poetics and transnational expression

  *

    ethnographical, geocultural and geopolitical topics


The current global surge of fascination with Korean popular culture and 
arts is a phenomenon that has impacted cultural sectors around the 
world. Like the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) of the late 1950s or 
the British Invasion and American New Wave of the ‘60s, the Korean Wave 
has challenged the boundaries between popular and contemporary arts. 
With its swift and radical impacts on international arts and culture and 
its global proliferation, the Hallyu has rapidly mushroomed in tandem 
with the rise of new social media platforms.

Notably, the mainstream Korean Wave is fueled by consumerism and 
commodities that reflect the privilege of the wealthy classes with an 
emphasis on aesthetics, beauty and cosmetic appearance fuelling the 
rapid economic growth of related industries. Underneath this glossy 
veneer, the distressing realities of Korean social, cultural, and 
environmental issues have been silenced, excluded or neglected. The 
Korean Wavehas assigned the letter “K” to Korean artistic and cultural 
production across the board, be it pop culture or diverse other 
disciplines, which has seen some artists and scholars expressing a 
perplexed feeling in their artistic and theoretical approaches. In 
resonance with Korean film director Bong Joon-Ho’s remark “Films, novels 
and all creative works, they always reflect the violence that exists in 
the world, but a beat late”, this conference will explore not only the 
sunny side but also the shadows of Hallyu. We aim to examine the blurred 
boundaries between pop art and contemporary art, as well as asking what 
artistic visions are being proposed that challenge or refuse the 
mainstream “K” and what is the potential of these visions for the world 
to come?


Submission guidelines:

Proposals can be submitted in English or French to 
(asianartpublicationlab /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(asianartpublicationlab /at/ gmail.com)> no later than 11:59 PM (EST) 
on December 20th, 2023. Individual proposals are limited to 250 words 
max, plus a 100-word bio of the presenter(s), a max of 5 keywords and 3 
bibliographical references. We welcome papers from artists, established 
researchers, postdoctoral and early-career scholars, and postgraduate 
students.


Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by December 30th, 2023.


The organizing committee plans to publish an edited volume or special 
journal issue of the papers presented.


The conference will be held in person with some virtual access and will 
be free of charge to attend. For invited presenters, lodging (up to two 
nights) and meals will be covered. For more information, please visit: 
https://koreanfilmfestivalcanada.ca/conference-2024/ 
<https://koreanfilmfestivalcanada.ca/conference-2024/>


For inquiries: AAPlab at (asianartpublicationlab /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(asianartpublicationlab /at/ gmail.com)>

Social media: AAPLab <https://m.facebook.com/AAPL2223>, KFFC, 
<https://www.facebook.com/koreanfilmcanada>Instagram 
<https://www.instagram.com/kffcanada>

This conference is generously funded by the Academy of Korean Studies in 
Seoul, Korea.


Keynote speakers:

  *

    KIM, Soyoung, Filmmaker/artist, Professor of Cinema Studies at Korea
    National University of Arts, Director of Trans-Asia Screen Culture,
    Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Arts,  Busan.

  *

    KIM, Shindong, Professor of the Media School and Director of the
    Institute for Convergence Culture, Hallym University; Director of
    the Knowledge Coop for Good Governance, Seoul, Korea


Organizing Committee:

  *

    KIM, Shindong, Hanlim University, South Korea

  *

    Martin Picard, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec Canada

  *

    CHOI, Jung Bong, Activist, Former Professor of the Cinema Studies
    Dept., NYU., United States.

  *

    Gabriel Remy-Handfield, Australian National University


*We express our sincere gratitude to peer researchers of AAPlab for 
their invaluable feedback on refining the conference theme.—Mi-Jeong 
Lee, Lecturer at the UdeM and Director of AAPlab.


Asian Art Publication Lab (AAPlab) is a Montreal-based research and 
creation laboratory at the intersection of arts and technology since 
2020. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the East and West by 
decolonizing Asian arts through inclusive and critical dialogue. We 
publish and translate textbooks, essays, and lived stories based on art 
practices and experiments, and provide a platform for innovative 
Pan-Asian art projects. AAPlab is a project of Arts East-West / Korean 
Film Festival Canada, a Quebec based, artist-driven nonprofit 
organization supporting Asian media arts since 1996.


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