‌Hanam City I have lived in since 2008  used to be an undeveloped area near Seoul, but after the restraints for the green belt development was lifted in 2005 it has undergone large-scale development and redevelopment. I live in the midst of rapid urbanization and witness numerous changes every day. I photographed and documented the landscapes that cannot be found after today. Then I suddenly realized that I had too easily changed the world in the process of photographing and editing. I had easily modified colours, adjusted and changed things in the virtual space using various tools. In the two dimensional virtual space, the world was altered through just a number of clicks. What a world. One click could potentially reproduce images infinitely by selecting the subject, changing it into a transformable state, then distorting it through various techniques.

The change we experience in the everyday world is no different from the editing that happens in the virtual world. People select a tree, transport it into the city to line streets, and trim it so that it doesn’t grow out of a certain boundary. A tree which is a living organism that spreads its roots in one place becomes something that is transferable. Likewise, places of redevelopment undergo various changes as in the virtually edited world to achieve urbanization.

In the end, I realized that the virtual world and the real world are slowly converging. It is no longer a surprise that what is designed and visualized on screen becomes reality. Rather, it is considered normal. However, the real world and the virtual world are fundamentally different. Even the heaviest objects are easily transported with one click in the virtual world, whereas in reality, objects have different weights. In other words, the fact that the virtual and the real are converging may indicate that the real world is slowly losing its weight.

Having weight and not having weight is an important difference. Plainly speaking, we take different attitudes when we carry heavy objects as opposed to light objects because the load that we experience are different. However, the weight of an object is undetectable in the digital world, and the rapid change in modern society reduces the weight of objects, making it even more ambiguous. In a world where so much focus is on change, we no longer feel the need to recognize the weight of objects and lose the sense of responsibility in handling them.

What does it mean to lose weight in the real world? It signifies that the value of objects is disappearing. The world full of multi-colour screen lights diminishes the object to mere amusements, tantalizes our vision and reduces objects to simple consumer goods. In a world of major technological advances, we are surrounded by objects that lack value. People aspire towards absolute freedom and convenience while our surrounding slowly lose weight. Any place is easily modified and transported as we slowly approach an increasingly lighter and brilliant world with no gravity.

People live in one of the busiest times in human history today where one’s eye wander through computer screens day and night. There is hardly anyone who live without a digital device even for a single day, and almost everyone reads, browses through images and videos while they work and rest. If the images are convincing of reality, people are immersed and amused by the images in front of them without caring whether they are real or fabricated. Visual amusement is one of the many important aspects that are pursued by people today. People use various graphic programme tools to dismantle the boundary between the real and virtual to create images for amusement. Creating more dazzling and eye-catching ‘real’ images are an important factor of visual amusement by which everything from objects to spaces are created in the virtual. While the real objects in our daily lives have become comparatively dull, the images captured on screens go beyond reality to re-construct all imaginable realities. In the end, the real and the virtual is fused inside the screen while the weight and value of real objects have become as light as the images that wander in the virtual.

The frigid artificial light on the screen wipes out ‘experience’ such as the spatial texture, sense of height and smell. Google street view allows one to go to places as if they exist before the users’ eyes, and museums use virtual reality digital instruments to allow for exhibition viewing. People are misled into thinking that they have gained actual experience through these spectacles, while expectations for real bodily experiences are lowered due to the relative banality of it compared to virtual experiences.

The “Paris syndrome” argued by Japanese psychiatrist Hiroaki Ota explains the difference between the real and the virtual experience well. Young Japanese tourists who had come to know the picturesque streets of Paris and Eiffel tower through images prior to their journey suffered depression after visiting it in real life due to the differences between the imagined images and its reality. As such, perfectly represented beauty is a true temptation which lures people to immerse in visual experiences, paralyzing them to over-stimulating screens that subordinate all senses other than the visual.
Lifkin quoted Baudrillard that people of modern society live in the virtual world of screens, interfaces, and networks, and that we ourselves have become screens living in an aesthetic hallucination of reality (Rifkin, 2001). In other words, our lives are lived dependent on our eyes where communication, consumption, and experiences are limited to the screen. The development and mass provision of virtual reality devices merely expands space that can only be experienced through the eyes, furthering the loss of physical spaces and real experiences. Hence, we have come to neglect our corporeal senses other than the eye and the hand, which looks at the screen and clicks on interfaces.

Our sense of judgment and responsibility has also declined as we live in endless spaces with endless streaming of information. The screen overflows with irrational and unreliable information, and we lack the thresher that separates the lies from the grains of truth (Bauman 2012). We use and share information uploaded by an unspecified number of strangers without any reliable filters. As images of the real and virtual are transfused, information is also consumed where truth and falsehood are transfused. People can no longer judge what is true nor care to know. With the lack of judgment in the ocean of unknown facts, rather than exposing our true selves, we create and exist within fabricated identities. People feel more liberated in their virtual IDs rather than their own selves encapsulated by narcissistic tendencies. As Narcissus solely focused on expanding himself and eventually became locked in a closed system (McLuhan, 2006), we sink in ourselves distancing away from the true self and familiarizing with the edited self based on self-produced positive images.

The physically non-existent life on the screen, despite its endless appearance, seems more beautiful and peaceful than the complex and burdensome real life. There are numerous choices to be made in that endless space of nothingness where people without any sense of responsibility can cancel or reverse their many decisions. Hence, people unconsciously click on things that catch their attention without feeling the responsibility for their actions. People flee from the real life where there are responsibilities because in the virtual world everything is so easily reversed.

The images on the screen do not burgeon or radiate since life and death are erased. The negation of fading is embodied in burgeoning, while the negation of shadow is embodied in radiance (Han, 2014). In other words, the shining screen that people face every day is an immortal being which does not fade nor have shadows. There is no time for boredom in a space of amusement where new images and information is incessantly provided, where real life is replaced by a utopian screen. People desire to journey in the world of information which continuously shines without fading and expand the fantastical world that is filled with things that seem enticing. In pursuit of a life that is easy on the body and the mind, we have become wanderers, more precisely ghosts that drift through time and space on the screen.

Rapid development and high efficiency have become priorities in modern society. The distinction between ‘here’ and ‘there’ is disappearing due to the development of digital media and transportation, where broadband internet and fast transportation imply that the dream of instant travels may not be too far. The whole world promotes urbanization, expending large investments in development and growth where high speed have become an important keyword in today’s society.

High speed shortens the distance, and therefore speed expands space as well as destroys space. The modern society obsessed with speed is undergoing uncontrollable fast-paced changes, creating an accelerated society (Shim, 2012). In the accelerated society, obstacles are removed swiftly to expand clean slates for urban areas. Developments reach higher heights and deeper depths in order to avoid the obstacle-rich surface of the ground. As our surroundings become transformed and developed for high speed, the minds of the people are changing correspondingly.

The high speed-obsessed society has resulted in the phenomena of ‘un-tact.’ Un-tact conceptualizes unmanned services which erase contact. In other words, this phenomena has been found because the physical encountering of people hinders high speed. Hence, people choose ‘easy disconnectedness’ over ‘uncomfortable communication.’ It is ironic that the technological society which tries to connect with everything precipitates the technology of un-tact, and has become the backdrop to the disconnectedness among people (Kim et al., 2017).

The futuristic offline store, Amazon Go, has been unveiled in Seattle which does not require a cashier. Here, the customer simply takes their shopping off the shelves and head out of the shop. There are no queues, no need to meet anyone, no need for a credit card. The customer views the grocery list on their smartphone and makes the payment. In many of the technology-oriented countries, including Korea, kiosks are increasingly installed in markets and fast-food stores as well as unmanned stores to allow faster consumption.

Un-tact is an emerging issue, especially in market economies. Non face-to-face contact reduces the cost of consumption and allows a faster and easier consuming method. Also, the machine, which once merely assisted people, began to be perceived as being more trustworthy than man because of the faith in reduced mistakes (Kim et al., 2017). If the technology of un-tact is further developed and disseminated, we will soon be facing machines not people and the physical space of a shop may not be necessary altogether.

The fast developing digital media universalizes un-tact and negates the concept of real physical space. Media replaces the space of experience and our bodies, and we have come to believe and communicate as virtual phantoms that exist within screens. Virilio was quoted in stating that the progress in media will unrealize and destroy all beings (Shim, 2012). In the end, Virilio stated that speed will destroy space as technological media deconstructs the physical attributes of beings and the time and space that allows for their existence (Shim, 2012). In future, space, body and even our self will become phantoms that are reproduced, floating in the digital space where one slips in and out without any physical contact.

If all encounters are made on touch screens for the sole purpose of efficiency and productivity and are limited to screens only without actual contact, once digital instruments are turned off, relationships will also disappear. The easy, dazzling, and ever-changing instant transportation and travel in time, the spectacle visual experiences, and the non face-to-face contact with strangers will simply disappear by switching off a device.

The progress of un-tact will eventually widen the differences between the connected self and the disconnected self. Our identity will be divided by a widening gap between the two, and sooner or later we will have to decide which self to choose. We may already have chosen the connected self over the other whilst living in our digital devices. We turn our devices on every day and contact the screen to fill the void that follows after switching it off as we increasingly spend more time on screen than with people.

We have to regain contact with the real world to awaken the self that is captured and dormant in the fantastical world of screens. Efforts to stay away from those who are different, and the decision not to earnestly communicate and coordinate (Bauman, 2009) are attitudes pursued today. We tend to think that we are individual and autonomous beings existing somewhere outside the world, but the self and the world are a dynamic unity. From the beginning, a person grows within relationships and have the inherent ability to influence their surrounding (Knapp, 2016). In other words, to ignore contact with another means that one is cut off from the world. The dynamic energy in life is created by conflicts and encounters, and the self is awakened when faced with another (Han, 2014). Those who are only satisfied in relation to themselves and live a narcissistic life without contact lose vitality. In order for us to ensure life and an awakened mind, the other needs to be confronted not avoided.

We have become new beings in the context of human history. The virtual world of modernity has become a solid part of the real world and people edit themselves crossing boundaries between the real and the virtual, pursuing a more flexible and momentary life rather than that rooted in the real world (‌Rifkin, 2001). The fast and flexible pace of activities makes it difficult to stand in one place with weight. Bauman (1999) defined today’s society as ‘liquid modernity’ and stated that fluids do not hold space or time, and is always ready to change since it does not stay in a certain form. In other words, while liquids are able to fill up space it is only a momentary condition. The present age seeks transient amusement and pleasure. The trend of the YOLO lifestyle explains well the pursuit of happiness now rather than the willingness to make sacrifices for the future. To ensure this momentary happiness, people look for more entertainment while avoiding the difficulties in real life, and prioritize consumption for the self.

We live in a world without memory, as if on the surface of the water where one image is continuously replaced by another (Debord, 1988). Hence, the sense of continuity rooted in history or the perception that the present is the connection between past and future is being lost. This is the disappearance of the historical sense of time (‌Rifkin, 2001). In the digital medium, the overflow of images and information know no beginning or end, night or day, hence it is difficult to judge which of these materials are worth documenting. In the end, the modern man loses the need to remember as subjects keep surfacing through the digital medium. The more information is dispersed, the world becomes more confusing and ghost-like. People live drowned in the overwhelming amount of information captured on the screen that is always the now, without acknowledging that they are the connection between the past and future.

Life can no longer be defined in terms of phase, completion, threshold or transitions. People rather just move from the now to another now (Han, 2014). we have to find where our beings could be rooted in midst of the fluid society that we live in. Remaining in the fluid world of images and information doesn’t allow for perception or judgment because everything is precarious and uncertain. If we are in excessive exchange without a clear sense of self, the self will be shaken constantly living an unconscious life of clicks without identity. We know that a tree deeply rooted in one place can withstand adverse weather and bear healthy fruit, and we also know that those who walk slowly gain more experience and journey further than those who move too fast. In other words, once we step outside the accelerating world and face the real world, the experiences gained from various spaces, objects, and people will become an important impetus of our lives, and allow us to recover our corporeal meaning. Once we regain certainty and trust as beings existing in a fixed space, we would become firmly rooted amidst a fluid society.

The Screen

Rifkin Jeremy, The age of access : the new culture of hypercapitalism, where all of life is a paid-for experience, Huijae Lee, Mineumsa, seoul, Korea, 2001, 292p
Bauman Zygmunt , 44 Letters from the Liquid Modern World, Eunpyeong Cho& Jieun Kang, Dong Nyeok, seoul, Korea, 2012, 18p
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media The Extensions of Man, Seonggi Kim,Mineumsa, seoul, Korea, 2006, 82p
Byeongcheol Han, Transparenzgesellschaft, Taehwan kim, Moonji publishing, Seoul, Korea, 2014, 157p

Un-tact

Nando Kim, Trend Korea 2018, Miraeuichang, Seoul, Korea, 2017, 316p
Nando Kim, Trend Korea 2018, Miraeuichang, Seoul, Korea, 2017, 321p
Hyeryeon Shim, Media philosophy of the 20th Century: from analog to digital, Greenbi, Seoul, Korea, 2012, 246p
Bauman Zygmunt, Liquid modernity, Ilsu Lee, Kang, Seoul, Korea, 2009, 176p
Natalie Knapp ,Der Unendliche Augenblick, Yeongmi Yoo, across, Seoul, Korea, 2016, 64p
Byeongcheol Han, Transparenzgesellschaft, Taehwan kim, Moonji publishing, Seoul, Korea, 2014, 186p

Stepping outside the fluid world

Rifkin Jeremy, The age of access : the new culture of hypercapitalism, where all of life is a paid-for experience, Huijae Lee, Mineumsa, seoul, Korea, 2001, 274p
Bauman Zygmunt, Liquid modernity, Ilsu Lee, Kang, Seoul, Korea, 2009, 8p
Guy Debord, Commentaires sur la societe du spectacle, Jaehong Yoo, Ulyuck, Seoul, Korea, 32p
Rifkin Jeremy, The age of access : the new culture of hypercapitalism, where all of life is a paid-for experience, Huijae Lee, Mineumsa, seoul, Korea, 2001, 300p
Byeongcheol Han , Duft der zeit : ein philosophischer essay zur kunst des verweilens., Taehwan kim, Moonji publishing, Seoul, Korea, 2013, 34p