Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| A colorful road sign, top, on Yeonhong Island, South Jeolla Province, shows directions to the wharf, church and the northwest end of the island. The formerly desolate island has transformed into a gigantic art museum with various art pieces and installations. / Korea Times file photo |
'Caring Design' elaborates what makes design great
By Kang Hyun-kyung
The tiny island of Yeonhong at the southwestern tip of Goheung County, South Jeolla Province, was once a typical island on the wane. Many locals left in search of a better life in urban areas, leaving homes there uninhabited.
It was once a thriving island with a booming seaweed business. Through their small seaweed farms, the islanders earned enough money to lead an affluent lifestyle and send their children to school.
The good days, however, were brief. Competition heated up as people from outside the island joined the seaweed business with lavish investments, and consequently small seaweed farmers were pushed out of business.
Younger people, who deemed their hometown as having no future, migrated to big cities for jobs. Their departure, which resulted in the island ageing with a shrinking population, led to the closure of the only elementary school on the island in 1998. Eighty people belonging to 50 households, mostly elderly, were left on the desolate island.
That gloomy atmosphere began to gradually disperse from 2005 when Goheung native Sun Ho-nam relocated to fulfill his childhood dream. Sun, an art major, and his wife came to the island to open an art museum and create a cultural venue for artists and locals.
The couple purchased the school site, remodeled it and opened a scenic museum named after the island. The museum triggered an art rush on the island. Various exhibits, art installations and murals popped up there.
The residents and artists were creative. An installment art project titled "Bass" on the wall of a resident's house is one of the creative works that facilitated cooperation between locals and the artists. They recycled a wooden ship and garbage washed up onto the beach to produce the art work.
The island is now called a "gigantic art museum," attracting tourists from other parts of the country.
 |
| An art piece called "Bass," top, is installed on the wall of a house on Yeonhong Island in South Jeolla Province. Local residents and artists worked together to produce the art with a wooden ship and garbage washed up on the island's beach. / Courtesy of Bang Il-kyung |
Bang Il-kyung, author of "Caring Design" published by Misulmunhwa, said the great makeover of Yeonhong-do would have been unimaginable unless Sun and his dedication to introduce the idea of the island-specific design project.
"For the islanders, the art museum is a multi-purpose venue," she said during a recent interview with The Korea Times. "It's a studio for artists. It also has accommodation for tourists. For the locals, the museum serves as a community center. Thanks to it, the locals are exposed to various artwork there."
Bang, also an industrial designer who had taught university students for 20 years before she retired from teaching, said she wrote the book to educate the public about sustainable design.
"People tend to think of words like "beautiful, fancy, rare, sophisticated or spectacular" when they define certain design as being good," she said. "This is misleading. Design is not all about making certain objects look good. You cannot tell if a certain design project is good or bad simply based on its appearance. We can say a certain design is good if it was made for people, the community and the ecosystem."
 |
| Bang Il-kyung, author of "Caring Design" |
Bang said industrial designs that prioritize the external look of objects without thinking of their impact on the community and the ecosystem could turn out to be a disaster. According to her, convenience has long been regarded as the number one principle for many Korean designers when they work on certain projects. "We are now seeing the consequences of this short-sighted view," she said. She cited plastic as one of the bad examples that put convenience first ahead of its long-term impact on the ecosystem, saying people are wrestling with toxic waste as a result.
"Caring Design" showcases dozens of successful local and international design projects that favor people, the environment and the community.
It took more than a year for Bang to complete the book. She visited sites and cities in Korea where good designs were created and had a positive impact on the community. Bang also contacted designers from 22 countries to compile good overseas projects for the book.
"The book project was indeed demanding," the author said. "As always, many of the foreign designers I contacted were very cooperative, but some were very strict because they initially had no idea of how this book would turn out. I thank the publisher for removing all obstacles for its publication."
The author touted the power of great design, claiming it can even play a role to unite community members.
The iconic image on German pedestrian signals of AMPELMANN, which means a traffic light man, is lauded as a successful industrial design signifying care and integration with the community, according to Bang.
East German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau proposed the iconic pedestrian sign back in 1961. As a psychologist, he knew the importance of the emotional effect of the industrial design and gave the little men on the signal a pug nose, a hat and the beginning of a paunch.
Bang said children and the elderly, who have relatively poorer concentration and vision than younger adults, can easily recognize the signal of the traffic light man.
The iconic traffic man could have disappeared into history after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. German reunification took the form of wealthy West Germany's absorption of East Germany. Bang said West-Germanization had swept in after reunification and East Germans' way of life and culture were gone in the wake of the fall of the Wall as they were rapidly replaced by West German products.
The traffic man was also facing the same fate as many other East German things.
It was West German industrial designer Markus Heckhausen who saved the iconic East German cultural product from a doomed fate. He happened to watch laborers remove the traffic light man on the street. He realized the cute, friendly pedestrian sign could bridge the two cultures, helping AMPELMANN survive and become one of the iconic German cultural products.
