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Every place we walked or stayed at will eventually fade away someday. However, delineated and recorded places are imprinted in our memory.

Accidental discovery of a scenery while wandering about could be the encounter with our inner-self. After all, seeing is the reflection of our desire, pursuit, and understanding of the world. To see something may be to discover what I feel deep inside and how I react to my feelings.

I participated in the workshop “A Group of City Recorders: Reading Gwangju through the Belongings of City Recorders.” The ACC organized the workshop to encourage people to view and record the city in a new and individual perspective at Special Hall (B4), ACC Archive & Research.

After the lecture, “An Accidental Collection of Seoul,” by Lee Kyeong-min, a director of Seoul Soozip, 22 people who came to the workshop grabbed “the belongings of city recorders” — a disposable film camera, memo sheets, an envelope, a pencil, and a masking tape — and walked around five neighborhoods around the ACC. They collected and recorded the landscapes they found accidentally and unintentionally and kept them in their heart.

Left: Belongings of city recorders comprising disposable film cameras, memo sheets, envelops, pencils, and masking tapes Available for purchase at ACC Culture Shop
Right: A guide was provided, containing useful information to learn before recording about the neighborhoods.

Kusumi Masayuki once said:

The participants scattered into five neighborhoods—Gung-dong, Dongmyeong-dong, Seonam-dong, Seoseok-dong, and Jang-dong—and walked around without intention or destination, only guided by accidents and surprises. They took a picture of a scenery when they discovered whatever that is captivating to them and expanded their imagination. They returned to Special Hall once they finished their walk and talked about what they found sharing the pictures they took.

#noticing #small_beauties

Kim Yoon-seo
I saw a sign that said “Shoe Repair” written by hand in hangul when crossing the street and wanted to talk about shop signs written in hangul. I walked around Yesul-gil and thought, "Oh, Studio Yesul-gil has a pretty hangul sign." I found a sign, "Si U," in a pretty font when I was walking in an alley and wondered, “Is this an art studio” Then, I found “Soso” and wondered if it meant a whispering garden. I was mesmerized by small beauties embodied in signs on the street, Yesul-gil.

Park Chae-hyeon
There was a gap between these two houses. It was a dead end, having no exit. I might have just ignored that gap in normal occasion. But after staring at it for a little while, I could feel a sense of comfort and reminiscence, which kept changing over the course of time according to the amount of light.

Park Su-hyeon
We can get tired if we walk a while. When I got tired, I found a writing on the wall of a restaurant and felt as if the writing is asking how I was doing. Then, I thought, "Maybe I should record writings I encounter." After gazing at the floor of the street, it reminded me of a quote from Murakami Haruki’s book: “The coffee was as pitch-dark as the night, and it was also as warm as jazz music. As I drank that small piece of world down, the scenery behind me gave me blessings.” Then I realized I was walking on Dongmyeong-dong Café Street.

Kim Ji-hyeon
We, humans, say from here it's Gung-dong and over there is Jang-dong, but for birds, there's no such differentiation. There always should be space for everyone, everything, a heart to desire such a space in the city. I wanted elements like birds, cats walking by fast, bees, and other elements to be naturally included in the pictures I took, thinking, “Are they living well here with us?”

Every landscape changes. There is no such thing as a same landscape. It changes its shape and look depending on the point of view, values, and knowledge the viewer has. What is important is to stay curious about what is familiar, to be courageous to look at something differently, and to always leave some room inside one's inner-self to be excited and open to small beauties in daily moments.

The workshop was a program linked with <Walking, Wandering>, an exhibition that explored the meaning of a common daily activity, walking. Park Min-woo (minu@accf.or.kr), an organizer of the workshop, said, “I'd like to build urban cultural activities for Gwanju by organizing more community-based events.” The exhibition is open until Sep. 3, 2023, at ACC Creation Spaces 3 and 4.

Interview with Lee Kyeong-min, director of Seoul Soozip
(Seoul Collect)

• When do you go out to "collect" Seoul?

  My line of work involves tax administration. So, I go out and look around Seoul with my own point of view whenever I’m free like during a lunch break and build connection between records to create connected content. I started from taking photos of buildings at redevelopment districts and happened to find the traces left by the past residents in the gone and empty spaces, which became a part of records with others. Some of the things they left behind seemed to have personal value, like household registers, insurance papers, or photo albums. I used to think the disappearance of a space has nothing to do with me, but I'm starting to think that could be about me someday.

• Any recommendation for what to take when going out to “collect” the city?

  An open heart, more than anything. I also hope people don’t do a lot of research on the Internet or through books before actually going out. I start digging into something after I find something which intrigues me while walking and wandering around. I think that’s how you view the city with your own set of eyes. I think having one's own landscape only becomes possible when you walk first and then start setting up a plan.

* Lee Kyeong-min is a writer and an archivist, who writes to change the meaning of archiving cities by exploring the hidden aspects of cities as she walks unmapped places.