Cognition interprets and understand the world around you, while emotions allow you to make quick decisions about it. . . . positive emotions are critical to learning, curiosity, and creative thought, and today research is turning toward this dimension. . . . The psychologist Alice Isen and her colleagues have shown that being happy broadens the thought processes and facilitates creative thinking.
------Donald A. Norman, Emotional Design

Research Interests

My recent research “Digital Wabi-Sabi” is to expand my research to fuse nature and design through computer technology. Also it is to accomplish humanity and spirituality in multimedia design and materialize the beauty of simplicity and harmony of Wabi-Sabi. I create a series of digital works that reflects Wabi-Sabi philosophy. Using manipulated and/or edited still and motion images, Wabi-Sabi convey perfect within imperfect, infinite within impermanent, complete within incomplete. I challenge to have the viewer experience the humane warmth created with a cold machine.

Digital Wabi- Sabi builds on my long-standing interest in using design to reflect the Korean traditional patterns. During my exploration of traditional Korean patterns, I learned that they were a simplification of nature based upon a totemic belief and deep respect for the beauty of nature. The patterns were composed in harmony and unity just as the artists wanted to coexist with nature. I revaluated the modernity of the traditional patterns and adopted it into my designs as well as creating patterns from images of nature on my own. I transformed two-dimensional patterns into three-dimensional objects that served practical functions in daily life. I wanted to express my admiration and appreciation for nature and tried to bring it into our ordinary life style. I tried to capture patterns from nature and apply them on or into our daily objects like lamps, furniture, utensils, decorative objects, etc. I hand crafted most of the objects.

When I was introduced to the capabilities of the computer I expanded my study to digital form. I was seeking for a way to transform nature through computer technology. During my quest, I was given an opportunity to study in Tokyo, Japan in Fall 2002 and discovered the quintessential Japanese aesthetics called Wabi-Sabi. Wabi-Sabi is a philosophical concept based on Zen Buddhism. Buddhism originated in India, transformed by Chinese scholars into the Chan sect, which was reformulated as Zen Buddhism in Japan. Zen emphasizes “direct, intuitive insight into transcendental truth beyond all intellectual conception.” At the core of Wabi- Sabi is the importance of transcending ways of looking and thinking about being.

Wabi and Sabi are independent words when they are used in ordinary speech. Wabi means the beauty to be found in poverty and simplicity. Sabi means an antique look, patina, elegant (quiet) simplicity or rust. When these two words are put together it suggests an aesthetic concept that emphasizes the beauty of simplicity and harmony. Wabi-Sabi concerns the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It honors the beauty of things modest and humble. It values the beauty of things unconventional. Wabi-Sabi is expressed in numerous practices such as Cha-do (the traditional Japanese tea ceremony), poetry, and even appears on ordinary objects such as in an asymmetry of a broken ceramic bowl, or the rusty steel elements on building, or the patina of an antique bronze door, or a cracked wooden column, and irregularities in hand crafted furniture.

I was impressed by the depth of the concept and felt that it is very close to what I had strived for. Digital Wabi- Sabi constitutes an effort to capture Wabi-Sabi in a series of digital works. The individual motion and still digital pieces narrate the aesthetics of familiar objects that we pass by everyday. The subject matter is the subtle beauty of nature, aged objects, nostalgic countryside scenes or the back streets of cities.

I tell students on the first day of class that I believe everyone has an artist inside him or herself. The question is, how do we awaken these artists and train them properly? I am there to help them wake up the artist inside and lead the way in training that artist. But the most important person who trains the artist is the artist him/herself.

During six years of teaching including three years of Teaching Assistantship, I emphasized conceptual development, precise refinement, and research on designers—past and present. I also valued class discussion. It is important for students to exchange their ideas and be open to different opinions.

The main focus of education was on conceptual development through research, while brainstorming and refinement processes were done using traditional methods. Some educators say, “Why do we spend class time passing on technical skills? They can do that on their own time as needed. What we have to do in class is to have them exercise problem solving skills and cultivate their minds as designers.” I agree that an instructor’s main role is to lead students in how to approach design problems, to train their aesthetic senses, and to teach professionalism. However, I believe spending a substantial amount of time in preparing students on necessary technical skills is essential. If you ever had the experience of learning a foreign language you know that the first thing you have to do is to shove unfamiliar alphabets and mindless simple conversations into your brain. After painful and repeated practice, you can express your own ideas with the new language. I believe media design education is not much different from learning a new language. First, students acquire design concepts, digital technologies and a visual vocabulary. Then they challenge themselves in specific areas of design through diverse conceptual and aesthetic approaches and apply their knowledge of history and culture to their work.

On top of that, an instructor should be able to introduce new technology in the field and address recent issues in design. Recently, Media or Multimedia Design, Interactive or Interaction Design, Motion Graphics, and Ergonomic Interface Design, are all terms that we have heard often. Graphic designers embraced these new fields. However, it is still a task to merge technology with experimental design practice. In order to merge new technologies, designers need to familiarize themselves and cooperate with experts in various fields such as computer scientists, engineers, psychologists, information scientists and so forth. For instance, when a designer is assigned to create a website for a corporation, graphic designers tend to treat it as printed media and approach the problem from a solely aesthetic view. However, website design is rather different from print design. Since websites are digital publications, there are digital application requirements as simple as html, dreamweaver or dhtml, javascript, etc. Second, designers should understand that websites are human interactive pieces and have specific functions, which are delivering massive amounts of information. In order to reorganize information for the website, designers should consider how the human mind flows and then design according to it. To create successful website design, designers should be familiar with digital applications, human psychology, information science -or,- at least, work with experts in those fields.
In short, an instructor of design trains the students’ conceptual development ability, stimulates their aesthetic sense with a wide range of examples, and broadens their knowledge of design theory so that they can adopt and integrate those theories with their own ideas. The instructor opens the door to new methodology and technology, and introduces it to students at appropriate stages. A design teacher encourages them to work and motivates them to accomplish ever more creative projects.

I also want to pass on to students my belief that a designer should be one of the leading minds in society. The earth is a place where we all must coexist, and a designer’s job is to find ways to create a pleasant environment for everyone with the most efficient means. Designers should work for meaningful social or political changes. Because a well organized visual graphic is better than a thousand words. Growing up in a nation that has experienced so much suffering as a result of battles fought on its territory, I find myself particularly distressed by our world’s continuing tendency to try to solve its problems through violent conflict. I want to use design to inspire people to live in harmony. As the design educator, Victor Papanek said, “Design ethics and purpose help find the path to harmonious living in the surrounding environment.”

Media Matters

What do Beijing, Shanghai, and the University of Dayton have in common? It depends on who you ask. But for Suki Kwon(Visual Arts), the connections between UD and Chinese cities became clearer for her students when they took advantage of the video technology available from the LTC's E-Media Lab. During summer 2006, Kwon led a contingent of UD students to China. She thought it would be a terrific idea if students could document their month-long experience with digital video and pictures. "These video projects are an invaluable educational tool which enhanced students' cultural learning - not only by their interesting outcomes, but also by deepening students observations of the sites where they were living," said Kwon.

Kwon worked with the E-Media Lab where John LeComte conducted workshops for the students on how to use the cameras, capture to their laptops, and edit the resulting digital video. Eash week while in China, the students created short videos of their travels. On returning to UD, the students converted the videos to DVD. Canon Z-45 video cameras(that use mini-DV tapes) were used for this project and are available through the LTC E-Media Lab. The students used Window Movie Maker, bundled into Microsoft XP, to edit their project.