Home Sweet Computerized Home
The Meaning of Home in Korean Ubiquitos Society Vision
Keywords:
Korea, technology, computerized home, ubiquitous societyAbstract
lf you are a first-time visitor to Korea and arrive in Seoul at night it might be hard for you to imagine that Korea was once called the Hermit Kingdom. Your are most likely to be in awe of the urban sea of neon lights mixed with the constant noise and flow of traffic. People, although they are filling the streets, seem to be at ease in the never-ending bustle. They enjoy their time in groups or on their own, on the bus or subway, having a meal or a drink but at the same time talking on the cell phone, watching mobile TV, playing a game console, surfing the net on a handset or typing away on a mini laptop that makes its European versions seem gigantic. You might alaso be amazed at how uniquely the digital world seems to penetrate the physical. lt feels like in Korea all the rings and beeps, small screens and signal lights which in the West are seen as interfering interaction, are allowed by a unique techno-physical harmony to complement and augment any social gathering. When you enter a Korean home, you will see that a Korean wants to be connected all the time. Although the home is a Korean's sanctuary and the locus of generations of tradition, it does not mean that it is out of the grid of technology. On the contrary, it is the center of the Korean vision of future technology as can be seen in Ubiquitos Dream Hall (henceforth UDH), a Korean exhibition about the future of technology and the focus of this article.
