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This dissertation traces the historical trajectory of selected Korean female iconographies: Modern Girl, Apr s Girl, Factory Girl, Gangnam Beauty, and Soybean Paste Girl. These figures have functioned as avatars of the gendered history of Korea and have also had a considerable transpacific impact on the dynamics that affect gender and class structures, as well as on national beauty culture, norms of femininity, and everyday performance of masquerade. With all these embodied female icons--icons that represent male fabrications that cater to the male gaze--I focus on the tension between authenticity and imitation/copies, which patriarchal society has demanded be distinguished. Amid the oblique power relations created primarily by the conjuncture of Japanese colonialism and US imperialism, Korea has consciously strived to establish a national cultural identity as the original rather than the copy. Such transnational struggles have been projected as struggles internal to the nation--that is, between the privileged and the marginalized of society. Particularly in this Confucian and patriarchal society, such intense power dynamics have produced and maintained unequal relations between genders. In other words, having to differentiate authentic from imitative disempowers women's performance of self and agency and their presentation of femininity in everyday life. I draw on the concept of masquerade as a way not only to resolve this tension but to narrow the gap between what is projected as authentic and what is considered imitative, or between the reality and the representation, thus traversing the boundaries of class and challenging the normativity of femininity and the ideals of beauty constructed by social intellectuals, the state, and hegemonic mores. My object of analysis is what I call a "nexus of beauty": I weave together a wide range of media, not only popular media such as cinema and magazines, including Sunday Seoul and in-house beauty magazines produced by Amorepacific, but government policies and propaganda in relation to women's fashion and consumption; literature (particularly novels); social events such as beauty pageants, parades of Korean actresses, and the sociocultural trend of "dance fever"; and the everyday life performances of marginalized Korean women in a public realm. My objective, therefore, is to illuminate the relationship between each historical context and transformative and multilayered "Koreanesses," particularly in terms of national beauty culture and women's corporeal identity. Although many everyday beauty practices and performances of working-class Korean women have been restored through archival images and narratives, this restoration is insufficient. Drawing on a variety of discursive/archival materials and forms of popular culture--including novels, essays, advertisements, newspapers, in-house beauty/weekly magazines, and "webtoons"--I analyze how notions of K-Beauty have been promulgated and performed, beginning with Korea's decision to participate in the Western capitalist economy at the turn of the twentieth century. By examining these various discursive sites of media, I demonstrate how K-Beauty has been developed and disseminated as once-familiar bodies become--or engage in performances of masquerades that become--visually ambiguous. In that process, the relationship between bodies and behavior becomes theatrical more...

Urban Rooftops:\ud Our cities are now having to rethink and redevelop the use of space more creatively and ingeniously than ever before. Space is precious in any context but the extra pressure cities’ face with the ever growing need to accommodate increasing populations mean that every open area is now a new possibility for spatial development. \ud \ud One of the most recent and fascinating trends is the use of rooftops. Their appeal lies in their surprise and undiscovered disposition. Their purpose might involve a large community or an individual but because of its elevated position, each journey to that roof space provides a chance for adventure. They are an addition to older established buildings but come with a new brief and therefore a new spirit, encouraging creativity and positive thinking, using a different energy.\ud \ud The master planners and the local communities need to consider a more responsible composition of ideas to our urban and earthly needs. Sustainable energy use and material choice are to be rewarded but what of the function? Is just viewing the simple horizon above the rooftops function enough? relieving us of our daily stresses and seeing the city as sleeping giant or should we be industrious, striking balances of nature, pulling it back from disaster, giving space to synergistic projects.\ud \ud The students were asked to design a Rooftop structure in a densely inhabited urban neighbourhood, namely Burbage House, Curtain Road, Shoreditch London E2. \ud \ud Aim:\ud The aim of this lofty structure or series of structures sets out to encourage, inspire a community or an individual to cultivate positive practices. The rooftop should connect and bond visually or through metaphor within its surrounding neighbourhood. The space should take account of the social and cultural diversity that resides close by.\ud \ud Context:\ud Shoreditch is weave of close knit streets with its former industrial context provide an area for those that want to step out of the norm and the corporate, it’s place to imagine new business. Innovative creative houses have set up home using space imaginatively, sharing with like minded disciplines. \ud \ud The narrowness of the streets encourages networking and enhances collective working practices. Warehouse constructions reveal their previous activity and function, reminding us of the busy people, the noise and the industry. \ud \ud The buildings allow a maximum of light though to the interior, the detail in the window frames and brickwork show a sense of pride. The Interiors are simple and true the outer structure, revealing angles and curves. The space is unattractive to the Multi-national corporations, and as there is little capacity for charging large rents makes this area economically suitable for young and emerging practices to set up.\ud \ud The rawness of the interior spaces, unadulterated by recent 20th century trends provide the perfect utilitarian and vacant habitat for the fresh ideas where pioneering and ground breaking professions materialize.\ud \ud View:\ud In some respects the rawness of such a landscape, its lack of conformity compares well with an open landscape. When standing on the roof looking across London, its openness and horizontal neutrality engenders a sense of calm and invigoration. Suddenly there are possibilities and scope for living positively. Hurried life slows down and London becomes picturesque. Novalis wrote ‘Everything seen from a distance becomes poetry :distant mountains, distant people, distant events. Everything become romantic’. more...