Critical Reflective Journal by Hyori Lee

A STORY OF NOBODY Critical Reflective Journal

HYORI LEE

A STORY OF NOBODY Critical Reflective Journal HYORI LEE MA in Communication Design - Graphic Design, 2013

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Prologue: The beginning 10 I. Research + Reflection: The journey of thoughts “What social factors have led South Korea becoming the suicide capital?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Theoretical views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Current issues 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Efforts to decrease the suicide rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reflection in media 16 “What does the high suicide rate imply in South Korea?” . . . . . . . . . . Park’s “Suicide, the choice of the second worst” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kwon’s “Life” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The elderly suicide

18 18 19

“Is my country really for all the people?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IMF loan crisis 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Review on the official materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The idea of horror 24

II. Visualization: The journey of works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Early works in the primary stage

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Looking for the tones of voice

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Studio works

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Letterpress

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A story of nobody

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Epilogue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bibliography + References

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix

Introduction “It sounds too distant from graphic design.” I heard this whenever I interviewed some institutions of the welfare for the aged or the elderly suicide. And then I was asked, “why did you choose the elderly suicide as your theme” with sincere curiosity. I got shy and nervous when answering this question, but also I would feel excited. It was more about fear than excitement when I chose the Glasgow School of Art for my Master’s. Because I did not have much knowledge of the art and design practice, I was afraid I would at last retreat to Korea after suffering disappointments and failures. But after I convinced myself that I should focus on being learned within the art and design environment than a big accomplishment, I had to feel comfortable with myself. Then, when I was considering what to choose as the theme of my MA, I encountered troubles because I was not sure on my capability as well as the communication design. Eventually, I chose the one that appealed to my heart the most, which was the suicide issue in my country, South Korea. At this point, I put aside my knowledge and state and the idea of design. Instead, I tried to think of a thing that I would love to research with all my heart, a thing worthwhile to do for a year. But constant fear and despair have distressed me until recently. Going back to the first question, when I was asked why you chose the elderly suicide as your theme for the design work, I would feel excited. It was because it proved at least one thing; this work is worthwhile communicating. The communication design functions the bridge between certain content and the public. I believe the contents can be anything. I thought the suicide issue could be a solid theme of my graphic design work, for suicide is the significant matter of our neighbours’ lives and deaths. For these reasons, I could have more affection for this theme as I have conducted the research and work. I do not know how effectively they will be communicated, but I hope they would be seen as one of the processes for the next stage. There are some people who have helped me feel this difficult journey joyful. Paul Stickley who led me in earnest to the visualization and has always encouraged and cheered me a lot, Stuart White who was my first tutor and concerned of my work together in the primary stage, Brian Cairns who has sincerely cared of all of us from the beginning, Andy Stark who has always picked the sharp point and told of “the process of journey” that I would always recall whenever I felt lost, Daniele Sambo who joined just recently but has given a big helping hand, Edwin Pickstone who has given tips with passion in the technical parts, Lynn Sayers-McHattie who helped to organize the massive and random materials, Kerry Ailyn and Ben Rush who have given the best advices when I would pop up and ask random questions, and my lovely international colleagues who have pushed and pulled each other either in or out of the studio. And even in distance, my best-ever people, my family, friends, my grandfatherly mentor, Prof. Han, and my boyfriend, Dong-u have supported me in many ways with all their hearts. Also my dear grandmother in heaven, too. If I have missed only one of them, I could have never finished this project.

Looking back now, I thank to all of the things and people I have been through. I hope to make meaningful works in more meaningful ways as a graphic designer in future.

August 2013

Prologue: The beginning “What was the motivation of taking this theme?” I found myself tell of notional analysis and statistics as the answer. I heard of a voice from my heart, ‘Wait, you’ve got wrong.’ While collecting a number of data for research, I had almost forgot things that I should haven’t; my understanding, view and motivation. As I have read the relevant articles, analyses and statistics, what I felt strongly was a silent horror. They were a massive ball of idea. It was sorrow and wrongs that I felt in them as well as real suicide cases and suicide notes. Death is the last ideal concept, that is, the concept I may be able to understand through experience at the very end of my life. That is the farthest from me than any other ideas. That can’t be one of choices. That will suddenly come to me and devour my life regardless of my will. But, to some people, such death seems to be one of the choices. While I’m scared to death of death, some people seem to be willing to kill themselves. I got a sudden headache when I encountered the news report that a mother in her 80s and her daughter in 40s with mental illness roped together and threw themselves into the river. The way to the bridge after the decision to quit on life, looking for a proper rope; usual or whatever conversation they might have; the face and the look they saw extremely closely; the touch of hands and ropes; the feel of their soft or dry skins, breath, the smell of it; the texture and rustling of clothes; the smell of the wind blown hair; cold skin, were cars passing by them behind…? Each other who each one might look at really, really closely… and falling… the moment going down; the wind blowing savagely in that moment; rising heart beat; did they open or close their eyes? Anyway the continuous feeling of each other’s skin, breath, clothes… It was a horror to imagine the vivid sense they might have felt until the last moment. They can’t be mere touch, smell or sound, but the sense before Death. They are the horror. The vivid horror they might have felt caused me a sudden headache through the written text. ‘Why…’ This was the only linguistic appreciation occurred to my mind. According to the report, the mother and daughter had lived in poverty with a huge debt for long time. It is supposed that they couldn’t live normal lives because the daughter had a mental illness. The mother might be responsible for the domestic economy receiving the basic welfare checks from the city. The mother had other 6 children but some of them had moved abroad and the other were poor too, so it might be quite impossible for them to ask help. The police officer said, when they fished out their bodies from the river, at a single glance of their clothes, he could recognize that they were really poor. The question, why, has gone. So did any other words. It was Korea’s society I saw in the article where the unconditioned love and protective instinct end up with suicide, compromising with reality; to be precise, Korea’s

society for the poor. The land where encourages death to the poor, despaired and failed. Where the possibility of death is open. Where the horror no living ones know can arouse every corner. The country in sorrow and wrongs. Their feeling and experience transfer to the office papers or computer screen to be reported or analyzed. Scholars and public officials adjust their spectacles and make an effort to be vindicated the Suicide Capital seeing through the dead sense of the resources. I bet their approaches are sense-dead as the resources are that they see because they seem to have become aware of the error by the shameful dishonor, Suicide Capital in the OECD countries (that is a kind of the global social club) not by the cries from the bottom. I heard that it resulted in “The Life Respect Thought Education” on which the national suicide prevention campaign centers. I can’t (also don’t want to) find the connection between the above case of the mother and daughter and “The Life Respect Thought Education.” Of course, there are diverse dimensions on suicide; it is true that there are cases caused by the negligence and disdain of the value of life. However, I criticize that the slogans of the two suicide prevention centers (Suicide Prevention Institute and Korea’s Suicide Prevention Center) are only based on the “life respect”. It sounds like generalizing that suicides are due to their wrong judgments of degrading the value of life. The case of the mother and daughter is just one of the enormous examples of those committing suicide under the condition of ‘slipping through the net’. They remove their own presence by death. Did they commit it because they didn’t know the preciousness of life? Or they didn’t value living lives? Because they didn’t get educated such thing? Because they are so much ignorant? I feel another kind of anger and sorrow seeing that bright slogan of the national suicide prevention campaign that makes responsible of those who are not secured the least living standard and do not take the hope of future from the society. I feel that way; because the majority of suicides is the jobless and working class. “I don’t’ or can’t work, or I labor” which the jobless (including the young unemployed and old men) and the working class represent in Korea’s society means incompetence, failure, fall and unnecessity, and they are the objects of exclusion and elimination; because that’s not their faults; because our society leads them to a deadly situation, silently, into the horror. Within this horrible state, I strongly feel the necessity not to stigmatize them as a loser or the insane, but to reflect on why and how this society compels them to resign from life. I’m longing to question, what this country, society, social safety net, this land and money are for. Posted in my blog on 22 Mar 2013

I. Research + Reflection: The journey of thoughts

“What social factors have led South Korea becoming the Suicide Capital?”

Emile Durkheim, Sociologist, 1858-1917, France 1. According to OECD statistic report, South Korea is ranked the number one in the suicide rate as 28.4 of 100,000 killed themselves in 2011 on average [OECD iLibrary] 2. Emile Durkheim, “Suicide” published in 1897 3. Durkheim, p.26 4. Durkheim, p.16

My approach to “suicide” originated from my curiosity on South Korea’s strangely high suicide rate and the academic analyses; for example, the national dishonor as the suicide capital1 and Emile Durkheim’s book “Suicide”2 that studied suicide sociologically that I used to think as a very personal choice. I was drifting on the current state and comprehensive analysis of the suicide at this stage. I relied on diverse famous books and news reports in a large scope in order to justify my project. What I questioned here was “What social factors have led South Korea becoming the suicide capital?” And I conducted research to answer it. But the underlying premise I set up was that the suicide issue in Korea might be closely connected with the society. It was Durkheim’s “Suicide” that I largely referred to. As a laywoman in the suicide matter, I was really curious about how the sociology approaches to the suicide. Of course, he did not claim suicide is an utter social murder. He clarified his underlying major hypothesis, …suicidal behavior is a combination of psycho-instinctual impulse and social precipitation.3 Nevertheless, his logic that a given number of suicides are to be expected in a given type of society4 cemented my doubt about the connection of the high suicide rate and Korea’s society. However, I did not really focused on the social responsibility for suicide yet. I have not figured out how it is connected between the society of the clear but abstract aggregate and the most miserable choice of an individual. Accordingly, I tried to collect as diverse range of data as possible. I categorized the primary researches for efficiency.

1) Theoretical views

2) Current Issues

3) Efforts to decrease the suicide rate

4) Reflection in Media

James Gilligan, psychiatrist, USA 5. Wearther Effect (Copycat Suicide) is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledgement or due to accounts or depiction of the original suicide on television and in other media. [Wikipedia]

1) Theoretical views I collected the theoretic analyses on suicide. In this category, I could learn Werther Effect5 and that the suicide should be concerned as the independent disease. But most of all, I could approach to the view about suicide that has a social message. One of the most important was James Gilligan’s book “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others.” He reached his conclusion, “Politics divides the life and death” figuring out that the

violence fatality including the suicide rate is much higher under the Republican Party rule than Democratic Party, resulted from his analyses of the stats of violence fatality change according to the periods of their rules. Even though it is the foreign instance, it subsequently inspired me. This reveals that an individual is much vulnerable to the social order and structure than I expected. It partly inspired my book that is only made of information and objective data. One of the articles dealt with a series of suicide cases of South Korea’s most famous science university, KAIST6, and said that in many cases, suicide embodies social messages as though it is the demonstration and resistance, comparing with the issue of religion that some people are born due to their religious parents. It referred to Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion”7 that the faith that they are born because of their religious parents limits the freedom of an individual, and likewise, Korea’s society generates people who are born only to be an efficient human resource, not an independent person, for the limitless competition, compressed growth and economic development. And the conflicts occur because of its forcing and educating. There were a number of articles in the similar logic. The social responsibility for suicide already seemed not new but firm and crucial. I became curious, then, where this kind of defect of the social mentality comes from. I had a vague suspicion that it is probably connected to money and people all over the nation are haunted by the ghost of money and get trouble in the collective conscience. Thus, the target of my project expanded from just authoritarians to the nation itself. The next question, What does the high suicide rate imply in Korea? was drawn from my seeking for the connection of Korea’s society with the social perception on suicide.

2) Current Issues I collected general stats, news reports, press investigations, etc., Since I had not narrowed down the range of research yet, I relied on the big picture. I wanted to approach to the serious instances of suicide through them, but looking back now I somehow regret not focusing on some specific news reports from the beginning so that I could secure my viewpoint. Each journal sees the suicide issue in different ways, which made me spend long time to apply and filter them into the specific. Nevertheless, they were not none of benefits. The matter of suicide reflected in stats and reports was revealed much more serious than my expectation. It led me to think of the promising possibility of the objective and cold materials. Also from the diverse viewpoints on suicide, I was provoked to establish my own view. I felt the necessity to narrow down the object of my research at the tutors’ advices. So I sub-categorized the elderly and teenager suicide. The elderly suicide was indeed extreme (see Appendix at page 76). Despite the seriousness revealed in the stats and reports, most of people including myself from before have not realized it. That is in part because the social elimination became institutionalized, which affects not only the increase of the elderly suicide rate but also the general perception, which marginalizes second-class citizens. It made me ponder on how I should respond on it as a graphic design student. The teenager suicide was in fact serious as well. But it seemed necessary to

6. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 7. Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion” published in 2006

conduct deeper psychological analysis on the teenager who has not established identity yet, which is further beyond my capability and seems not enough to have representability of my major hypothesis, the defect of social mentality.

3) Efforts to decrease the suicide rate I researched on the efforts to decrease the suicide rate in South Korea and foreign countries.

The Bridge of Life on the Mapo Bridge across the Han River in Seoul

I found “The Bridge of Life” of the Mapo Bridge across the Han River in Seoul that is known as where two per day throw themselves. In 2010, Seoul city and Samsung Life Insurance Company cooperated for the project to write emotional words to hopefully shake suicide’s resolution. Now thanks to the well-designed and beautiful typographic works, this bridge became a tourist spot. It has earned positive reviews. I was delighted to see the city and company took serious the suicide matter. But I also doubted how much this design work could intervene the people who have decided to quit on life. In a regard that suicide population is much higher in other regions than in Seoul and at home than on the bridge, I had suspicion whether this project is the pure effort to decrease the suicide rate, or a mere commercial for the image improvement. I got to know two major suicide prevention centers, Korean Association for Suicide Prevention and Korea’s Suicide Prevention Center. Their main slogans are based on the “Life Respect Thought” that seemed insufficient to me because they sounded like stigmatizing the suicides as wrong or ignorant (see the prologue at page 8).

Suspicious Clients (2011), South Korea

I wanted to interview these institutions, so I sent them interview requests via email. But I have not received answers. In the email I said that I consider the suicide matter in Korea as the social problem from which the social defect and irony derive. Fortunately, however, I could get permission of interview from some other institutions (see Appendix at page 80). From the interview with them, I could have chance to be told of the real voice of suicides or senior citizens in poverty, which helped me conduct the visual works with more confidence. In East Asia, Hong Kong and Japan were revealed as the leading countries in the effort to decrease the suicide rate, and Sweden and Finland in the West. In this category, the most interesting were Psychological Autopsy of Finland, Gate Keeper of Spokane in America and a village’s health center of Sweden. I once dreamed of the intervention in a high suicide risk group as they did, but as the idea of social responsibility was gradually moving to the center of my project, it became left out. Also, I thought it could not be really sincere if I design the intervention living in here, Glasgow, not in my country.

Veronika, Decides To Die (2009), USA

4) Reflection in Media

I have seen how media reflect the suicide issue. I mainly learned films, theatre, documentaries and novels. Among them, the Korean movie “Suspicious Clients (2011)” and American “Veronika, Decides to Die (2009)” appeared to be the most interesting contrasts. Through them, I got to know how much the suicidal matters are different according to cultures.1 Comparing these two movies (I regarded them as representing the general perception of each culture because both are public movies), I could finally understand the barrier of communication I sometimes felt with tutors in tutorials. I had thought that because the tutors are the citizens of the high standard of the welfare state they do not really understand how much the economic factor affects the suicide. But also, it was revealed, it was because of Korea’s strong familsm culture that can’t probably be understood due to the cultural difference from the Western individualism. South Korea is rooted in Confucianism. It is said that the patriarchal society, which a man leads the family and society, derives from Confucianism. At the same time, however, in Confucianism there is a principle of devotion to family that children must respect and support their parents with all their hearts until they die, and siblings must love each other as though they are myself. These rules have been followed strictly by our ancestors and still remain in our national emotion. Thus, in Korea, my existence and family are bound up each other. I learned that this idea might be hard to be understood by Westerners and could be one of the singularities of Korea’s suicide issue.

1. In “Suspicious Clients” the important motifs are money and family. At a glance the clients seem to decide to quit on life due to the depression, but it reveals that they plan to kill themselves in order to help their family economically with the death benefit. South Korea is a strong familistic country in which economic difficulties lead some members of family, indeed, to suicide or suicide pact as it is dramatized in this film. Meanwhile, “Veronika, Decides to Die” is the story of a professional woman in a highpaid job who gets tired of life, attempts suicide, and begins finding the affection to life in the mental hospital with new people. In this movie, suicide is desired for a personal escape of one who feels the futility of life. This metaphysical aspect of suicide is different from the suicide matter of “Suspicious Clients” that takes the suicide as realistic and family living matter. While “Veronika…” tells of a person who reached to the suicide attempt, the extreme of the depression, but became seeking for the meaning of life thanks to the affection and love of others, “Suspicious…” of a person who attempts suicide for family, but became to overcome it thanks to the love of family.

“What does the high suicide rate imply in Korea?” The question now moved to “What does the high suicide rate imply in South Korea?” in which the social responsibility is more magnified. This question was drawn from my purpose to visualize things based on my underlying answer that Korea’s high suicide rate indicates not only the irony of social structure but also the defect of social mentality. Hyung-min Park, sociologist, South Korea 1. Park, “Suicide, The Choice of the Second Worst” (2010) published in South Korea

I further contemplated the symbolism of suicide and I concluded that Korea’s high suicide rate probably functions as media that is shown in tangible way with certain meaning and purpose with certain aim. Here, suicide became one of the media that wants to communicate by itself, and my mission is to investigate what this medium wants to communicate with the public. Meanwhile, I encountered an interesting book.

1) Park’s “Suicide, the choice of the second worst”1

Junho Kwon, graphic designer, South Korea

This book was originally the author’s doctoral thesis about the reflexivity and communication-orientedness of suicide based on his analysis of real suicide notes. From the beginning of the book, he claims the suicide must be regarded as one of the important processes within life, not out of life category. The fact that a suicide leaves some notes means they have something to tell and intend to affect their or certain others’ lives in any way. Refuting the logic that suicide is only caused by a mental illness or conducted personally and/or impulsively, he argues that most of suicides have enough process of self-reflection of death and want to deliver some messages to certain others by any way, for example suicide notes. Thanks to him, I could learn that suicide has communicatability in diverse dimension beyond the surface and I could make solid of my thought about the media-like function of suicide. Also I could make clear that the IMF loan crisis in December 1997 is the important historical point in Korea’s suicide issue and that the majority of the suicide notes are written by second-class citizens such as unemployment, students with debts, laborer, lower-income group, the disabled and so forth. By the impression from this book, I started thinking to make Critical Reflective Journal only using the suicide notes and stats; because they reflect the defects of Korean society behind materials that should not be overlooked. As a result, this idea affected not the CRJ, but the independent graphic book, A Story of Nobody. (see page 56).

Christian Boltanski, artist, France

2) Junho Kwon’s “Life” I saw “Life” designed by a Korean graphic designer, Junho Kwon who had taken a Master’s degree in RCA. His installation embodies the real story of North Korean female refugees and the real torture machine that was used for them.

Kwon’s Life

Boltanski’s Monument (Oddessa)

1. Korea’s Statistical Office’s annual report of suicide in 2011

I found some similarity in it with my project in terms of the dark side of Korean society. At the point that he made the viewer participate in the work (the stories of the installation can be read only by turning the wheel), I found the possibility of the art of immersion of the installation. Even though I didn’t develop further the idea of three dimensional installation, I became to dream of the work that communicates actively with viewers. In addition, Christian Boltanski’s works about Holocaust affected not only my visualization but also the directivity of my research.

3) The elderly suicide I felt the necessity to more narrow down the ranges of research and target. Second class citizens became focused on, which could be divided into subcategories such as women, laborer, unemployment, lower-income group, the disabled, senior citizens and so on. Among them, I gained relatively many resources of the elderly suicide and was comparatively clear about what message it has; that is, the different factors of the elderly suicide such as economy, health and isolation, after all come down to the defect of social embracing, which made myself consider them as socially murdered. The further research on the elderly suicide in this context revealed its more severe aspect. The suicide rate of senior citizens over 65 years old couldn’t be compared with other age groups1 (see Appendix at page 76), also the elderly poverty rate was incomparable with any other developed countries. In South Korea, the generalization of unlimited competition, compressed growth and the jungle law encourages to regard the poor elders as useless and surplus people. It could probably be aggravated much more in my country because in Korea the strict familism had traditionally been followed; supporting old parents had been natural and tacit principle of family, hence the government’s welfare system for senior citizens were rather weak. However, while the individualism of the West spreads fast and moreover the national economic crisis was confronted, the elders became a useless burden. In other words, the room for the elders has been faint in our society. As I reached to here, I got upset with the bureaucratic ignorance and neglect about the heart of the issue. The news reports or stats on suicides are not just objective materials, but are the mirrors that reflect accurately the tragedy of our society. The materials show that the elderly is ignored silently, tacitly, and even officially. I would like to reverse it; making the most ignorant to stand out; making the cold bureaucratic materials emotional.

1997

2001

60 and older

average

2011

1. [OECD iLibrary] 2. IMF stands for International Monetary Fund 3. Park, “Suicide, the choice of the second worst” (2008) 4. Paraphrased from Kim’s series column “The history of the failures of economic democratization from 1987 to 2012”

“Is my country really for all the people?” I have conducted the research, and thrown questions and answered. My final question is Is my country really for all the people? My underlying answer is “No” and from here this project is the process of exploration of visualizing and searching for “How no?”

1) IMF loan crisis You can find that Korea’s suicide rate increased all of a sudden in 1998 compared to the slight increase until then. Since 1998 ups and downs have been constantly repeated, but the average is incomparable to before 1998. The rate of change of suicide as well as the current suicide rate are the highest in any developed country1. In fact, the year that peaked for the suicide rate was between 2002 and 2003. But most of experts say that Korea’s socio-economic structure was in chaos in 1997 and afterwards many of social problems have deepened or transformed. In conclusion, the society of South Korea after the IMF2 loan crisis in 1997 can be summed up as the relatively high unemployment; and the aggravation of the labor-management reactions as an economic state surrounding them; the accompanying fall of quality of life, the identity confusion of the society’s members, and the intensifying social conflict (Park, 2003). This is the social background of the rapid increase of the suicide rate (Park, 2008)3 Then, what happened in 1997? South Korea had been into the state of confusion for approximately 80 years because of Japanese colonization, Korean War, dictatorship and junta. Finally my country could establish the democratic nation upon the people’s blood and sweat in 1987, which gave people the hope and blueprint of the new era. However, the dark history didn’t completely disappear, instead, left its vestige in the politics, economy and culture; in the intangible sense, the social perception is included; and the tangible sense, the people who had taken advantage of the dark history. These vestiges generated ironic figures and behaviors in the government operation. The government was confused between the identity of democratic nation and the era of globalization, and swayed by the Establishment and populism, without the fixed view of nation and governmental philosophy. It was the IMF loan crisis in December in 1997 that this problematic government operation left deep scars to the nation and people.4 In easy terms, the company, South Korea, went bankruptcy, and borrowed money to survive from IMF that two companies, USA and Japan, are the largest shareholders, on the condition of financial management. When companies are in bankruptcy, as usual, this event kicked out the normal and minor employees, the regular citizens. Wails were heard in every corner. For survival and the order from IMF, South Korea was compelled to make wholesale changes. Among those strategies, the most big blow to regular citizens was the legalization of the redundancy.

In 1998 when it was legalized, everyone said everywhere that the redundancy is ‘the unavoidable choice’ or ‘the end of the incompetent workers.’ … But they couldn’t answer when they were asked ‘So your mother and father do not work hard that much?’ It was the days when the redundancy was considered as others’ affairs, none of my business and the reasonable fate of lazy workers. (Park, 2013)5 To sacrifice small things to save a great thing may be unavoidable in some cases. But what is important at this historical point, IMF loan crisis, is that the way of sacrificing them at last made the existing problems more fixated and prolonged. There is a place to rely on for the minors or the weak neither in others nor the national system. It became natural for the weak and incompetent to be eliminated. It is no exaggeration to say that the enormous suicide rate of South Korea was triggered at this point. More than the average of suicides are the unemployed, laborer, senior citizens and middle-age men.6 They are the group being at the economic risk the most. Those who do not coincide with the social order of economic revival reach to the state that not only social community and system do not tolerate them but also they do not themselves. ‘I’ who is not the efficient resource is the being who is useless and can be erased. Because that is the order. Looking back this history turned out to be crucial in my whole project. I had only presumed that the rather abstract aggregate, the society, might be responsible, but there was not a sharp point. After I looked back the recent history and tried to connect the historical point from then to now with the context of the suicide issue, many things have become clear. For that reason, the target of my project has become neither the Establishment, politicians nor suicide attempters. The target is now the collective principle and conscience; that we all share and interact with social system; that now in South Korea encourage to commit suicide. They are now what I want to communicate with.

2) Review on the official materials a. National Basic Security Living Act The National Basic Security Living Act is “the policy that provides the necessary expenses to secure the basic living for the low income group living under the minimum cost of living.” But there are some problems with this policy that should secure the social safety net and human dignity. For example, one of the cases that is used in my graphic book shows the story of an old woman who poisoned and killed herself in front of the city hall. The city official had stopped the welfare checks for her according to the law of “Person who is under duty to support”7 because they regarded that her son-in-law could now support her because he had recently found a job. However, she could neither get supported right away from her son-in-law who was too in a tight situation, nor ask him. She had been rejected by the officials until the end despite her appeal and begging.8 Then, she committed suicide on the flowerbed in front of the city hall. There are more of other similar cases that some senior citizens in a blind area take their own lives due to the ironic state of the policy, and I presume there may be more cases than in news reports.

5. an excerpt from Park’s column “How come you make the kid of 8 years old cry, The Infinite Challenge?” 6. Korea’s Statistical Offices’s annual report of suicide in 2011 7. To receive the benefit from the National Basic Security Living Act, the claimants have to meet some requirements. One of them is 'Person who is under duty to support,” that is, the government only support citizens in poverty who have no family such as parents, children, the husbands or wives of the parents or children; or even if they have family the government still support them when none of their family members is able to support the claimant. 8. Han-gyeore News (9 Aug 2012)

1. Korea’s Statistical Offices’s annual report of suicide in 2011

Furthermore, even though this policy is what people should receive as their just due, it is widely regarded like the ‘generosity’ of the government. In the society of South Korea, poverty is the proof of failure, and moreover, is guilt; poverty itself is the brand or stigma. This negative perception would never help the policy go in a right way. b. Citizenship materials At Paul’s suggestion, I started investigating citizenship materials looking for the tone of its voice. Here, by the citizenship materials, I mean the stuffs that all the social members naturally have, such as ID card, National Insurance card, Birth certificate, and so forth. I would expect to find out some cold tone from them as the documents of them look like, but instead, I could extract warm tone. I realized how much we, as a citizen, feel secured with being affiliated. This story continues at page 32.

Mary Douglas, anthropologist, UK (1921-2007)

c. The annual report of suicide of South Korea (made by the Ministry of Health and Welfare)1 I took account of the design and contents of the report. First, it forms the typical composition of Korea’s official report in terms of design; and Sanserif typeface and 45 pages in A4 papers. The graphic charts, which take a half of the contents, are the Microsoft Excel’s in a vivid color. At the beginning it says that our suicide issue has been influenced largely by the socio-economic situation. Nevertheless, there was no more comments on it in detail.

Julia Kristeva, philosopher, France and Bulgaria

3) The idea of horror I got to think that my theme has some connection with Holocaust in a symbolic sense, thanks to some artists’ works about life and death that tutors referred to and the conversation with my colleague, Yuko. It led me to the image of horror. And I could learn Mary Douglas, Julia Kristeva, and Moonim Bek who is a Korean scholar in film especially in horror movies. I became satisfied with the study of the idea of horror in relation to my project. Because the mechanism of the feeling of horror is closely connected with the social order and exclusion, history, culture, otherness, compassion and feeling of guilty, which to me seemed to have some relation with the suicide matter of South Korea.

Moonim Bek, scholar of Korean literature, South Korea

According to William James, the most perfect philosophy is the philosophy that finds the ultimate way to affirm things that are rejected and denied. Therefore, we have to look carefully at how the power of impurity that is generated from the exclusion of the purity would contribute back to the purity.2 Horror might be germinated at the moment when the otherness of the excluded and forgotten beings is sustained.3

To behave anti-socially is the proper expression of their marginal condition. To have been in the margins is to have been in contact with danger, to have been at a source of power.4

2. Lee’s book review on Douglas’s “Pruity and Danger” in Weekly Chosun (2008) 3. Bek, “What is her guilt” (p. 221)

The guilt of female is still the peripheral value inconsistent with or gone against the homogeneous and empty idea of time of the people and nation. These ‘others’ [the female ghosts] refuse the official mourning and to be named, but appear as the mirrors reflecting each other and hold the feast of ‘memento mori.’ 5

4. Douglas, “Purity and Danger” (p. 119)

Through the research of horror, I thought that it is rather sensible for my work to make the audience feel something specific like horror; and that I should have the sense of otherness by keeping the distance between my works and myself. Accordingly, I have focused on something sensuous like texture and tried not to let my own voice intervene in my works.

5. Bek, “What is her guilt” (p. 238)

II. Visualization: The journey of works

0.5 Early works in the primary stage I started creating visual works even without being convinced of the ways of research and works. I used typography to show what I have gained in terms of the information of the suicide issue of South Korea. Here, I referred to David Pearson’s book cover design for Orwell’s “1984” and Robert Montgomery’s typography installation works. (see page 30) I tried to show the fact that is the suicide rate is higher in rural communities than in big cities and the miscommunication of the suicide issue in South Korea (0.5-1).

0.5-1

0.5-2

I found Wang Xu (China), Mitso Katsui (Japan), and Mario Giaomelli (Italy) (see page 30). Inspired by their works, I began searching for the proper symbolic way to visualize. Suicide is a taboo in many societies including South Korea. At Stuartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggestion, I tried to make the information of suicide faded down within the monument-like rectangular (0.5-2). Smoke is sometimes associated as the incense used for funeral in my country. Because suicide is directly connected with the idea of death, I started looking for the way to connect the suicide issue and the heavy and dark images of death (0.5-3) The works in this stage have some connection with the idea of Lichard Longâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s typographic works in the sense that it is a simple information in the design work.

0.5-3

George Orwell’s “1984” 2013. Book cover design by David Pearson Font O, 2001. Poster design by Mitsuo Katsui

Parts of a series of “Words in the city at night” since 2005. Design by Robert Montgomery

When the well is dry, 2000. Poster design by Wang Xu Ink Painting, 2000. Poster design by Wang Xu

I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have hands to caress my face, 1963. Photography by Mario Giacomelli

1. Looking for the tones of voice

1-1

As I mentioned at page 22, I found the tone of official materialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice is warm, which means that we feel safety or security when we are guaranteed the affiliation with society as a citizen. I wanted to reverse this feeling because as I researched, the problem of the social responsibility has become more obvious; The society does not secure enough all the citizens; some of them are led to death. I tried to connect the sentences that give the warm feeling of safety and security with some vulnerable images. Here, I referred to the same artists and designers who I did in the 0.5 Early Works

in the primary stage. With the skin color of palms, I tried to show the humane feeling and see the possibility to be put with the words I gained from the study of official materials (1-1).

Taking advantages of the light and daily stuffs that can be easily found around me was joyful (1-2, 1-3). I experimented more with them and got to love the natural and rough feeling. But I had to bring the suicidal image to this context. At the time, I was haunted by the story of the mother and daughter who had thrown themselves into the river. So I borrowed the image of water and made a slow motion video (1-4)

1-2

1-3

1-4

2. Studio works In addition to the works on suicide, I have also conducted studio works in order to find other possibilities for visualization. I have tried to experiment some new methods or approaches. After taking photographies of my hands at 1. Looking for the tones of voice, I got interested in parts of my body as the object of my work. The texture and color of it are one of the most natural, which to me seem to have the possibility to describe the idea of humanism (2-1). I photographed first and retouched with Photoshop.

2-1

1. Edward R. Tufte’s “The visual display of quantitative information” published in 1983 in USA

I found the cold information of suicide has some visual possibility (see Review on the official materials at page 21). And I found Edward R. Tufte’s “The visual display of quantitative information.”1 From this book, I learned that we have to show as accurate information as possible in the infographic; and that the interesting infographic really depends on the accurate and interesting content it has. Looking back at the statistics I had gained, I thought I can probably create interesting infographic because their numbers were not boring, but shocking.

10 to 19

For the first try, I converted the numbers to the area unit (mathematical support by Dong-u Kim) (2-2). The grey square is the population of the age group and the red dot indicates the suicide rate of them. As you can see, even though the grey square decreases by age, the red dot goes bigger or stable. This idea of infographic finally influenced some parts of my graphic book, A Story of Nobody (see page 56).

40 to 49

70 to 79

20 to 29

30 to 39

50 to 59

60 to 69

80 to 89

2-2

2-3

In February of 2013, we did the Mundane Project. Each student was required to pick an interesting mundane thing and put them in a new context. From this project, I could more learn the way to play with the daily/boring stuffs. At first, I took the lines painted on the street and tried to create new images (2-3). Then, with the toilet paper, I tried to put it in more interesting context. I made the stop-motion animtaion in black and white and tried to give it rhythm and life (2-4). The One Minute Film Project followed. This time, I decided to connect this project with my theme, suicide. Also I wanted to create something abstract, so I chose â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vulnerableâ&#x20AC;? as the theme of this film project. I wanted to visualize the vulnerability of an individual with the limited sound, space and light (2-5).

2-4

2-5

3. Letterpress Through the researches and the works on 1. Looking for the tones of voice, I reached a conclusion that the perceptions of affiliation and safety guaranteed by the society would paradoxically generate a certain fragility or vulnerability of an individual. Looking through the newspapers of the years of 1997 and 1998 in order to research the relation of the suicide and IMF loan crisis, based on the distrust of things guaranteed by society, I got interested in the information offering and its credibility represented upon the contrasts of black and white of the newspapers. It seemed that these feelings and my thought as above could be linked in some ways. Based on this idea, I tried to visualize the disjunction and suspicion by

overlying black inks over the words that may provide some credits (3-1). But I had not undertaken the iteration of this work for long time because I wanted to be more convinced from researches. At Daniele and Edwinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggestions, however, I embarked upon this work again. From the researches and interviews, I could collect some words such as Security (3-1), Compassion (3-2), Communication (3-3), Humanity, Safety, Benefit and Citizen, of which I finally created the Letterpress works. All of them were printed on the newsprints according to Edwinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggestion that the newsprints can print much more information of the ink and letters.

3-1 SECURITY

Newspaper clippings of the years of1997 and 1998

Designs for the Letterpress

3-2 Safety

3-3 Benefit

4. A Story of Nobody This project originated from the inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” and Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.” Both of these works show the creation of the world where ‘we’ live, through ‘my’ personal experience, in which ‘I’ and the disaster of perfect others conflict or commune each other either consciously or unconsciously. I wanted to extend the otherness of the tragedy of the suicide issue by parallelizing a news report of a suicide and my personal experience, and creating a certain conceptual link between them. I tried to make a story parallelizing the news report of the mother and daughter with my hangover experience in the morning. It was followed by a typographic work in accordance with the story. (4-1) However, this Dalloway-like graphic book was quit because I started

doubting if this way of work would communicate effectively my problematization of the collective perception, conscience and the society which I got to want to say about from the researches and early experiments. Also I felt the limitation in creating a sort of new novel and combining it with graphics in English that is not my mother tongue. Nevertheless, this try did not leave nothing. From the research, reflection and visualization of this work, I realized that my book must have a certain narrative and I have to reinterpret the cold materials. While I was reconsidering the utility of the Dalloway-like book, I went back to the idea of 1. Looking for the tones of voice and thought again of the potential of the cold materials that contains the tragedy. At this stage, some references helped me develop the idea.

4-1

Early this year, Gallery of Modern Art held the exhibition of Rachel Mimiec. Amongst many of her abstract paintings, the one that impressed me the most was the work that recreated NGC magazine into the abstract book. She filled all the pages of the magazine with various color paints, which made me think of the possibility of providing a book with another dimension in the exhibition. I have long haunted by her small art book afterwards and considered the potential of a book that has feeling and texture.

Plough, 2013. Artist, Rachel Mimiec

I could meet the work that helped me extend this impression. It was a graphic book artwork, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A Torn Flagâ&#x20AC;? created by the Korean graphic designer, Junho Kwon, who I have already mentioned (see page 16). This book tries to lead the reader intuitionally to being aware of the importance of the right and explicit historical recognition through the story of the sacrifice of young people who helped South Korea to be the democratized country. He visualized the real pictures of the young victims and the real voices of their family in the greatly emotional way. This made me consider the whole concept of my book and think positively on the emotional expression of a graphic design that I used to try to avoid.

A torn flag, 2013. Book design by Junho Kwon

Epikur â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Brief an Pythokles, 2013. Jorinde Voigt

Calligrams, 1918. Guillaume Apollinaire

Calligraphy works, 2009. Denise Lach

As I have said, I have always wanted to make full use of the cold materials that contains the story of my countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tragic state. This idea was made solid thanks to the works of Jorinde Voigt. Her beautiful and complicated graphic works are based on numerical sources and statistics. I did not think that I could secure as many figures as hers, but I became convinced that I could reinterpret the cold numbers and statistics according to my view as she did. In addition, R. Luke Dubois who creates Big Data Art also have some connection with my dealing with statistics into design practice. He used the number of deaths in Iraq war to compose his music.

Guillaume Apollonaire turned out to be one of the crucial references. I applied his idea that connected the image of texts with graphics and created a new image into the context of the news report of suicide. I started creating concrete poems using the news report. This idea became more extended when I saw, in Denise Lashâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s abstract calligraphic works, the possibility of creating irrational and atypical images using only letters. Affected by her works, I could convince that I have to extract the images and emotion either in or behind the existing texts and the image of my reflection, not extract just a simple image.

Thanks to these references, I embarked upon making a book, A Story of Nobody that has a different line from the early Dalloway-like graphic book. Since my whole project focuses on the elderly suicide, I thought I had to make a book that tells the seriousness of the elderly suicide of South Korea. Thus I tried to make the narrative that can lead gradually the reader to the story of the elderly suicide, and added in the context the information that seems important in the elderly suicide issue. (idea notes 4-2)

4-2

While I was composing the story, I became to doubt if I am just retelling the existing things in a simply emotional way. If I would reconstruct some facts and contents for a certain purpose, I should have made, I thought, somewhat different and new composition in terms of the narrative. For this reason, I narrowed down the contents of this book to only news reports and stats. These two cold resources would be reinterpreted by my view and constitute the narrative. In doing so, however, the information of the elderly suicide in my book seemed not enough. So I replaced it by the feelings that my book would provide the viewer; the humanistic and rough feeling from the analogue graphics I have made; and the vulnerability and fragility from the aged papers. This book project turns out to be the embodiment of the desire to communicate by the book itself with the viewer that has both of information and emotion (4-3).

4-3

Epilogue I had nothing to do with suicide in my previous life; I have never had a will to commit suicide and have seen no one who took their own lives around me. Meanwhile, I grew up with moderate trust and distrust of the society due to my environment. A feeling of belonging or affiliation was the notion that I naturally have but also doubt. Anywhere, in any way, I have tried to keep away from being strongly affiliated either consciously or unconsciously. This is rather close to some fear, which has occasionally limited my social activity. During this project proceeded, I could have chance to ponder on the nature of society and individual. I also could apply and think of myself into the conclusion drawn by it. It was my final conclusion of the research that the feeling of affiliation with the society that secures a minimum safety may paradoxically generate certain vulnerability. When the level of safety provided within society is different for each other; it is explicitly compared with others; and it is accepted publicly and tacitly, some people would be led to some risks. Suicide would be the extreme example of this. I have probably felt this vaguely since I was a kid. A strong affiliation was worse than being in my own island, and rather tortured me. It was a pain too seeing others in the similar state. It has seemed to me that anyone is dangerous and risky especially when being strongly belonged. In this sense, the suicide issue does not seem to be a too remote matter from me. I am still asked, why ever did you take that theme, are you okay, have you ever thought to commit suicide and so forth. Of course I am okay and I have not thought of taking my own life. I rather could have more affection to observing othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives and certain intangible perception in society as I have carried out this project. The more I researched, the more I could think that I may be telling something worthwhile, which was of help to me in any difficult moment. Even though there leaves much to be desired, I still hope that I did not make too much misunderstandings and mistakes in this project. I hope that what I wanted to say and intended would be somewhat communicated with audience. I would be glad if some other meanings are created that way.

Bibliography + References Apollinaire, Guillaume: Poet and artist, France Bek, M.I. (2003) What Is Her Guilt: Sympathizer-Double Character In Korean Horror Film, 대중서사학회, South Korea Bergman, I. (1966) Persona, Sweden Boltanski, Christian: Artist, France Cho, J.M. (2011) Suspicious Clients, Mays Entertainment, South Korea Dawkins, R. (2007) The God Delusion, Black Swan, UK Douglas, M. (2002) Purity And Danger, Routledge, UK Dubois, R. Luke: Compose and artist, USA Durkheim, E. (2002) Suicide: A Study In Sociology, 2nd edition, Routhledge Classics, UK Giacomelli, Mario: Photographer, Italy Gilligan, J. (2013) Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others, Polity Press, USA Hankyeoreh News, Only For 7,000 Won... An Old Woman Killed Herself In Front Of The City Hall, 9 August 2012 [http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/rights/546385.html] Katsui, Mitsuo: Graphic designer, Japan Kim, Y.H., The History Of The Failures Of Economic Democratization From 1987 To 2012, 20 July 2012 [https://member.pressian.com/article/article.asp?article_num=60120719164810&section=02] Korea’s Statistical Office (2012) The Anual Report Of Suicide In 2011 Kwon, Junho: Graphic designer, South Korea Lach, Denise: Calligrapher, Swiss Lach, D. (2013) Callgraphy: A Book Of Contemporary Inspiration, Thames and Hudson LTD, UK Lee, C.I. (2008) Review on Mary Douglas’s Purity and Danger [http://kirc.or.kr/hermeneut/hermeneut_02.php?mode=view&seqid=113&tblname=BBS_20] Long, Richard: Artist, UK Mimiec, Rachel: Artist, UK Moi, T. (1986) Kristeva Reader, Columbia University Press, USA

Montgomery, Robert: Artist and poet, UK OECD iLibrary [http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/] Park, E.J., How Come You Make The Kid Of 8 Years Old Cry, The Infinite Challenge? 28 April 2013 [http://www.mediaus.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=33791] Park, H. (2010) Suicide, The Choice Of The Second Worst, 이학사, South Korea Pearson, David: Graphic designer, UK Tufte, E.R. (2001) The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition, Graphics Pr, USA Viola, Bill: Video artist, USA Voigt, Jorinde: Artist, Germany Woolf, V. (1996) Mrs. Dalloway, New Ed edition, Wordsworth Editions Ltd., UK Xu, Wang: Graphic designer, China Young, E. (2009) Veronika Decides To Die, Das Films, USA

Appendix 1: Statistics

Trends in Suicide Rates Per 100,000 persons

Austria

Korea

Japan

OECD average

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

OECD Library

Change in Suicide Rates Percentage, 1995-2009 or latest available period 153.6

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 -50

JP N CH L KO R

ITA CZ E NZ L FR A CA N CH E OE CD SW E ES P BE L NL D GB R US A NO R GR C PO L IR L IS L PR T ME X

ES T LU X AU T AU S DN K RU S SV N DE U

SV K FI N IS R HU N

-60

OECD Library

Change of Suicide Rate by year and sex Per 100,000 persons

Average Male Female

Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Official Statistic Office

Change in Suicide Rates by Age Per 100,000 persons

10-19

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60-69

70-79

80-89

Age Groups Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Official Statistic Office

Change in Suicide Rates of 80 and older Per 100,000 persons

80 and older all age groups

Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Official Statistic Office

Appendix 2: Interviews

Keong-ki Senior Comprehensive Counseling Center (Hye-ok Park) A telephone interview +82 31 222 1360 12 July 2013 My name is Hyori Lee and I am a postgraduate studying on the elderly suicide. Studying on my own, I got curious on something practical. Can I ask some questions if you okay? Yes, throw them. (skip) What is your job in counseling? We are Kyeong-ki senior comprehensive counseling center and we do support or educate the senior suicide prevention centers that each city and county in Kyeong-ki province has. There are 31 cities and counties in this province. More direct works on the senior suicide are conducted by them. (skip) I have studied on my own from reports and theories but haven’t heard of something practical from those in the social service. Where are you now? I am abroad now. I’m studying graphic design in Glasgow School of Art, and I decided Korea’s elderly suicide issue as the subject Suicide sounds like too distant from that field (laugh). Yes, but I happened to… (laugh) So I called you via Skype. (skip) Okay, then what can you say the general contents of agony of the elderly who seek the counseling? Various… like economic difficulty, conflict between family or wife and husband. Yes, it might be various. But in terms of the proportion, which would be a little more? Well… I think I need some data. It’s okay. Then, do you think there is some difference from other age groups when you do the elderly counseling? On the contents of their agony? Yes, of course. Compared to the teenagers who have worries on the study or future, the elderly thinks about life… and being a burden to their family. They feel so much pressure on that. And the frustration they feel when they live from hand to mouth. These are the majority. The degrees of economic difficulty are quite different from each other, but depending on how much it actually feels, they think of suicide. Being depressed leads them to committing suicide

some way. Do you feel sometimes they are in the suicide risk when you talk with them? Yes. We evaluate actually. If he or she had the experience of attempting suicide before or concretely plan to commit suicide, we consider them as the high-risk group. Then how do you deal with them? We counsel. There are so many senior citizens who live alone. Because living alone is really hard, we seek for the resources that can be with them like… things that can unburden, welfare program like, about employment, or some emotional aid, and we provide a program that a senior counsels other seniors… And… Sometimes they don’t know the fact that they already have some useful resources, so we help them to discover them. Okay, then I am curious how much the government and local government support those works? We cannot drag some social policy from the government, but we guide the existing policy to be used practically. This is one of our tasks. Sometimes even some relevant policies exist, they are not applied practically due to the lack of knowledge. So we help the governments as one of our works. You act a mediator as well. Yes. Oh, you asked what are the contents of agony of the elderly the most. I’ve just checked the data. There are two best which are the economic and health issues. These troubles would go to the depression and possibly to the suicide in some cases. I see… I have another question. There are so many senior citizens under a tight situation. I wondered how many of them contact you and ask for help Well… in fact, it doesn’t so often happen that they directly call for the counseling. This could be another difference from other age groups. So, yes, it is the first task to discover them. It is the problem that the single elderly generally tend not to meet other people, so they are not easily discovered. Digging them out is the first task that should be done before the counseling. Only when it is conducted, it is possible to prevent suicide more. I see… So what you’ve said is that you do not only act as a bridge for the governmental support, but also try to intervene the seniors who live alone in a high risk. I would like to hear how it really feels regarding the sense of responsibility and your role in our society. I think it is worthwhile business because in Korea the elderly population increases rapidly. And I also think this business has to be expanded more. Hey, by the way, I got curious in reverse, how did you get interested in this subject as a graphic design student? Oh, well… (laugh) When I sought for a subject last year, I wanted to do some meaningful and worthwhile thing to be communicated because this is Master’s in communication design. So I was considering what would be meaningful.

Then… I had already been interested in the comprehensive suicide issue since long before, so I just embarked upon researching it. Then I found especially the elderly suicide seemed really crucial in the suicide issue of Korea. So I kind of… narrowed down to the elderly suicide. Are you comparing that between Korea and UK? Not really. I’m rather doing the communication design only on Korea’s elderly suicide issue. (The connection was bad. I couldn’t recognize what she said) By the way, I got too nervous on this interview since this is my first interview. I don’t know I questioned well. It’s okay, if you have more things to ask, feel free to contact again. Thank you. This was Hyori Lee. Can I ask your name, ma’am? I’m Hye-ok Park Yes, thank you so much Yes, good luck. Thank you, bye.

Seoul Suicide Prevention Centre A telephone interview +82 1577 0199 18 July 2013 Hello, this is Seould Suicide Prevention Centre. Hi, my name is Hyori Lee and I am a postgraduate studying on the elderly suicide. Studying on my own, I got curious on something practical. Can I ask some questions if you okay? What things you would like to ask? Since my theme is the elderly suicide, I just would like to hear something practical from social workers. Well... hold on, do you want to interview the social workers? Yes, if possible. I’m going to ask them on the possibility. Just a second. Yes. (waiting) Where did you say you study now? In UK Okay, just a second... (About 2 minutes later) Hello, I’m so sorry ma’am, but we don’t think we can do that for you. Ah... yes ... But, can I ask you why? Well… we don’t only deal with the elderly suicide, but comprehensive suicide cases. And... it seems like there are no social workers who are able to help you now. They said it won’t be really possible. I see. It’s alright. Thank you.

Municipal Seodaemunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Senior Welfare Centre (Hye-bin Won) A telephone interview +82 2 3633 119 22 July 2013 (skip) How is it running? We visit and counsel senior citizens who live alone once a week, call and talk with them twice a week, support their emotion management... (skip) Could you tell me a bit more in detail on the couseling about the emotion management and relevant education program? We conduct the education program based on requests. We do educate not only the elders but also the social workers who deal with them. Are you a social worker too? Yes, our institution has one social worker of mental health and two of general social workers. Is each worker allocated specific number of senior citizens in charge? Yes, each one is allocated from 20 to 25. (In the following answers, she said only technical aspects) Thank you so much for telling me in detail. My pleasure.

Mrs. Jung’s With House (Jin Jung) A telephone interview +82 2 60802450 22 July 2013 (With House is an independent rest place for suicide attempters or bereaved families of suicides. She runs this house alone based on her basic knowledge of psychology, religious (Christian) belief and passion. She is quite famous in South Korea because of her press interviews. But her house has been struggling with economic difficulty.) (She probably got a sense of my shyness and nerve, so she tried to comfort me. When she was told of my major, she became very interested in it -Communication Design.) Could you tell me how you started the house? I could have a chance to meet a young man whose mother and grandmother had committed suicide. He has attempted suicide too. Since he was a protestant, he was wondering if people go to hell when they commit suicide. I said to him that suicide is just the result of a [mental] illness; and when it comes to the forked road of heaven and hell, the way how he or she has lived in the previous life is much more important than the way of death itself. After our conversation, he got better. This was my first experience I helped the bereaved family of suicides. (skip) From these experiences, I got to think that I can probably save life if I do well so-called the Communication Design. Now, you know, so many people kill themselves here and there in our country, South Korea. (skip) What I’m really curious is about the possible conflict between the Christian values and your job. Because, as I know, suicide is a taboo in Christianity saying suicides can’t help but going to hell. That is true, which reveals how wrong their logic is. In Korea’s society, people go to see a doctor for their physical sickness, but the mental science field is still generally regarded like possession by a ghost or evil and separated from religion. It prevents some people from being recovered by psychiatry treatment. And then if they really commit suicide, people point fingers at them saying they are going to hell. There was a young guy who threw himself off 9 stories high but fortunately survived. He said, “I wanted to live, I didn’t want to die. But I was just pushed to there. I couldn’t help but going there because I couldn’t breathe and there seemed to be no ways to keep living.” (She talked a while about her idea of suicide based on her religious belief) In my opinion, suicides are caused fundamentally by their parents. If their parents’ lives were stable and peaceful, I believe, they wouldn’t learn anxiety and fear. (skip) My house is not like a temporary shelter. In here, I would like to go to the root of problems together and help them to reconcile and forgive each other. It should be seen in the long term. Exactly. I did the Communication Design in the long term. (skip) I know how hard your job may be. For example, I heard Catholic Priests spend so much energy in Confession listening to others’ agonies. Since you always keep close relationship with people who are struggling mentally, I think you also may be stressed out so much, aren’t you? Oh, I have a difference from Fathers. While they listen to them unilaterally, I always consider them as my friends regardless of their age and sex. I do not only hear their stories but also tell them everything down to the last detail. (skip) In this way, we become fine friends.

So can you say you are also mentally healed through talking with them? Well, I just feel pleased. The problems that my clients bring to share with me tend to bring up my problems in return. In this way, we balance each other’s problems, which is like give-and-take. I think this is the most solid relationship. It sounds so great in terms of the mutual communication. Communication Design also sounds very interesting to me. (skip) I would like to throw a little more realistic question. According to you, they were healed by your acceptance, embracing and communication. That is, in other words, they were not accepted, embraced, so to speak, were eliminated or excluded in their previous lives in society. Is that right? That is right, they didn’t learn a healthy communication. (She repeated the story about their parents) In the sense that our suicide rate is the highest in the world, why do you think it takes place so much especially in our country? There are different possible answers. At first, in our country, the proportion of Christianity is very high, but in Christianity suicides are taboos. Many of suicides couldn’t have chance to recover by psychiatry treatment because of others’ eyes. (She also talked about the seriousness of Copycat suicides) In addition, I think, even though we are rooted in the Confucian ideas, the social measures are useless in supporting the traditional idea and value that are changing and conflicting with other new ideas. Exactly. (She tells of another example case of suicide) By the way, when it comes to Communication Design, what I can say to help you is that some design like a pun never works with this issue. Instead, I think you should seek for the fundamental root of this issue in order to help things made up, devote back to the society, and help people to lessen the feeling of guilt and make a solid relationship. Of course Communication Design can’t solve the problem right away. But as a long term... Well, I call myself a Communication Design student, but today I have learned a lot from you about Communication. I really appreciate. Where are you? At Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow in Scotland. Oh, my previous boss was from Scotland. What a coincidience. I used to work for the General Electric Company, and my boss was Andrew Hunt from Scotland. I know they are really pround of their blood. Glad to talk with you!

(She continued to ask something personal to me. Especially she asked a lot about my major. But the internet connection went bad, so we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep chatting)