• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.45
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• pp.397-415
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• 2016

This paper will investigate how animated practice can be a research form as practice-led research in an ethnography approach. This practice-led research will explore the issue of the construction of contemporary identities (based on the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and in particular, the Korean youth culture and identity, exemplified, for example, creation of 'avatars' in the virtual characters of animated online games such as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs). In this proposed discussion, I will argue that the sudden period of change in contemporary Korea bears some resemblance to the Victorian era as explored in gothic fiction (e.g. Jekyll and Hyde). In this sense, my animation investigates the connection between the fictional Jekyll and Hyde and a real murder incident by a young Korean boy, which actually happened on the 16th November 2010, in SouthKorea.I will, therefore, construct this practice-led research to obtain the primary data consisted of online and offline practices in 'social ethnography'. These practices engage with specific Korean youth identity, comparing the 'avatar' with the real lives of participants. However, this paper will only focus on the (ethnographic) research process and strategy, using animated (visual) practices, rather than giving the meaning of the specific case of 'Korean-ness'. Eventually, I will explore the four different animated representations as it presents the distinctive animated realties or documentaries by online and offline practices. My intention is to visually interpret the issue of 'Korean-ness' within its socio-cultural context, adapting the convention and code of Jekyll and Hyde concept into an animated documentary in the 'virtual' world (auto-animated documentary by recording avatar interviews and online game footages) and the 'real' world (self-created animated documentary, based on real people and events).