• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.9-37
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• 2020

The present study examines the transnational "Hallyu" (the Korean wave) phenomenon after the 1990s in the context of a solidarity movement of East Asian women. It also focuses on the passion for the world stage given the cultural industry was supported by the government as a "chimney-less factory" during the IMF financial crisis. Over the past twenty years and through Hallyu 1.0, Hallyu 2.0, and Hallyu 3.0, "K-entertainment" has been advocated, as a concept that encompasses K-drama, K-pop, etc. in the cultural industry. Furthermore, everything Korean, through K-culture, is being put at the forefront. However, there is insufficient discussion regarding the actions of the women who led the Korean wave. This paper examines the female fans and girl groups who played leading roles in the rise of popular culture and its transnational prominence within the context of the female agency and female labor involved. The lack of acknowledgment of their roles is linked to the current erasure of the discussion on the female youth. Discussion on "woman" is still limited to the domain of reproduction in the generational discussion that has replaced the existing nation-state or class led discussions in the current era of neoliberalism. However, since The reboot or the popularity of feminism in recent years, the interest in the female narrative, in works such as 'Kim Ji-young, Born 1982' has been expanding beyond East Asia to the rest of the world. Just as Hallyu was created by women in the beginning, there is a new trend in which women across national borders are joining in solidarity. As such, the present study attempts to prove that the female fan, girl group, and female youths must be one meta-narrative through a feminist reading, rather than individuals with separate identities.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.169-206
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• 2019

This article seeks to explore new relationships and ethics of human and technology by analyzing a cultural imaginary produced by artificial intelligence. Drawing on theoretical reflections of the Feminist Scientific and Technological Studies which understand science and technology as the matter of care(Puig de la Bellacas, 2011), this paper focuses on the fact that artificial intelligence and robots materialize cultural imaginary such as autonomy. This autonomy, defined as the capacity to adapt to a new environment through self-learning, is accepted as a way to conceptualize an authentic human or an ideal subject. However, this article argues that artificial intelligence is mediated by and dependent on invisible human labor and complex material devices, suggesting that such autonomy is close to fiction. The recent growth of the so-called 'assistant technology' shows that it is differentially visualizing the care work of both machines and humans. Technology and its cultural imaginary hide the care work of human workers and actively visualize the one of the machine. And they make autonomy and agency ideal humanness, leaving disabled bodies and dependency as unworthy. Artificial intelligence and its cultural imaginary negate the value of disabled bodies while idealizing abled-bodies, and result in eliminating the real relationship between man and technology as mutually dependent beings. In conclusion, the author argues that the technology we need is not the one to exclude the non-typical bodies and care work of others, but the one to include them as they are. This technology responsibly empathizes marginalized beings and encourages solidarity between fragile beings. Inspired by an art performance of artist Sue Austin, the author finally comes up with and suggests 'artificial intelligence in wheelchair' as an alternative figuration for the currently dominant 'autonomous artificial intelligence'.