작업 소개

SYNOPSIS
한글에 홀린 디자이너 안상수의 이야기이다. ‘안상수체’를 만들고 한국 타이포그라피의 혁명적인 변화를 가져온 그가 디자이너로서의 세종, 타이포그라퍼로서의 시인 이상에 대하여 말한다.

프로젝트 내용

“한국영화의 새로운 도전”

한국영화의 가능성을 넓혀 가는 독립영화를 지원하고 현주소를 조망하는 장으로서 서울독립영화제는 ‘한국영화의 새로운 도전’을 메인슬로건으로 선정했습니다. 1999년 영화진흥위원회와 (사)한국독립영화협회가 영화제의 변화 의지를 담은 초기 슬로건으로서 그 목표는 지금도 유효합니다. 독립영화는 영화 운동의 도도한 물결을 넘고 다양한 실천과 미학적 실험을 거쳐 영화의 미래를 확장하고 있습니다. 서울독립영화제와 함께 한국영화의 새로운 도전은 오늘도 계속됩니다.

본선 단편경쟁 섹션은 독립영화의 새로운 가능성과 잠재력을 품고 있는 단편영화를 발굴하여 상영하고 시상하는 부문입니다.

출처 : 서울독립영화제 홈페이지

My work is all about Hangul. When Hangul is attached, some strange chemical reaction occurs. When two disparate shapes encounter the form itself becomes immersed because of the energy of Hangul. Myself is actually immersed to letters. I see letters all around. In Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, he tightens all the screws he sees. Like him, I’m… immersed with letters again and again… Everything I see becomes letters in my eyes.

King Sejong is… Once had his youth… just like us. I think he was an extraordinary person full of creativity. He designed letters… Even though we literally say that he created Hangul, but he actually designed it. Technically, letters existed before then. I call it Great Design because it is unusual. It was unprecedented. As time goes by, it becomes more powerful. Not only did he create our culture, but he saved the whole nation. He invented the most ideal and rational letters in the world. It was and still is the most modern typeface… He created totally different shapes from the vast forest of Chinese letters.

Lee Dong-guk (Head of Caligraphy Art, Seoul Arts Center)

Until the 15th century, Chinese letters dominated us before Hangul was created. We could obtain two paths (choices) with creation of Hangul. However, Hangul wasn’t simply a substitution for Chinese letters. Hangul made it possible to correspond the sound of our language to writing. It was different from any letter system in the world. It is a revolutionary change.

Hangul didn’t fall from the sky. It wasn’t just appeared in the world. All the great letter culture and all the results of the time were combined… And all the principles were applied to Hangul. All the elements of Haven, Earth, and Man and the Three Disasters… consonants and vowels are all hieroglyphics. Based on the shape of round Heaven and a man standing on a flat land… the vowels ‘ㅏ[a], ㅓ[ə], ㅣ[j]’ were born. From the structure and shape of the vocal organs, the consonants ‘ㄱ[g], ㅁ[m], ㅇ[o], ㅅ[s], ㄴ[n]’ were created. Therefore, Hangul is a phonetic language, so, called a language of body, or hieroglyphic letters. Hangul is the letters that is composed of a language of body and pictogram. It makes Hangul is a perfected letter system since its birth. There are fundamental elements of beauty, like music, architecture, painting and sculpture. There are basic forms like long and short, big and small, high and low, thick and thin. And there is the state of most idealistic order. Its prototype was established as Hangul.

It is the most artificial letters amongst all the letters in the world history. It was designed with intention. Therefore, Hangul itself is a work of design. When you integrate any form or any iconic image It perfectly becomes a work of Hangul. Who would consider King Sejong as a designer? He is known for a sage and great king. We were all educated like this… But all of sudden, it hit my head and I realized that he was the greatest designer whom I should pay respect for… It was the moment. In fact, it was just about the time when I created ahn font. In my life as a designer, creating ahn sang-soo font became a turning point.

ahn sang-soo font was born in 1985.

In the middle of 1980s when Korea’s modern history was going through the most political and hottest time, a designer of this region made an experiment with illegible Hangeul. Ahn Sang-soo released Hangeul out of its frame locked in straight square delivered by unwillingly visited modernity and showed such innovative and radical attitude that a designer also possesses against convention.

Jin Kwon (Curator, Seoul Museum of Art)

As keep breaking a convention, it leads to another convention. The ahn sang-soo font created by the designer Ahn Sang-soo is is a de-squared typeface. It is a breakaway of a convention of square typeface. It happened in our time, in our era, and was it a mere fun to break the convention? No. It was the result of a collective self-awareness that was reflected and projected from our time and society. We have encountered the time that no one can avoid breaking the convention… Korean calligraphy, East Asian calligraphy of course, is arts of writing and painting, because the root of writing and painting is the same. As we said, caligraphy always had been in the center of all arts in East Asia, and letters have always lead… Calligraphy deals with letters as its object…

Not just about formativeness, but calligraphy is about the unity of text and meaning. When it’s only about text, it becomes poetry. When it’s only about formativeness, it becomes visual art. Calligraphy is the unity of poetry, writing, painting and visual art. We must understand it clearly… During the Japanese colonial era of the 20th century, calligraphy was not recognized as a form of art. So traditional calligraphy was categorized as arts. And caligraphy was removed from the regular course of education. It was rather classified as part of oriental paintings in comparison with the Western painting. And calligraphy was forgotten from the institutional education.

Design was imported from abroad, and everything is like… For example, we think that cities like New York, London, Berlin, Paris and Milano are the center of design. But for us, design is imported from Japan and through other countries. Korea is like a periphery… so we study and work there… We often think that we have to go abroad to study design. I had this kind of inferiority complex. Until I met King Sejong, and he saved me. On this land, there existed this great history of design. The land I was born and raised, is not a periphery.

Yi Sang

For the people working in art and culture in Korea, we consider Yi Sang with adoration. There is an elusive admiration on him. His works don’t get old, like transcending time and space. When you look at his poetry, the words are crammed together without spacing… It’s like looking at visual walls. It seems like he was aware of type-ness from the beginning of writing a poem. When you look at his writings on paper, the traces of type chemical are embedded in. He just drew them on it. This man studied architecture, and he was also a calligrapher. There was a magazine called Joseon and Architecture… He applied for the designing title typography and was awarded. He designed the cover of the magazine, too. He drew illustrations for his own novel and designed his friend’s book… He was a designer, for sure. There are many perspectives exist to understand him. Architects see him as an architect. Poets see him as a poet… Everyone has a different view. I see him as a typographer. He played with types.

He actually mentioned about it many times. He talked about mirrors for many times, about the reflected image. Types are always reversed, but it turns back right when it’s printed. Through those reversed images by using types, he writes poems with full awareness of type-ness. From this perspective, the extremely abstruse image of his works are actually typographical Spieltrieb. King Sejong designed Hangul letters, and Yi Sang actually played with letters. He enjoys the letter play with his gifted talent as a poet. When we see his poetry in a perspective of letter play, it is even more fun. Those extreme experiments are all about playing. In the perspective of letter play, Yi Sang’s poetry is very enjoyable. I thought of him… as the pioneer of modern typhography of Korea.

Language was a star.

Contemporary Literature magazine asked me for an assay. They requested it with visual materials… And I thought they wanted a poem… ㅇ in Hangul is hieroglyphic image of the sky. I considered ㅇ represents the sky or stars… After invention of letters, human civilization begins. History is written after the invention of letters… After letters are used… civilization is started. The letters for me is like the key to open the secrets of the universe. It decodes all secrets of the universe… It is inherited to next generations, by teaching them. It expands the area of human beings… Letters name things. This is a camera, this is a desk, that’s Venus, that’s Mercury and that’s Cassiopeia…

Once giving names to things… Before naming them, they a bunch of nameless shiny things in the sky. When a name is given to them, they belong to human, as an intellectual possession. From time to time, when a form is combined and turned into Hangul, I am amazed. I simply play with them without specific intention. When I just follow Spieltrieb in me, the result just comes out. This is the power of Hangul! That’s what I think.