Korean sound symbolism—uiseongeo (의성어) and uitaeeo (의태어), known in linguistic terms as onomatopoeia and ideophones—forms a unique layer of the language where phonetic textures spark cross-sensory imagination and drift. While English may limit such forms to children’s books or comic strips, in Korean they are integral to everyday speech and literature.
This practice-based research treats Korean sound symbolism as a living archive of pre-verbal, sensory meaning. Rather than focusing on conventional translation or referential meaning, it explores how mimetic forms—those that generate variation rather than representation—can be reenacted through gesture, audiovisual rhythm, and performative space. Beginning with the question of how a word like guelong guelong evokes an elastic, liquid image rather than a hard, sharp one, the project examines how such expressions carry cross-modal resonance between sound, movement, and form.
Drawing on notions of material imagination (Bachelard) and the ethics of translation (Spivak), the project proposes iconic translation as an experimental method—not the substitution of words, but the reactivation of sensory experience through artistic practice. Through Sociable Media—a series of multimedia installations and performances—such elements are transformed into scenographic material, where language becomes tactile, immersive, and participatory.
The research raises key questions: What ineffable experiences—forgotten, silenced, or never verbalized—can be reanimated through the queer use of Korean sound symbolism? How might these expressions, when staged outside dominant narratives, foster new ways of imagining history, relation, and emotion? What would it mean to decolonize language not only semantically, but sensorially and spatially?
Supervised in HfK Bremen by Prof. Dr. Andrea Sick
Copromotor: Prof. Dennis P Paul
Supervised in University of Groningen by Prof. Dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann
Copromotor: Dr. David Shim