Mapping the intangible cultural heritage of ethnic communities : designing an interactive cultural history of Koreatown

Abstract

This paper presents the interactive online cultural history “The Seoul of Los Angeles: Contested Identities and Transnationalism in Immigrant Space” (http://seoulofla.com/). Informed by interaction design and urban studies, this project examines and visualizes the sociocultural networks shaping immigrant communities and how local neighborhoods negotiate a sense of place within an increasingly globalized space. Geographer Doreen Massey recognizes space not as a static entity but as the product of interrelations from the immensity of the global to the intimately tiny. These interrelations are part of a story, an interpreted history that changes and develops over time. One could recognize cultural heritage in a similar way – as dynamic and part of a narrative trajectory that is not merely frozen in a romanticized or essentialist past. Much of what constitutes the dynamics of ethnic community formation is intangible as it is largely a lived experience rather than one that is necessarily documented or archived. As such, this project serves as a digital archive and platform for community storytelling that enriches our understanding of the city and the often intangible narratives that create a sense of place.