Sooah Kwak


Sooah Kwak is a researcher in anthropology and museum professional. Her current research is on leprosy settlement villages in South Korea.

Sooah is a contract Research Scholar at the American Museum of Natural History. Previously, she worked on project Eternal Testimony, an AI archive of Korean “comfort women” oral histories. Sooah holds an MA in Museum Anthropology from Columbia University and a BA in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and BAS in Art and Technology from Sogang University.

Sooah is also an multimedia artist-activist. Creative projects have been exhibited internationally.

Contact

sooah.k [at] columbia [dot] edu

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Sooah Kwak

is a researcher in anthropology and museum professional. Her current research is on leprosy settlement villages in South Korea.

Contact

sooah.k [at] columbia [dot] edu

ASMR Tutorial


ASMR, a growing genre of auditory and visual works designed to relax and evoke euphoria, is predominantly created by women who often face sexualization, objectification, and harassment despite their professionalism. ASMR Tutorial critiques these dynamics by parodying how platform-driven demands instruct—both explicitly and implicitly—women on how to speak, act, and present themselves to fit an "ASMR-istic" style. The audience participates via mobile devices, receiving links to prerecorded tutorials throughout the performance. As they watch, the performer creates the final tutorial live on stage, embodying the stylized behaviors of ASMR before sharing it with the audience in real time, completing the cycle of instruction and consumption. By presenting these tutorials in a public, performative context, ASMR Tutorial exposes the precariousness of feminized platform labor.

Haengwhatang Cultural Complex
«A Map of the Heart Moving Towards the Skull»
30min, performance, 11/22/2019 - 11/23/2019 (2 sessions)
© 2024. Sooah Kwak. All Rights Reserved.