The DMZ as Technologized Soundscape: K-Pop & Other Sonic Entanglements in the Demilitarized Zone

The Moynihan Institute's East Asia Program presents Joowon Park, chair and professor of anthropology at Skidmore College.

What do we hear when we situate the DMZ as a technologized soundscape? How does sound blur the boundary between human and machine, presence and phantom, and friend and enemy? How might being attuned to sound move us to a logic of entanglements rather than division? The Korean DMZ is one of the most hazardous and militarized zones in the world. Originally established with the ceasefire to the Korean War, this space is littered with active landmines, razor wires, heat sensors and tank traps—securitized to prevent human crossings.

However, this talk explores the non-material encounters across the DMZ by framing it as a technologically mediated soundscape where political ideologies, militarized masculinities and national strength are constantly projected, contested and negotiated. In examining the DMZ’s sonic entanglements in the form of sounds like K-pop broadcasts, this presentation analyzes the role of technology in shaping this militarized area and the human experience within and outside the DMZ. 

Joowon Park is chair and associate professor of anthropology and director of the Frances Young Tang ’61 Program in Asian Studies at Skidmore College. He is the author of Belonging in a House Divided: The Violence of the North Korean Resettlement Process (University of California Press). Based on ethnographic research, it chronicles the everyday lives of resettled North Koreans in South Korea and their experiences with violence, postwar citizenship and ethnic boundary making, and documents new transnational kinship practices that connect family members across the DMZ.

He is working on a new book project tentatively titled, K-pop in the DMZ and Other Transborder Crossings, exploring the DMZ’s aerial and sonic entanglements in the form of K-pop broadcasts, loudspeakers and “paper bombs” (propaganda leaflets). His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, ASIANetwork, and more.