ETHNOGRAPHY
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STYLE
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ACCESS
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SEOUL
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EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE
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ETHNOGRAPHY ✳︎ STYLE ✳︎ ACCESS ✳︎ SEOUL ✳︎ EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE *
The Seoul Laboratory Project
The city is the method. Seoul is the research site. You are a participant.
Seoul is not a backdrop.
It's the instrument.
The Seoul Laboratory Project is KARSI's ongoing spatial ethnography project — a multi-year research program documenting how Seoul's distinct urban zones shape cultural performance, aesthetic behavior, and the production of Korean style.
Since 2002, KARSI Director Dr. Michael Hurt has systematically documented Seoul's evolving cultural geography across more than twenty neighborhoods, building a longitudinal archive of how Korean aesthetics emerge from specific spatial conditions. This isn't cultural tourism. It's active field research — and select participants can now take part in it.
We don't show you Seoul. We conduct research in Seoul, and you participate in that research. The documentation you take home is a record of your contribution.
Research participation,
not cultural consumption
Most Seoul experiences move you across the surface of the city — photographing famous locations on a schedule. The Seoul Laboratory Project operates on an entirely different premise.
What tours do
Follow preset routes to well-known locations. Fixed schedules, scripted commentary, group logistics. You are a customer being moved through a sequence. The photos are the product.
What we do
Conduct adaptive field research across Seoul's distinct urban interface zones — spaces where conflicting urban systems compress together and produce specific cultural behaviors. You participate in that investigation. A PhD researcher interprets what you're seeing in real time. A professional model demonstrates how Korean spatial performance shifts between contexts. The editorial documentation is the artifact of your participation — not the point of it.
None of this is accessible to you alone. The language barrier, the insider venues, the cultural scaffolding that makes Seoul legible at this depth — these require 24 years of accumulated access. That's what you're stepping into.
The Cultural Editorial
A structured research session designed around your questions about Korean culture — producing editorial-grade documentation as a byproduct of genuine investigation.
Signature Research Session
The Signature session is a comprehensive field research experience. Before we meet, we consult on what fascinates you about Korean culture and design an adaptive research route around those questions. On the day, you move through 2–3 contrasting Seoul interface zones — spaces specifically selected because they produce visibly different cultural behaviors — accompanied by a PhD researcher providing real-time cultural analysis and a bilingual professional model demonstrating Korean spatial performance.
This is not a fixed itinerary. When reality intervenes — a venue closes, weather shifts, your curiosity pivots — the methodology adapts. Twenty-four years of Seoul knowledge means there is always a more interesting alternative. The research continues regardless. The places we go, the people we access, the cultural layers we make visible — you cannot get here with a guidebook, a translator app, or a weekend of your own exploration.
Research Briefing
Pre-session consultation (30–40 minutes, video or in-person). We learn what questions you're bringing to Seoul — cultural, aesthetic, social — and design a research route that addresses them. You'll receive a cultural orientation document specific to the interface zones we'll explore, so you arrive with context rather than confusion.
The "Field Session" — Your Unreplicable Deep Dive
This is the deep dive Seoulacious experience — the access you're paying for and can't get anywhere else. 5–6 hours of adaptive spatial investigation across 2–3 distinct Seoul interface types, led by a Berkeley-trained PhD with 24 years of Seoul spatial ethnography. Professional editorial photography throughout. Bilingual model demonstrates Korean cultural performance across contexts. Real-time cultural interpretation at a level no guidebook, tour, or solo exploration can replicate. 2–3 authentic food and drink experiences at insider venues. All navigation, language, and cultural scaffolding handled for you.
Research Documentation
Within 7–10 days, you receive your complete research documentation package — the editorial record of your participation in the Seoul Laboratory Project.
Your session contributes to
an ongoing study
The Seoul Laboratory Project maintains a multi-year spatial ethnography tracking how Seoul's urban interface zones evolve and how people navigate them. Each Cultural Editorial session generates observational data that feeds into this longitudinal research — how participants respond to different spatial configurations, how cultural performance shifts between interface types, what questions emerge when someone encounters Korean space with expert guidance.
This is why the methodology is adaptive rather than scripted. A fixed tour route produces entertainment. An adaptive research methodology produces knowledge — for the researcher and for you.
You're not paying for photography. You're gaining access to a Seoul that doesn't exist for visitors operating alone — the insider venues, the cultural interpretation, the spatial knowledge built over nearly two and a half decades. The editorial documentation is your personal record of that access.
Other ways to participate
The Signature session is the core Seoul Lab experience. For participants seeking deeper immersion or working within tighter schedules, we offer extended and condensed formats.
Full-Day Research Session · ₩1,200,000
10–12 hours. Morning briefing through night culture. Document Seoul's complete temporal transformation — how the same spaces behave differently across the full arc of a day. The most comprehensive documentation package available.
Comparative Session · ₩500,000
3–3.5 hours. A focused comparative study across two contrasting interface zones. Substantive research in a condensed timeframe.
Corporate Cultural Intelligence · Inquire
Business-focused methodology connecting Korean spatial culture to corporate strategy. Private car service. Deliverables written for boardroom application. For executives requiring cultural intelligence, not cultural entertainment.
Participate in the research
Sessions are limited and individually designed. Begin with a brief consultation to determine which format serves your questions.
Request a Consultation We'll respond within 48 hours with availability and next steps.