Kan’pan: Signage, Inscription, and Soundscape in 1920s Seoul

The 1920s marked a period of rapid commercialization and urbanization in Seoul, transforming the city’s visual and auditory landscape. This lecture explores the rise of commercial signage as a critical phenomenon in shaping modern urban spaces, focusing on the inscription practices of multilingual signboards that utilized Korean vernacular script, Japanese kana, and Chinese characters in typographic, calligraphic, and pictographic forms. The signage, known as kanp’an, not only reshaped the visual experience of the city but also represented a new form of writing that emerged alongside the commercialization of urban spaces. Additionally, the lecture delves into the auditory dimension of reading signage, examining how the oral rendition of these scripts—specifically kanji/hanja—added an auditory layer to the already complex visuality of the city.