Those who are interested in art, design, or publishing may have heard of the name Min Guhong. While running the one-person company Min Guhong Manufacturing, Min works as an editor at Workroom and offers technical support not only to art institutions - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Art Sonje Center, and more - but also to cultural programs, fashion brands, and even detective agencies.

Min has conducted various projects such as exhibition, writing, translation, and education, but in this interview, he focuses on “the Web.” Interestingly, like “a web,” the interview weaves multiple subjects, not only computer and coding, but also literature, writing, editing, art, and design. Min says that a website is one of the products of his writing. Then, how does he - an admirer of hyperlinks, a believer in ricotta cheese, and the inventor of a pink mumbling creature - perceive web design?

(I recommend you to check the hyperlinks in the article while you are reading it. They serve as important anchors for the text, and probably they might make your day. If you have further questions, please check “Frequently Asked Questions” on the official website of Min Guhong Manufacturing.)

A (destroyed) business card of Min Guhong Manufacturing

Q. Your works deal with both printed materials and websites. What similarities and differences did you find between these two media?

A. They are not much different in the sense that both are containers for content. When I teach in school, I notice that students often tend to compare prints and websites. Maybe this is because of the course curriculum, but as producers, the students are more familiar with traditional printed materials such as books and posters. The web was invented by scientists so that they could share papers more efficiently. It means that the website historically evolved from printed materials. It is made to embrace and develop the advantages of prints. Therefore, rather than putting these two media on the same starting line, it makes more sense to regard prints as the ancestor of the web, and the web as the advanced form of prints. Of course, a website does not give the satisfaction of touching paper, and unlike books, it is perpetually in its beta version.


W. David Marx. Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style. Workroom Press. 2018. The book examines the journey of Japanese fashion adopting and editing American styles.

Q. You have several titles including writer, translator, programmer, designer, and so on, but I heard that you prefer to be called “editor.” What is the relationship between your works and “editing”?

A. In publishing, the word “editing” is used in a narrow sense, like “proofreading” or “copyediting,” but I consider it broadly as an activity that involves creative work. In the early 1990s, I first became aware of “editing” when I was obsessed with computer games. By using the software commonly called “game editor,” I could manipulate the database and revise not only the character’s ability but also the game itself. In other words, my first editing experience involved the act of manipulating the workings of a highly structured system, by controlling it both from within and without. My approach has not changed to this day. I try to participate, as an editor, not only in creating websites but also in exhibiting my works at art museums or galleries. I also enjoy the dryness of the word “editor.”


United States Office of Strategic Services. Simple Sabotage Field Manual. Workroom Press. 2018. As the first book of the “Practical Series,” it lists types of sabotage that can be practiced in daily life.

Q. The number of online exhibitions has suddenly increased due to the pandemic. What kind of efforts should we make to overcome the limitations of online exhibitions?

A. Online exhibitions cannot outperform offline exhibitions unless they display digital artworks. This will stay the same even if technologies like VR or AR develop. Consider early versions of the eBook, which adopted all kinds of technology to recreate the paper-flipping effect. This only caused a brief buzz. Likewise, I do not think virtual exhibitions can perfectly reproduce onsite exhibitions. If the content is delivered through websites, it would be necessary to incorporate the unique characteristics of web technologies.

Publishing as Method. A website of the exhibition held at the Art Sonje Center in 2020. It queries about recreating onsite exhibitions in virtual settings. The website was displayed as the artwork itself.


Welcome to Ogasawara. A website for pirates who are mainly active on the web - international waters that belong to nobody. The website shifts its function and appearance along different stages in the process, such as member recruitment, project development, and concluding discussion.

If a website functions only in the way a traditional print medium does, just like a poster, leaflet, or catalog (i.e., if it merely summarizes an exhibition), it fails to realize its potential. If you want to make the most of the web for your exhibition, you have to use it as a platform that leads the entire project at its forefront. Within it, all kinds of phenomena occur and accumulate; unexpected bugs pop out; the audience simultaneously watches and participates in these situations; the results are naturally derived from these processes; all of these elements create a certain kind of experience. These outcomes are based on the nature of the web, to which the logic of prints does not apply.

Art Plant Asia 2020: Hare Way Object

Rabbit Hole, The adventure game and docent program for Art Plant Asia 2020: Hare Way Object

I think we have had few opportunities to delve into the web because it entered our lives too quickly. Although online exhibitions have become inevitable due to the unexpected pandemic, I hope this does not end as a temporary phenomenon. If more artistic attempts are made using the web, I think they can lead to a familiar but new territory, rather than being a trend that fades. I hope this field becomes cultivated more deeply and widely in the future. Also, it would be perfect if the website itself becomes recognized as an art form. We’ll have more to experience.

Eco Feminism Workshop. A workshop based on the social science research methodology of German eco-feminist Maria Mies. The font used on this website is Neutronic Hangeul created by designer Ham Minju at Hypertype.

Q. You also exhibited a website as an artwork. “Fuchsine” (Fiction-Tool, Insa Art Space, 2018) is a good example. What do you think about the way art institutions feature websites as artwork?

A. “Fuchsine,” also called “Pinky,” was first introduced at the exhibition Fiction-Toolcurated by art critic Lee Hanbeom. Each time you touch or click the exhibition website, it mumbles something in the voice of an audience, docent, or artist. During the exhibition period, Fuchsine expanded its body once a day and eventually filled the entire website. Since then, it has appeared on several art-related websites. Fuchsine is especially loved by the officials at the SeMA Nanji Residency.


Fiction-Tool. Insa Art Space. 2018. Each time it is touched or clicked, Fuchsine mumbles something as an audience, docent, or artist.

If you fill an empty space with something and call it an “art museum” or a “gallery,” it actually becomes considered in that way. Likewise, the important questions are what object to be defined and how to define it. If your logic is properly constructed, then, anyone can accept it without difficulty. Min Guhong Manufacturing does not hesitate to display its products at art museums or galleries, as long as the exhibition properly introduces the company.

Open-Station. A platform for the artists at the SeMA Nanji Residency.


While active on the websites, Fuchsine sometimes comes into reality as well.

Q. Since 2019, you have been hosting New Order, “a liberal arts class for modern people,” every Friday. I am curious about the curriculum and how participation works.

A. My final assignment at the School for Poetic Computation was to design my own school. I proposed Ricotta Institute, a school where students can learn how to make ricotta cheese, write an article about it, create a website featuring the article, and lastly, market their cheeses over four weeks. This was a time when I believed ricotta cheese, writing, coding, and marketing were the key factors running the industry.

Ricotta Institute. A school that teaches cooking, writing, coding, and marketing over four weeks.

New Order can be seen as a prototype of Ricotta Institute, which will be open someday. Starting from the informal workshop at Workroom in 2016, I have refined the course curriculum by conducting lectures at Paju Typography Institute and more. From 2019, the class was able to expand further with the generous support of Studio Pie and Tastehouse, run by young artists such as Park Hyunjung and Don Sunpil.

New Order. The course teaches design as a technology, but it is more about practical and conceptual writing.

This six-week course at Studio Pie is not a web design class. It covers design as a technology, but it is more about practical and conceptual writing. First, we think about ourselves and write about our interests. Then, we put our content under new orders using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as tools. If there are technical difficulties, we devise bypassing strategies. We also discuss the history of the internet and web, attitudes we want to maintain as designers, net art, and computer languages. If you prepare and review each course thoroughly, you can create a simple website without any difficulty. Above all, the important thing would be the story created by the learning process, not the result.


Min Guhong. New Order. Mediabus. 2019. A book that summarizes New Order lectures.

People who participated in New Order formed a loose collective called After New Order…, and recently, their work was selected for Project Hashtag hosted by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company. Unofficial sources say that judge Hito Steryl highly recommended their work. This coming November, we will be able to see the outcomes of their contemplations and joys. A few days ago, I was able to take a look at their work while doing a workshop at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. I hope this exhibition gives a memorable experience to them.

Project Hashtag. The project supports young producers, and it is hosted by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company.

Recently, I hosted a four-week workshop for artists at the SeMA Nanji Residency. It is temporarily closed as Korea has raised its social distancing scheme to level 4. I have received inquiries about private online tutoring, but I’m respectfully declining these offers. Even though the class is about web technologies, I think it is crucial to spend time talking to each other face-to-face. New Order also has a sister school called Fruitful School, run by American graphic designers Laurel Schwulst and John Provencher.

Fruitful School. A sister school of New Order. It was founded in 2021 by American graphic designers Laurel Schwulst and John Provencher. It explores new ways of publishing content on the web.

Q. People display a fair amount of information through social media. Is it still meaningful to create personal websites?

A. In terms of influence, there is no better tool than social media. Nevertheless, each social media platform has its own limitations that restrict users’ desires and happiness. For example, Twitter has its character limit and Instagram requires an image or video for a single-sentence post. Also, hyperlinks do not operate in Instagram posts. It is a scheme to keep users on the platform forever.

The “Like” button especially situates one’s life, work, and self in a place where they must be evaluated by random people. It is not pleasant to see this evaluation that takes the form of a cute heart icon and just a couple of hundred likes. By looking at the small numbers of likes, one might feel insignificant or deny the value of their work and life. If we do not use social media wisely, reality and virtuality will be muddled up.

Meanwhile, content management systems, like Cargo, which are mainly consumed by designers, provide templates for people who are not familiar with coding. They are indeed easy to use, but templates are actually detached from content. Using such systems can feel like fitting content into a frame that is already laid out. As a result, templates often do not meet users’ preferences, and it is difficult to change design elements. Moreover, the code gets messy and it costs money.

Cargo. It is convenient to use, but the templates are detached from the content.

Creating a whole website on a blank slate is a “liberal arts” activity that every “modern person” should try. It is important to spend time thinking about who you are and what you like, writing about those questions, and applying new orders using computer languages. By doing so, you can learn ways to accept and utilize technology actively. Making a personal website is no different from loving yourself deeply. If you care about yourself, then you can love others, too.


Q. I recently read the book Rainbow Sorbet, which “helps introduce Min Guhong Manufacturing.” I am curious about why this book is made up of “product reviews” rather than “product descriptions.”

A. This is a book and catalog that summarizes the exhibition Rainbow Sorbetheld at Archive Bomm. Curator Yoon Juli, who just moved to the Ilmin Museum of Art, directed and edited this book. Catalogs normally contain criticisms on artworks, but here, “artworks” are more like “products.” I think it makes more sense to have “product reviews” than “criticisms” for this book.

Rainbow Sorbet.Archive Bomm & Workroom Ghost. 2019. Various contributors including Kim Nuiyeon, Kim Hyungjin, Laurel Schwulst, Byul.org, Song Seungeon, Jang Woochul, and Han Yujoo wrote reviews about products of Min Guhong Manufacturing. The person on the cover was discovered by graphic designer Gang Moonsick.

Q. What do you do outside of work?

A. After being taught that “work should become a part of daily life,” I tend to separate work and life decisively. In the early days of the pandemic, I tried to work from home, but I could not concentrate at all. I read enough books in the office, so at home, I usually lie on a couch and watch television shows or movies. I also sometimes fall asleep. When the sun goes down and cool breezes blow, I take a walk in Gyeongui Line Forest Park or along side streets in Yeonhui-dong.

Q. What are your future plans for Min Guhong Manufacturing?

A. First of all, I am writing a series of articles about the company on The Book Society website. I am also preparing for the book Anyway, HTML, which will be published by Hugo Books, and translating A *New* Program for Graphic Designer written by graphic designer and educator David Reinfurt. Recently, the magazine VISLA offered me an opportunity to contribute. However, with more editing on my plate, the works that I am in charge of have been delayed. I feel bad for the authors and translators who have been so patient with me.


Min Guhong. What Do Interns at Min Guhong Manufacturing Do? The Book Society.

I am offering various forms of technical support to many big art and design events, such as Typojanchi, Ob/Scene Festival, Seoul International Book Fair, Seoul Record Fair, and more. Recently, I received contacts by several companies, including even a detective agency. I also hung out with young poets a few days ago. In the end, everything will converge into the art of “introduction.” Meanwhile, I am preparing for an event introducing the company at AVP Lab. I would appreciate your interest and support.

Typojanchi 2021: A Turtle and a Crane. A long text related to “a turtle and a crane,” which is the theme of the event, follows a mouse cursor.


* Link to the original text:
https://blog.naver.com/designpress2016/222457776130

* Link to the previous article:
https://saddallar.xyz/Min-Guhong-Manufacturing-1