Norae Shanty:
The Norae Shanty is based on Korean karaoke rooms called “Norae bangs” (song rooms). The Norae bang (pronounced “nō–rāy–bŏng”) is essentially a scaled down version of a karaoke bar, a small room with karaoke equipment and comfortable seating that groups of people rent by the hour. These bangs provide participants with simultaneous visual, audible, and emotional experiences. Yet unlike the sometimes competitive and embarrassing nature of the karaoke bar experience, the norae bang provides up to a dozen participants a cheerful and supportive environment for a more comfortable exchange.
Ice fishing and ice house culture is similar to the bang phenomenon in Asian urban centers. Bangs, like ice houses, serve as a retreat, a small and isolated space for groups to participate in a shared activity away from the stress of everyday life. The Norae Shanty was developed to provide new and intersecting populations with the opportunity for soulful exchange.
The Norae Shanty was exhibited in the Art Shanty Projects summer ‘05 exhibit at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis, MN. During the ART SHANTY PROJECTS ‘06 season the Norae Shanty will make its winter debut on the frozen surface of Medicine Lake in Plymouth, MN. People from nearby ice shanty communities, shoreline communities, and ART SHANTY PROJECTS visitors will be invited to visit the Norae Shanty by car, snowmobile, ATV, ski, skate, sled, or by foot. Participants from these diverse and often isolated communities will be given the opportunity to share in the unique and evocative process of singing karaoke, actively creating the emergence of new pathways for connecting to diverse peoples and communities through divergent, yet supportive, means of communication.
The Norae Shanty, was conceived by artist Michael Hoyt for the Art Shanty Projects. It was initially test run using Peter Haakon Thompson’s original ART SHANTY PROJECTS shanty in 2005 at the Version ’05 festival in Chicago. Thanks to Peter Haakon Thompson and David Pitman, David Wyrick, the Soap Factory, Ole Thompson, Ed Bok Lee, Rich Lee, Ken Okumura, Me-k Ahn, Oanh Nystrom and Sarah Mickelson.
