Yonsei Institute of Media Art Held TIF Forum Yonsei Institute of Media Arts (Director. Prof. Lim Jeong-taeg) held '2009 TIF(TechnologyㆍImaginationㆍFuture) International Forum' on October 28 and 29 in Chang Ki Won International Conference Hall in Yonsei-Samsung Library. The forum was co-hosted by Korea Association for Semiotic Studies. Some 13 professors from various academic backgrounds and countries participated in the forum. The participating professors included Professor Lim Jeong-taeg, director of Institute of Media Arts at Yonsei University, Professor Lee Ki-sang from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Professor Derrick de Kerckhove, a renowned media studies scholar from University of Toronto, Professor Bernard Darras (University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Professor Long Xi Zhang (City University of Hong Kong). The forum offered diverse presentations by participating scholars. Professor Lee Ki-sang suggested in his keynote presentation, "The Age of Visual Culture and Integrative Imagination," that a strategy for future that encompasses both positive and negative sides of modernization is needed. It is because both sides exist simultaneously in an era of visual culture that became possible by epochal advances in digital technology. He included the ecological problem and the population problem as aspects of the negative side. To deal with these negative issues, he underlined the importance of activating an 'integrative imagination' that unites the individual with the whole, liberal democracy with social democracy, technology with art, and reason with spirituality, "The word 'integrative' implies a 'live and let live' way of harmonization," Professor Lee asserted. "Current problems should be solved by an integrative imagination that weighs harmony and union, since the problems were caused by a Western world-view that considers nature as an object of subjugation." In her presentation on the "Post-human and Mechanical Imagination," Professor Cho Yun-kyung (Ewha Woman University) discussed the "technological imagination" which has "expanded human imagination to a domain where the human and technology are merged." "With the merging of biotechnology and computer science," she argued, "a world where technology is applied not only to machines but to humans has come." Professor Cho illustrated the emergence of a new technological imagination of manipulating and reconstructing time with the ideas of fast-forward, rewind and slow motion brought about by the introduction of video player. She suggested that we have to pay attention to take advantage of this unlimited imagination, since we cannot forecast where technological imagination will move toward in a world where technology advances rapidly.