f Virtual puppet, my love impossible

This article expounds upon the convergence of two seemingly disparate psychic manifestations; namely the mode of Han, a mindset deeply embedded in traditional Korean culture and the contemporary relationship of a human handler to his or her avatar in three dimensional virtual environments. As an artist whose artistic medium is virtual puppetry performed through three dimensional media, the author has found an extreme state of paradox as a key aspect of her own Korean culture, embodied by the concept of Han as the paradoxical state of the human psyche, initiated from the micro-politics of body. This article investigates the potential relation between human and virtual bodies, and avatars and their users in a paradoxical manner: this is a story of the love impossible.