Community-Based Digital Safeguarding of Korean Embodied Heritage: Building an Open Digital Preservation Ecosystem for Subak

This report presents an independent community-based safeguarding initiative focused on Korean embodied heritage, particularly the traditional martial and physical culture known as Subak.

The project explores how endangered movement traditions can be preserved and internationally disseminated through interconnected digital ecosystems rather than relying solely on centralized institutional preservation systems.

The safeguarding model combines:

open-access scholarly archiving

multilingual educational dissemination

audiovisual heritage documentation

Wikimedia-based public accessibility

community-led digital participation

The project emphasizes accessibility, continuity, and global discoverability of traditional embodied knowledge.

The initiative emerged from the recognition that many traditional embodied practices face structural limitations within contemporary preservation environments. While institutional recognition systems remain important, independent digital ecosystems now provide alternative methods for safeguarding, dissemination, and long-term accessibility.

The project therefore approaches safeguarding not only as conservation of static cultural materials, but as the active circulation of movement knowledge, historical interpretation, audiovisual documentation, and educational participation across interconnected digital environments.