Karl Tomm, a noted Canadian social worker, traces the use of the term to earlier lectures by Michael White in his foreword to Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends[2] (1990).
Giorgio Agamben discusses how the French philosopher Michel Foucault might have used the term apparatus (French: "dispositif") in a synonymous way to describe the collection of ideas, practices, and meaning that determine how people, bodies, and institutions enact power/knowledge[3] or how power/knowledge enact people, bodies, and institutions.
[4][5] During a speech at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2011, Lee said he coined the term "cultural technology" as a system about fourteen years prior, when S.M.
[5] In the late 1990s, Lee and his colleagues created a manual on cultural technology, which specified the steps needed to popularize K-pop artists outside South Korea.
employees are instructed to learn, explains when to bring in foreign composers, producers, and choreographers; what chord progressions to use in what country; the precise color of eyeshadow a performer should wear in a particular country; the exact hand gestures he or she should make; and the camera angles to be used in the videos (a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree group shot to open the video, followed by a montage of individual closeups)," according to The New Yorker.
[5] The cultural technology system originally employed by SM Entertainment since the 1990s existed in four stages: Casting, Training, Producing, and Marketing/Managing.
[9] Each of these four stages were curated to help spread the Hallyu wave through the development of its artists, and are present in the strategies of many other South Korean talent agencies when creating, debuting, and marketing groups.
[12] Other forms of pre-debut activities include featuring in other, more seasoned idols' videos—like Nu'est in Orange Caramel or Exo in Girls' Generation-TTS Twinkle or BTS in Jo Kwon.
Often, idols have potential for being actors and actresses in dramas, or perhaps hosts/permanent members of variety shows like Kim Hee-chul in Knowing Bros.
This so-called omnidirectional marketing lineup ranges over lifestyle and seeks to reach many aspects of living, like music, TV, drama, entertainment, sports, and fashion.
While SM's cultural technology in the past relied on local, Korean artists like Rain and BoA, the updated model tries to embed more and more foreign singers from strategic markets into larger girl or boy bands.
It is a convergence and expansion of SM's four core culture technologies developed and deals heavily with interaction and the desire to innovate through communication.
[17] As of October 2023, the group consists of 25 members: Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Kun, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, Winwin, Jungwoo, Mark, Xiaojun, Hendery, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Yangyang, Chenle, Jisung, Sion, Riku, Yushi, Daeyoung, Ryo, and Sakuya.
ScreaM Records has first launched collaborated song "Wave" E-Mart's home electronics store, Electro Mart.