Curating Visual–Spatial–Human Interactions: Clustered Pop-Up Stores Inscribing Commercial Discourse in Seongsu-Dong, Seoul

Capturing the rapid visual transformation of booming pop-up stores in a gentrifying Seoul neighborhood, this study examines how these temporary businesses curate visuals and orchestrate interactions with the surrounding built environments and people to amplify their visibility in a competitive landscape. The fast-paced structural and visual turnover of pop-ups in open urban spaces draws semiotic attention to how transient marketing mobilizes and generates meaning through dynamic relationships with spaces, people, and materials. This study employs a geosemiotic lens and ethnographic walking surveys to explore how the clustering of pop-up stores embeds and normalizes dominant commercial discourses in the neighborhood. Individual pop-up visibility is amplified through curated visuals, visitor engagement, and the strategic incorporation of surrounding spaces. Collectively, they shape the area’s prevailing commercial discourse, creating a continuous spectacle. Rental advertisements and frequent turnover visibly index transient marketing driven by short-term investments and hyper-visible branding.