Hyundai Motorstudio Busan has launched an exhibition titled “Do You Miss the Future?” that encourages new inquiries about the “value of time,” featuring creative design works curated by the grand winner of the inaugural Hyundai Blue Prize Design award.
Fifteen artworks by 14 teams are on display from December 9th 2021 to March 31st 2022, at Hyundai Motorstudio Busan. The works cover diverse genres: architecture, graphic design, fine art, technology research, video art, 3D animation, computer gaming, virtual reality and others.
The event was curated by 2021 Hyundai Blue Prize Design winner Somi Sim, a Seoul- and Paris-based independent curator and researcher specializing in architectural engineering and art theory.
“Through this exhibition and the various works of designers, I have attempted to explore how our world is created and at the same time how we as human beings are framed and transformed by the machinery of temporality,” said Sim.
“In particular, I have focused my curation on the various ways design and the world at large engage and communicate with one another under today’s testing times, as the world we live in is disarrayed by the global pandemic and other challenges.”
The moniker of the exhibition, “Do You Miss the Future?” comes from the title of an interview by the English cultural theorist, philosopher and academic, Mark Fisher, who was concerned with what he perceived as the uncertain future and cultural retrogression of humanity. In a similar vein, the exhibition deals with the “value of time” as its motif, highlighting how time is variously perceived and consumed across society amid the world’s uncertainties, as well as how time can be restructured to offer new possibilities during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The exhibition is organized into four sub-themes and their associated sections at the venue: city (section “Post City”), labor (section “Ghost Work and The Human”), object (section “Hyper Object”) and future (section “2050”). The “Post City” section deals with the present and future of the urban space; “Ghost Work and The Human” explores the relationships between technology, labor and mankind; “Hyper Object” searches for alternative possibilities and coexistence that would help humanity overcome the current anthropocentric thinking as people experience crises; and “2050” invites participants to an uncertain future that necessitates change in people’s perceptions and practices and thus redesign of their way of life.
In particular, visitors are treated to works such as “Ideal Disruption” by 3D designer Manuel Rossner offers a virtual-reality tour of a Hyundai Motor Studio section and a glossy artificial sculpture in stainless steel that allows the user to spatially experience the VR rendering via an avatar character, “Liminal City” by People’s Architecture Office, a large-scale installation piece spanning three floors where people can see each other from different spots through kaleidoscopic vistas and perspectives, and “Breath” by artist Minsoo Oh, an installation piece that fabricates the mechanical machinery of a pipe organ inspired by the air pressure and moisture generated by a steam locomotive, symbolizing the breath and vitality of living organisms.
Apart from the aforementioned four artists and teams, the rest of the 10 artists (individuals and teams) whose works are displayed at Hyundai Motorstudio Busan include Re-tracing Buro, Vladan Joler, Studio Hik, Sungseok Ahn, the team of Alex Rickett and John Brumley, Ordinary People, the team of Yeseul Oh and Wooseok Jang, Everyday Practice, Julien Prévieux and Florian Goldmann.