If you’ve ever wished you could put daydreaming, bed-rotting, and being lost in your thoughts onto your CV, well, this one’s for you! As part of Korea Square 2024, a festival organised by the Korean Cultural Center, the International Space-Out Competition is back for its 10th iteration, and its second time being hosted by Hong Kong.
Founded by artist Woopsyang in 2014, this competition is a way of pushing back against the notion drilled into us from a young age that being unproductive is a waste of time. The artist insists that everyone needs the time and space to slow down, but since people might be afraid of being left behind while they do so, the solution is to let everyone halt their pace at the same time. Since then, this competition has attracted tons of attendees in Korea, with singer Crush even winning the 2016 edition.
As easy as this concept sounds, it might be harder than you’d expect for a modern, 21st-century person to just sit and do absolutely nothing. Competitors are not allowed to look at their phones, fall asleep, laugh, chit-chat, sing, dance, or even drink beverages not provided by the organisers. Heartbeats will also be monitored, so we’d say the chances of being eliminated over the course of three hours is actually fairly high.
The International Space-Out Competition is completely free to attend, and sign-ups for competitors close on September 25. Out of 70 daydreamers, who will be crowned this year’s King of Spacing Out?