Spacing Out Competition (멍 때리기 대회)

서울에서 '멍 때리기 대회'를 연다는 재미있는 기사가 있어 올려봅니다.  Seoulites to compete at ‘spacing out’  In a competitive society where people are always on their smartphones, competition will see who can space out the longest By Lee Jae-uk, staff reporter    <img src="https://t1.daumcdn.net/cfile/cafe/25210C4B543B35FB3E" class="txc-image" width="295" height="442" style="width: 295px; height: 442px; clear: both; margin-left: 8px; float: right;" border="0" vspace="1" hspace="1" data-filename="spacing-out.jpg" exif="{}" actualwidth="400" id="A_25210C4B543B35FB3E9388"/>In South Korean society today, people always have to be doing something on their smartphone - they aren’t even able to concentrate on taking care of business in the bathroom. An unusual competition is being organized to counter this trend. Performance project Duo Elect2ronic-ship (Jeongiho), the developer of “Urban Games,” will be holding a spacing-out contest on the lawn at Seoul Plaza, starting at noon on Oct. 27 and lasting for three hours. Contestants will sit quietly in chairs and compete to see who can space out the most. The event will be the first urban competition developed by Duo Elect2ronic-ship.        “Amid the constant competition of our society, each individual pours all of their abilities into productive behavior and believes that only such behavior is valuable. Because of smart devices, we are unable to escape from external stimulation even for a moment. In such a society, I wanted to contemplate the idea of not doing anything,” said Miss Oops on Sep. 16. Miss Oops, 38, a performance artist, is a joint organizer of the competition. She noted that she came up with the idea for the competition while she was spacing out.  The competition may be inspired by spacing out, but the organizers obviously spent some time thinking about the time and place of the event. “We selected Monday, when people are starting a new week with a heavy heart after the weekend, and we chose the center of Seoul, which will be filled with office workers in the middle of the day, when they are busy with work. This will create a dramatic visual contrast with the scene of the spacing out contest,” Miss Oops said. The winner of the contest will be the individual who is able to relax their body by completely zoning out, recording the slowest heart beat while appearing the most absent-minded. In an ironic twist, the winner will receive a trophy modeled after Rodin’s statue “The Thinker.”  “We are planning to include a total of 50 contestants in the event with 40 applicants online on a first-come, first-served basis and 10 applicants on the day of the competition. We have already got way more than 50 applicants,” Miss Oops said.  “Spacing out is similar to meditation in the sense that it relaxes the body and mind,” said Hwang Won-joon, a mental health specialist whose stress clinic is sponsoring the competition. “In contemporary society, where people use their brain constantly to increase efficiency, people easily become exhausted and sometimes find it difficult to control their anger. In that sense, spacing out can be helpful,” said Jeong Jae-seung, professor of bio and brain engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). 　 Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]