We live in a world flooded with information. AI gives instant answers. Social media scrolls endlessly. Everything feels available. But does more information help us make better sense of the world?
In South Korea, a new education policy (2023) tells students to choose their subjects before entering secondary school. Sounds empowering, but as a teacher, I’ve heard these young people say: ‘I don’t know what I’m interested in’ and even, ‘I don’t know who I am.’ And personally, I sometimes don’t know either. I’ve been overwhelmed, trying to consume as many fragments of fast information as possible, but I was nowhere among them.
This work reflects how such confusion extends to entire societies. Especially in moments of uncertainty — like the pandemic or the recent martial law scandal involving the South Korean president, Suk-Yeol Yoon.
It advocates time to contemplate. As Byung-Chul Han, quoting Nietzsche (1889) describes, ‘reacting immediately, yielding to every impulse, already amounts to illness and represents a symptom of exhaustion.’ Instead, we need to slow down and develop a ‘resistance to crowding, intrusive stimuli’ (Han 2015: 21). Rather than being loyal subjects to external noise, we must practice becoming ‘sovereign’ (ibid) over it.
As a teacher, I consider how art and design might help to reclaim that sovereignty. Through visual composition and participatory elements, this work explores how we can critically make meaning in an age of media saturation. There’s a newspaper on the chair. Have a seat and read it. Can you tell what’s real and what’s fake news?
There are magazine covers on the wall.
Based on the U.K. satirical magazine Private Eye, but re-titled Private Bye - my personal farewell to national chaos. You can place speech bubbles in dual language, as you wish. These bubbles are magnetic — (re)movable, reusable, negotiable and a prompt for discussion.
Do it yourself.
Reference
Han, B.C. (2015) The Burnout Society. Stanford.
In South Korea, a new education policy (2023) tells students to choose their subjects before entering secondary school. Sounds empowering, but as a teacher, I’ve heard these young people say: ‘I don’t know what I’m interested in’ and even, ‘I don’t know who I am.’ And personally, I sometimes don’t know either. I’ve been overwhelmed, trying to consume as many fragments of fast information as possible, but I was nowhere among them.
This work reflects how such confusion extends to entire societies. Especially in moments of uncertainty — like the pandemic or the recent martial law scandal involving the South Korean president, Suk-Yeol Yoon.
It advocates time to contemplate. As Byung-Chul Han, quoting Nietzsche (1889) describes, ‘reacting immediately, yielding to every impulse, already amounts to illness and represents a symptom of exhaustion.’ Instead, we need to slow down and develop a ‘resistance to crowding, intrusive stimuli’ (Han 2015: 21). Rather than being loyal subjects to external noise, we must practice becoming ‘sovereign’ (ibid) over it.
As a teacher, I consider how art and design might help to reclaim that sovereignty. Through visual composition and participatory elements, this work explores how we can critically make meaning in an age of media saturation. There’s a newspaper on the chair. Have a seat and read it. Can you tell what’s real and what’s fake news?
There are magazine covers on the wall.
Based on the U.K. satirical magazine Private Eye, but re-titled Private Bye - my personal farewell to national chaos. You can place speech bubbles in dual language, as you wish. These bubbles are magnetic — (re)movable, reusable, negotiable and a prompt for discussion.
| Pause | resist | discuss | ||
| Slowdown | information | act | ||
| Contemplate |
Do it yourself.
Reference
Han, B.C. (2015) The Burnout Society. Stanford.