[Herald Design Forum 2018] ‘Originality, core value in new era of fourth industrial revolution’

The speed of technology has already overtaken the human ability to act and think, but the domain of feelings remains unaffected, suggesting that emotional interpretation will become the essential task of people in general, businesses and governments in the future, said Lee Dae-hyung, a renowned curator, at a forum in Seoul on Friday.

“The world is changing so fast and it is no longer important to seek good solutions. But we have to find good questions,” said Lee at the 2018 Herald Design Forum at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. “The core value in the era of the ‘fourth industrial revolution,’ is in art thinking that goes beyond design thinking.”

He stressed that people will increasingly seek originality in the future.

“Now we are going to embrace the world where originality becomes an essential value. People already thirst for original value, not wanting something that is replicated, like storm troopers from ‘Star Wars,’” he said.

When technologies dominate in the future, artists who create products and services that are unique and original will become even more crucial, said Lee, who heads Hyundai Motor Group’s art initiative Art Lab in Seoul, suggesting that carmakers might have to study ways of incorporating human touch in self-driving cars.

More efforts should be made to study humans, rather than living in fear of invasion by robots.

“Many talk about the ongoing war between humans and robots. But we need to study more about ourselves, in that we don’t know what makes (a) human yet.”

Lee’s career began at Art Lab in 2013. He has managed notable projects including the “MMCA Hyundai Motor Series,” “Hyundai Commission” at Tate Modern, “The Hyundai Project” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Bloomberg’s “Brilliant Ideas” and the “Hyundai Meets Art” project. In 2017, Lee was appointed curator of the Korean Pavilion for the 2017 Venice Biennale.

By Cho Chung-un 
(christory@heraldcorp.com)