Doing Nothing as an Art Form

An Overworked Society Discovering Silence

South Korea has long been known as a country where people work hard—and compete even harder: at school, at work, and in their personal lives. Statistics show that Korean employees have consistently ranked among those working the most hours per year within the OECD, and long shifts are repeatedly linked to a higher incidence of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. It’s therefore no surprise that in exactly this kind of environment, a peculiar “counter-movement” emerged—a culture that, instead of performance, celebrates stopping, inactivity, and silence.

In recent years, there’s been growing talk in Seoul that a standard vacation isn’t enough for people who are burned out. They’re looking for a deeper reset—a moment when they don’t have to prove anything or head anywhere. That’s why meditation retreats, wellness-focused temple stays, and even unconventional public events that turn doing nothing into a social occasion have moved into the spotlight. One of the most watched is the Space-Out Competition—a doing-nothing contest held right in the middle of the city by the Han River.

Who Is Byung-jin Park

At the center of this trend in recent years is Byung-jin Park, a 36-year-old entrepreneur and indie punk musician from Seoul. International media portray him as someone who grasped the power of coming to a complete stop—and who, in 2025, together with his band, beat more than a hundred competitors to win South Korea’s Space-Out Competition.

During the competition, he sat for 90 minutes without any noticeable movement—no phone, no conversation, and without falling asleep. In interviews, he describes how he gradually stopped registering his surroundings and felt as if his body briefly “disappeared,” while his mind settled down. This state isn’t classic meditation with a strict technique. It’s more a simple—but surprisingly demanding—discipline: sit, breathe, and allow thoughts to slow down naturally.

That’s why Park is often described on social media as someone who “teaches the art of simply being”—the art of staying quiet, not chasing any task, and consciously doing nothing. That doesn’t mean he runs a formal school or academy; rather, he has become a symbol for a generation tired of constant performance and nonstop noise—one that’s looking for permission to “switch off” for a while.

Space-Out Competition: A Contest in Absolute Inactivity

The Space-Out Competition began in 2014 as an art project by Korean visual artist Woopsyang. Its aim was to respond ironically to hustle culture—endless performance and self-optimization—while also giving people time, quite literally, to stare into space without guilt. The competition later moved to the Han River, and the city of Seoul turned it into an official event that draws hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators.

The rules are surprisingly strict. Participants sit for 90 minutes on grass or a mat—no phone, no reading, no talking. Every fifteen minutes, organizers measure their pulse to see who manages to maintain the lowest and most stable stress level, and part of the result also depends on audience voting. Anyone who falls asleep, laughs, starts talking, or visibly fidgets risks disqualification.

What may look like a joke at first has gradually become a cultural phenomenon. The Space-Out Competition has spread to other Asian cities and even to Australia, where it has become part of arts festivals. For Koreans, it’s also a quiet admission that the classic “work more and faster” model has limits—and that collective doing-nothing can be a legitimate form of mental-health care.

What the Discipline of “Just Being” Actually Means

The art of “just being” doesn’t mean you must have a perfectly empty mind. Byung-jin Park doesn’t talk about shutting thoughts off completely, either. It’s more about a conscious decision not to do any additional activity—not to work, organize, plan, or scroll through social media—and to allow the brain to stop focusing on external tasks for a moment.

In practice, it looks simple: sit down, find a comfortable position, close your eyes or let them rest half-closed, slow your breathing, and let thoughts come and go. Park describes focusing during the competition on a single point and slow belly breathing, while other thoughts gradually “drifted into the background.” It wasn’t a complex meditation technique—more a decision to do nothing and to “produce” nothing.

Absolute stillness of the body matters, too. In everyday life, the brain constantly issues small prompts—reach for the phone, open a new browser tab, check messages. The moment we allow ourselves to sit without these minor impulses—and sometimes even with a bit of discomfort—we gradually learn that boredom and silence are tolerable. And that’s precisely why the discipline of “just being” is, for many people, surprisingly hard.

What Neuroscience Says: When We Do Nothing, the Brain Works Differently

It may sound paradoxical, but when we “do nothing,” the brain is certainly not asleep. Neuroscience talks about the so-called default mode network—a network of brain regions that becomes active precisely when we’re not focused on a specific task, not scrolling, not answering emails, and simply letting thoughts flow freely.

This network is linked to processing memories, imagination, planning for the future, and how we think about ourselves and our lives. When we give ourselves mental “idle” time, the brain gets a chance to sort information, connect the dots, and generate new ideas and insights—things that have nowhere to surface in the rush of daily obligations.

Psychology and popular-science writing increasingly point out that regular rest, short breaks, and moments when we intentionally do nothing can, in the long run, improve concentration, creativity, and emotional stability. In that context, the Space-Out Competition no longer seems like a mere curiosity, but a very concrete—and somewhat playful—response to what neuroscience recommends: giving the brain time when it doesn’t have to “perform.”

Why South Korea, Specifically, Needs “Doing Nothing”

South Korea has experienced decades of extremely rapid economic growth, often paid for with long workdays and intense psychological pressure. Research shows that Korean employees have long ranked among those who work the most hours in the OECD, and long shifts are associated with a higher incidence of depressive symptoms and anxiety.

The government has tried to address the situation through legislation as well—by introducing a 52-hour workweek and holding debates about further limiting overtime. At the same time, cultural and social initiatives have emerged that pursue a similar goal by other means: instead of compliance spreadsheets, they offer people a real experience of silence, inactivity, and a shared “switching off.” The Space-Out Competition is exactly that kind of experiment—briefly putting on a pedestal the person who can do nothing, and symbolically switching the track from a cult of performance to a culture of rest.

How to Try “Just Being” at Home: A Practical Guide

What Byung-jin Park practices in the competition can be tried at home in a simpler form, without trophies and without an audience. What matters is that this isn’t a contest to see who can be “the most zen,” but a personal experiment with yourself.

1. Pick a short time window.
   To start, 5 to 10 minutes is plenty. Set a timer on your phone, then put it in airplane mode or place it out of reach. The goal is not to be interrupted—and not to have to watch the clock.
2. Sit in a position you can sustain.
   You don’t need to sit in lotus. A regular chair or couch works fine—feet on the floor, back relatively upright. What matters is that you can stay there without constantly feeling the need to change position.
3. Breathe more slowly, but naturally.
   For a few minutes, notice how your belly rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale. You don’t need to count breaths or force extremely deep breathing. The point is to be aware of your breathing, not to control it.
4. Let thoughts come and go.
   A plan for tomorrow, worries about bills, a memory of an argument—any of that is fine. Instead of fighting thoughts, you can simply note to yourself, “Oh, that’s what I’m thinking about now,” and return to your breath or the feeling of your body on the chair.
5. Don’t expect a “magical” experience on day one.
   Sometimes those few minutes will feel pleasant; other times boring, and occasionally uncomfortable. The point is consistency. Just as Park says he needs to “switch off” from work repeatedly, your brain will gradually get used to short windows of inactivity.

If you’re dealing with long-term mental-health difficulties, anxiety, or depression, simply sitting in silence isn’t a substitute for professional help. It can, however, complement therapy or treatment—a small daily ritual that supports what you’re working through systematically with a professional.

Risks and Myths: Is Inactivity Only for Lazy People?

The “art of just being” naturally raises the worry that a person might slip into passivity or procrastination. But the difference between mindful doing-nothing and plain laziness is intention and boundaries. If you tell yourself in advance, “For the next 10 minutes I’ll sit, do nothing, and then I’ll get back to work,” that’s conscious care for your mental capacity—not an escape from responsibilities.

Another myth is the idea that you must have a completely empty mind during these moments. Most research suggests that free mind-wandering, linked to activation of the default mode network, can contribute to creativity, self-understanding, and emotional processing. So failure isn’t that a million thoughts pop up while you sit—failure would be never allowing yourself these moments at all because you’re afraid you’ll “waste time.”

Similar Approaches Worldwide: Mindfulness, Zen, and “Niksen”

Korea’s version of “just being” isn’t completely isolated. Similar concepts appear across cultures—from Zen sitting in Japanese monasteries, to mindfulness courses in the West, to the Dutch practice of “niksen,” or intentional doing-nothing. What they all share is the idea that you don’t have to fill every spare moment with activity—and that inner life deserves space just as much as emails or work tasks.

The difference is mostly context. While Zen and mindfulness often have spiritual roots, the Space-Out Competition functions as a playful, slightly tongue-in-cheek ritual in the middle of a modern city. Instead of a meditating monk, you see a punk musician in a studded jacket sitting for 90 minutes doing nothing—and that’s exactly what makes him an easy figure for overworked city dwellers to relate to.

Conclusion: A Small Korean Lesson in Slowing Down for Our Everyday Stress

Byung-jin Park’s story is simple at its core. He’s someone who lives in the same world of notifications, schedules, and deadlines as anyone else—yet he allowed himself to join a competition where what’s judged is not performance, but the ability to do nothing. The fact that he earned recognition as a “master of silence” is less a curiosity than a challenge: a reminder that we, too, can find a few minutes each day when we stop trying to be productive.

The art of “just being” isn’t about escaping reality; it’s about taking the key out of the ignition for a moment so the engine doesn’t burn out. Today it might be five minutes in the kitchen with a coffee and no phone; tomorrow, looking out the window on the bus without headphones; and maybe one day even your own small “doing-nothing competition” with friends. If we take at least this tiny lesson from the Korean Space-Out phenomenon, then Byung-jin Park and his quiet victory have served their purpose far beyond the borders of Seoul.

Video: What a Doing-Nothing Competition Looks Like in Practice

If you want to get a live feel for the Space-Out Competition atmosphere, it’s worth watching a short report from the event in Seoul. You’ll see dozens of people sitting in silence by the river while the host quietly comments on the proceedings and organizers monitor their pulse.

Sources

1. Could you do nothing for 90 minutes? In South Korea, it’s a sport. National Geographic, 18 Aug 2025.
   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/benefits-of-doing-nothing (National Geographic)
2. Seoul Hosts 10th Anniversary ‘Hangang Space-Out Competition’ Next Month to Find the Master of Space-Out. Seoul Metropolitan Government, 2 May 2024.
   https://english.seoul.go.kr/seoul-hosts-10th-anniversary-hangang-space-out-competition-next-month-to-find-the-master-of-space-out (Official Website of the)
3. Default mode network. Wikipedia (updated 2025).
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network (Wikipedia)
4. Why Rest Is Productive: The Science of Doing Nothing. Psychology Today, 21 Aug 2025.
   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-authentic-joy/202508/why-rest-is-productive-the-science-of-doing-nothing (Psychology Today)
5. Working hours and depressive symptoms: the role of job stress factors in Korean employees. Y. Yoon et al., Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2018.
   https://aoemj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40557-018-0257-5 (SpringerLink)