Doing nothing really takes something

'Lose the thread. Abandon the point. Replace your mental to-do list with a cymbal-playing monkey. This is Space-Out, the competition to see who can do the most nothing.' That's how an event in Melbourne on Monday, created by South Korean artist Woopsyang, described itself. Being unaware of our surroundings is something we, as homo gadgeticus, have become particularly deplorable at. In fact, by not being able to do nothing for even a short time, we've taken the easy way out by glorifying 'always doing something' and calling it 'hustle culture'. Which is why 'Space-Out' - that Woopsyang has taken all over from Taipei and Hong Kong to Rotterdam and Seoul - is such a liberating revelation.

Doing nothing isn't easy. Meditation focuses on something - an image or/and a sound. Spacing-out ideally has the brain go 'full monty'. In the early 1990s, Jadavpur University 'researchers' developed a mental game that involved making one's mental 'tabula' absolutely 'rasa' - to the point of becoming oblivious to all externalities, while fixating on a mental horse running in circles underwater. In the perfect 'spaced-out' condition, the participant uttering a cuss word of choice and not betraying any emotion would be deemed champion. In Melbourne, local puppeteer Amelia, dressed as 'Fountain Lady', won the title by doing nothing. Go try it at home.