Could you sit still and do absolutely nothing for 90 minutes?
Hundreds of people in Melbourne will compete to do that on Monday 9 June as part of an international art event.
The Space Out Competition, held as part of the RISING arts festival, was first conceived by South Korean artist Woopsang in 2014.
Even though it's quite an unusual event for an arts festival, Woopsang is "really on the money" with this work, says RISING co-curator Hannah Fox.
"We're so distracted and so busy in our minds that the idea of just sitting completely still doing absolutely nothing for 90 minutes would be a challenge for most people," she tells Culture 101.
In everyday life we are so obsessed with productivity, Woopsang has said, and the Space-Out Competition turns "useless time" into something meaningful.
Rising Festival
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Woopsang was struggling with burnout when she created the Space Out competition as a way to question hustle culture by placing a competitive value on doing absolutely nothing, Fox says.
Since then, the hit public performance piece has gone viral and been held in Taipei, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Competitions aren't allowed to fall asleep, laugh or use technology during the 90 minutes, Fox says, and are in teams of up to three people, usually dressed in something that reflects their profession.
At the 2023 Space Out in Tokyo, which she saw, there were groups of bakers, surf lifesavers, nurses, geishas and one competitor dressed as a beer can because they were a brewer.
Watch some of the 2024 Space Out in Hong Kong below:
At each event, Woopsang walks around the still bodies with bodyguards and volunteers who periodically measure the participants' heart-rates, Fox says.
“They are literally going around using what any nurse would use to measure somebody's heart rate and they do it multiple times throughout the competition."
As well as their outfits, keeping a stable heart rate for 90 minutes is one of the measures the competitors are judged on, she says.
“It's about that consistent low heart rate throughout so for those who are like practiced meditators they will definitely have a competitive advantage.”
There is also sports-style commentary going on the entire time, she says. In Melbourne, this will likely be provided by a sports commentator from the ABC.
“They will be talking through every eye twitch, every eyebrow raise, every minimal act through the entire 90 minutes. So it builds this kind of real tension as you're watching.
“They're really treating the participants as athletes in the art and sport of doing nothing."
Doing nothing becomes a competitive sport
The winner of each Space Out competition travels to the next country where it is held.
In Melbourne, the Hong Kong winner - educational psychologist Denis Kwan Hong-Wang - will be in attendance, giving advice to the competitors.
Although nearly 1000 people have applied to be part of the Melbourne Space Out, a maximum of 70 teams will be chosen for the event, Fox says - by Woopsang herself.
"We're going through the process of making sure we've got a really good mix of work sectors represented [and considering] how it'll read visually and how it reflects the culture of the city."
RISING festival takes place in Melbourne the first two weeks of June every year, Fox says, and this year’s line-up includes Swingers, a nine-hole mini golf course at Flinders Street Station and The Butterfly Who Flew Into A Rave - a dance work by Kiwi artists Oli Mathiesen, Lucy Lynch and Shavon Mortimer.
She's excited that New Zealand folk singer Marlon Williams (with his band the Yarra Benders and a kapa haka choir) will open the festival with a show at the Melbourne Town Hall.
“They'll be performing lots of material from the new record [Te Whare Tīwekaweka] which I'm just deeply in love with. It's so beautiful.”
