Speculative Stuff
2023 - 2024 Student Works
* The intellectual property rights of each work are owned by each student.

Emotional Vending Machine












SOOMIN KIM






 “Efficiency” is a thing in which the results are greater than the efforts. Human being lives in an efficiency- oriented society. Many people like to be efficient. Of course, The efficiency has many advantages. For example, a student can save time by studying efficiently. Efficient work makes it easier to make more money. 

However, Is efficiency only just beneficial? There are also many disadvantages in the efficiency. There are many scenes that you miss when you take the subway to have efficient and fast movement. In today, people act too efficiently. People seek efficiency even in the field of they must spend enough time. There is definitely can be worthy things losing if continues to pursue efficiency.

Currently, people are seeking efficiency in many areas. People now consider efficiency not only for work and study, but also for travel, rest, cooking, marriage and meeting people. For example, People use a dating application to meet good person in a short time. They think meeting new people and getting close is a waste of time and emotion. People also seek efficiency in feeling emotions. People watch sad movies to cry. People watch reality variety shows to feel fluttery heart and vicarious satisfaction. People want to feel emotions with minimal effort.

In 2050, South Korea invented the ‘Emoti-Bites’ technology. ‘Emoti-Bites’ technology is a technology that extracts human emotions through fingerprint and iris recognition and injects them into an edible product called “Mood Crystals”. A person who eats ‘Mood Crystals’ can feel the emotions injected into them and no longer waste time to feeling. There are voices of need to buy and sell ‘Mood Crystal’. After that, ‘An emotional dispenser’ that allows people buy and sell’ Mood crystals’ has been developed and appears on the streets. 

People release negative emotions in to the banding machine, or purchase positive emotions from the banding machine. People don’t date or marriage anymore because they can feel love easily. People also don’t feel sadness about the death of family member or other persons due to war or accident. This is because they can easily remove sadness. People don’t need people because they don’t even feel loneliness. Family members’ gatherings also disappear. People forget the importance of bonding with each other.

People in 2050 live efficient lives thanks to banding machines. Let’s think about what humans really get out of this.




2023



Speculative Stuff



Speculative Stuff documents the design works of Yonsei University's Integrated Design undergraduate students, showcasing South Korea's first speculative design course. Led by Hyunjae Daniel Shin (Assistant Professor) and Eun Sun Park (Lecturer), our 16-week program blends theoretical lectures, interactive workshops, and practical exercises.

This course aims to foster the ability to understand and speculate about macro and micro changes in technology, culture, society, and the environment through everyday products and services in future contexts. By using future scenarios, comedy techniques, and preposterous worldbuilding, students develop a critical perspective on alternative futures.