An ÉCAL graduate who’s
worked for the likes of
Motorola and Cloudandco,
UK-based Korean designer
MIJI NOH has a knack for
giving futuristic concepts a
tangible presence in a practical
way, something we asked her
to embrace in ‘The Challenge’.You want to give shows an afterlife...
MIJI NOH: Nowadays, technology plays a
central role in articulating a show’s objec-
tive and delivering heightened experiences.
I approached the brief by considering how
the immateriality of fast-paced technol-
ogy might make us rethink and revisit the
importance of physical and tangible experi-
ences – more specifically, the aftermath and
artefacts of such experiences.What’s your concept? A public archive
system aimed at anyone with an interest
in design, materials and how things are
made. Comprising three tools – a physi-
cal display, a catalogue and a web archive
platform – The Archive: Materials, Minds
and Moods features artefacts from shows
and exhibitions. There’s an element of ser-
endipity in the system. It encourages the
audience to play with juxtaposition and
to discover new inspirations.Where would you find The Archive? My
objective is to have the system live in various
places, such as creative studios, corporations,
academic libraries, research institutions and
laboratories – anywhere that media and
matter are made and developed. It would be
ideal for the locations to cover a good mixComprising a physical display, a
catalogue and a web archive platform,
The Archive is designed to preserve the
typically short life span of shows.
of inspiring terrain, from art and design to
culture and sociology.Why do you think an archive system rep-
resents the future of shows? While there
are amazing technologies that afford us
next-level sensorial experiences – Marina
Abramović’s mixed-reality performance,
The Life, is a recent example – I feel that
there are insufficient infrastructures and
platforms for preserving and archiving
creative processes in a sustainable and
lasting way. This is especially true when it
comes to engaging the public in short-lived
events that are often produced at speed. I’m
looking to equalize two worlds: the world
before the show and the one after. My
point is that an archive can become a living
artefact – a showcase of personal intuition
and logic. It’s my hope that the audience
discovers the beauty of physical properties
and the visual languages of materials. The
cycle from collection through to archiv-
ing and re-creation in The Archive might
seem simple, but I believe it will contribute
significantly to building a better view of the
everyday world. We can collect to recall the
past, archive to reflect the present and (re-)
create to predict the future. – TI
mijinoh.comTHE CHALLENGE 33