That is what we have been thinking since Lift Asia 07, and it is good to see the New York Times is now saying it too: Korea rocks :) and Seoul is one of the place to be in 2010!

Forget Tokyo. Design aficionados are now heading to Seoul.

They have been drawn by the Korean capital’s glammed-up cafes and restaurants, immaculate art galleries and monumental fashion palaces like the sprawling outpost of Milan’s 10 Corso Como and the widely noted Ann Demeulemeester store — an avant-garde Chia Pet covered in vegetation.

And now Seoul, under its design-obsessed mayor, Oh Se-hoon, is the 2010 World Design Capital. The title, bestowed by a prominent council of industrial designers, means a year’s worth of design parties, exhibitions, conferences and other revelries. Most are still being planned (go to wdc2010.seoul.go.kr for updates). A highlight will no doubt be the third annual Seoul Design Fair (Sept. 17 to Oct. 7), the city’s answer to the design weeks in Milan and New York, which last year drew 2.5 million people and featured a cavalcade of events under two enormous inflatable structures set up at the city’s Olympic stadium.

Link

Our friend Andrea Bianchi is organizing a Lift@home in Seoul tomorrow! Join him at Sogang University to explore the furute of audio and sound technology!

Sound Waves from the Future

3 talks for 3 perspective over the future of Audio and Sound Technology in music and art. Since this event is the result of the joint collaboration between 2 organizations, Lift@Home and Dorkbot Seoul, presenters will both provide a technical overview of their fields and a personal interpretations over the current trends and the future directions of audio technology.

Speakers

Woon Seung Yeo, Assistant Professor at KAIST
"I want you to make music" (20 minutes, Korean (English Slides))

Rev. Gregory M. Schroeder, Dorkbot Seoul
"Digital Audio Synthesis for Mortals (with Retrospective)" (20 minutes, English)

Baruch Gottlieb, Artist at Institute for Time-Based Media, University of of Art, Berlin
"Past in the Immediate Future, Listening to Seoul Soundscape" (20 minutes, English)

The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session with the speakers.

More information and registration here.

Bruce Sterling's presentation at LIFT evening Korea on Industrial Products And Ubiquity. Bruce talks about sustainable design, recycling, total life-cycle management, tags, radio-frequency identity, search engines, locative media, computer fabricators, industrial design, user records, metadata. web commerce and ubiquitous computing in the service of sustainability.

American journalist and writer Bruce Sterling talks about the Estonian Cyberwar, sharing his thoughts on who might be behind the attacks, and the potential future of a world were groups of hackery can take down entire states.

While you are in Seoul, don’t miss one of the city’s most interesting event of the year, organized by the Nabi Art Center people: Party2007.

The event will gather international artists and feature presentations and workshops on intriguing themes like SMS by humans, Skateboard generated music or the mysterious joy of mixology.

Get your ticket now (full pass is only 120’000KRW, 125$ for three days!), and if you really can’t leave the comfort of your home some videos will be made available here.

The September 12 LIFT evening has moved! Please check the new (and more convenient) location: Yurim Art Hall

From the beginning we wanted to organize the LIFT evening closer to Gangnam and our friends at Mecenat Korea - who are helping us with the organization - found a solution yesterday: the amazing Yurim Art Hall. This room - cozy, intimate, welcoming and warm - is much closer to the spirit of LIFT events.

The address is on the Art Hall website, and until I find somebody kind enough to translate it for me in english you will have to visit yurimart.co.kr to find it!

Yurim Art Hall
tel. 514-9600

We are closing on 50 participants for our LIFT evening with Bruce Sterling, Adam Greenfield and Yoo Suk Yeon. That's about one fourth of the room capacity in less than 3 days, without media coverage and before the buzz really started (thanks Channy for your blog post :)

Invite your friends to register now! As usual with LIFT events, some people always end up left out of the room!