Matthias Horx |
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Koreans have a high level of creativity, which, given time and careful management, will give unique and distinct features to its cities, trend analyst and futurist Matthias Horx said during a speech to open the WDC World Design Cities Summit Tuesday.
Horx noted that creativity is a crucial factor in design. "We don't need bricks or steel or computers alone. It is all about people," he said. Therefore, the most influential group in Korean cities in the future will be the "creative class" ― those highly mobile and well educated, he said.
"Members of the creative class have jobs in computers and mathematics; architecture
and engineering; life, physical and social sciences; education, training and libraries; arts, design, entertainment, sports and media; business and financial operations; legal work; and healthcare. They are artisans, but their artistic approach also influences other, more classical professions," he said.
He defined that they are highly mobile and will move to places where they find the ``3Ts'' ― tolerances, technology and talent.
Horx explained that design using technical, functional, aesthetic and symbolic elements can be beautiful, brilliant, and emotionally moving. They can be ``combined into what we call an 'enlightened complexity,'" he said.
Horx said design matters in all aspects of life. "Many people associate it with a superficial aspect of the consumer industry, a kind of senseless luxury associated with funny but useless gadgets.
"But design is much more. It is connected to history, to identity and spirituality. Since humanoids watched nature in its beauty and elegance, they started to use their fingers and brains in order to create symbolic artifacts. Recent findings all over the world prove that our ancestors, hundreds of thousands of years ago, were `designers' in the original sense of the word. They were items with meaning and sense," he said.
"Only through design can we understand and create reality," he added.
The Seoul city government described Matthias Horx as one of the most influential futurists in Europe. He founded Zukunftsinstitut (Future Institute) focusing on the analysis and presentation of future fundamental developments in society, the economy and everyday culture.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
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