At LOFA SEOUL in Yongsan, flip phones and videotapes sit next to digital artworks. Y2K REWIND gathers magazines, devices and video formats from the 1990s through 2010 to revisit the futures people once imagined. It runs through November 29.

A blue exhibition display with a black-and-white drawing of eyes남승록(@namseungrok)

What to notice on a flip phone

Open a flip phone and the small display and physical buttons are the first things you notice. Features that live inside a screen today once had a place on the outside of the device. In the magazines nearby, look at how screens and machines were drawn. The old buttons and illustrations give you a sense of what counted as convenient at the time.

A black hand-shaped object on a plinth beside hanging cables남승록(@namseungrok)

Small electronic devices, discs and printed matter on an archive table남승록(@namseungrok)

At the archive table, look for things with their own screen and things that need a separate machine. A device that opens in your hand sits in the same room as media you have to insert to read. Did the future once mean smaller devices, or did it already mean a life where anything could be called up at once?

A videotape recalls a time when one film belonged to one object. You could carry it home, rewind it and watch it again. Beside a contemporary digital work, you may notice how quickly an image can appear and vanish. Pick one object from the archive and carry the idea across to the digital work. Compare the shape of the equipment, the pace of the image or the way the viewer stands.

A visitor looking at a screen beside a blue-and-yellow work남승록(@namseungrok)

Meeting the turn of the millennium in new work

The exhibition brings together Daniel Idle, SUGZ Studio, Gustavo Munoz and Lee Hyun-je. heyPOP’s exhibition coverage points to echoes of The Matrix, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Akira. If one comes to mind, look for the connection in the light or in how the screen is arranged. An old visual idea and something made with a new tool can occupy the same work.

A visitor holding a device up to a work on the wall남승록(@namseungrok)

Electronic equipment on a stand with a black cable running to the floor남승록(@namseungrok)

In the photograph with the stand and cable, look beyond the screen at what has been placed around it. The height of the equipment and the direction of the cable can change where you stand and whether you lean in. On the way out, remember one object that stayed in your mind and one work that made you move.

LOFA SEOUL in Yongsan on Naver Maps

  • Where LOFA SEOUL, 4F, 21 Hangang-daero 11-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
  • Dates November 1–29
  • Hours Daily 13:00–19:00
  • What’s inside An archive of objects and books, with work by four contemporary artists and studios
  • Visiting See the exhibition details for the space and opening hours

If you remember your first mobile phone, start with that. Looking closely at something that once felt new is a way to notice what we expect from new technology now.