Participants of the Space-out competition compete by seeing who can zone out the most over the span of 90 minutes.

While a seemingly bizarre concept, the competition was created by the South Korean artist Woopsyang in 2014 after she experienced some serious work burnout.

The competition aims to challenge hustle culture and defy the notion drilled into us from a young age that being unproductive is a bad thing. Because sometimes, the act of doing absolutely nothing is everything.

The Space-out competition has been held in Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and will be held in Melbourne’s QV mall this June, as part of the Rising festival.

Competitors are not allowed to look at their phones, fall asleep, laugh, chit-chat, sing, or dance. Heartbeats will also be monitored,

Two winners will be chosen: the contestant with the most stable heart rate and the crowd favourite, with an overall winner selected from the two.

The Rising festival co-curator Hannah Fox was fascinated by the concept after watching the Space-out competition unfold in Tokyo last year.

“It was taken so seriously, like a proper Olympic competition,” Fox said.

“It is tied into themes of the resilience of artists who often work really intense jobs as well as have a practice. It is serious but it’s also got a whole level of total absurdity to it – who can do the most nothing the best?”