Soomi Park
Staff details
Soomi’s work discusses the complex relationship between emerging technologies and human desires.
Soomi is a London-based designer and researcher. Her research crosses the boundaries between design, fiction and cognitive psychology. Through the lens of her research background, her work discusses the complex relationship between emerging technologies and human desires. Her practice encompasses a wide range of mediums, including speculative objects, film, photography, performance, interactive installations and wearables.
Her work has been featured in global media outlets including The New York Times, Vogue Paris, Frame Magazine, The Guardian, Wired UK, and etc. She was a Designer in Residence at the Design Museum in London in 2017. She awarded her PhD (thesis titled “Should Robots Blush?”), which focused on using speculative design to research the relationship between social psychology and robotics at the Queen Mary University of London (funded by EPSRC). She holds her MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art in London.
Academic qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy in Media and Arts Technology, Queen Mary University of London 2024
- MA in Design Interactions, Royal College of Art 2013
- MA in Digital Media Design, Hongik University (IDAS) 2007
- BA in Multimedia and Animation/ Visual Communication, Sookmyung Women's University 2005
Teaching and supervision
BA Design Year 1 Lead
BA Design Year 1 Studio Project module convener
BA Design Year 3 Studio Project mentor
Featured publications
Grants and awards
2017:
Centre for Public Engagement Small Grant Award
Grant awarded for Embarrassed Robots project from Queen Mary University of London
2017:
Designers in Residence of the Design Museum
Embarrassed Robots project
2016:
Global Design Leader of Korea Institute of Design Promotion(KIDP), South Korea
Transitive Wearable study
Publications and research outputs
Article
Park, Soomi; Healey, Patrick G. T. and Kaniadakis, Antonios. 2021. Should Robots Blush? CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,
Audio
Yunes, Nour Diab and Park, Soomi. 2023. The Art in STEAM (Femmes Designers Podcasts): Design Fiction, robotics, and Speculating about the future (episode 4).
Stratford, Oli; Park, Soomi; Lebeau, Laura; Schladow, Zoe and van de Poel, Bas. 2023. Disegno Podcasts: Conversations with Map Project Office. Episode 5: Where Next? Should we make friends with tech?.
Book Section
Park, Soomi and Wells, Owen. 2022. Soomi Park & Owen Wells: Between Digital Interaction and Cognitive Psychology. In: Hong Juhee and Kim Hyesu, eds. Lucid Dream: Transdisciplinary Creators. Seoul: Diagrama, pp. 61-68.
Conference or Workshop Item
Park, Soomi; Moravec, Lisa and Brown, Kate. 2024. 'ICA Panel Discussion: Machine Futurisms'. In: Panel Discussion: Machine Futurisms. Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), United Kingdom 27 November 2024.
Park, Soomi. 2024. 'HCI Research Group Presentation: Dr. Soomi Park - Should Robots Blush?'. In: HCI Research Group seminar. Brunel University London, United Kingdom 29 May 2024.
Park, Soomi; Healey, Patrick G. T. and Kaniadakis, Antonios. 2021. 'Should Robots Blush?'. In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). Yokohama, Japan 8 - 13 May 2021.
Project
Park, Soomi; May, Katherine and Haines, Agatha. 2024. Seminar Series: Design Department Buffets (DDB).
Park, Soomi and Wells, Owen. 2018. Between Dreamy and Dreary.
Park, Soomi. 2018. Should Robots Blush?: Embarrassed Robots.
Show/Exhibition
Park, Soomi. 2023. Embarrassed Robots. In: "Femmes Designers - Through Her Lens: Testing boundaries in STEAM", Shoreditch Arts Club, United Kingdom, 19 October 2023.
Park, Soomi and Wells, Owen. 2020. Between Dreamy and Dreary: Fiction in Design. In: "Between Dreamy and Dreary: Fiction in Design", Celine Park Gallery, Korea, Republic of, 21 Aug – 21 Nov 2020.
Park, Soomi. 2019. The Republic of Privacy. In: "The Paradox Of Privacy", Accenture The Dock, Dublin, Ireland, 8 July - 9 September 2019.
Thesis
Park, Soomi. 2024. Should Robots Blush?. Doctoral thesis, Queen Mary University of London
Other
Yunes, Nour Diab; Varelidi, Chloe; Cantera, Ana Laura; Hui, Angela Wei Nok; Park, Soomi; Hage, Nour; Tanaka, Kaoru; Richter-Lunn, Katharina; Zhang, Weidi; Estarita-Guerrero, Ana Carolina; Li, Jiabao; Petric, Maja; Tan, Ling; Soula, Noemie; Zeng, Jiani; Zacharias, Maroula and Yan, Shao. 2023. Femmes Designers. Femmes Designers Ltd..
Media engagements
2018:
Rose-Tinted Glasses
An article in Frame Magazine #122 May/June 2018
2018:
In London, Designers Play With the Future
An interview with New York Times about the Designers in Residence of the Design Museum
2015:
ATM dog: Forgotten your pin? Please join the queue for the dachshund
An interview with The Guardian about the Republic of Privacy project
2016:
Soomi Park eyelash extensions: as seen in Vogue Paris
An article in Vogue Paris magazine
Conferences and talks
2021:
Should Robots Blush?
A paper presentation at the 2021 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Yokohama, Japan(virtual))
2018:
Creating a Design Framework: Creative & Critical Key Stages
Invited Talk at the Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
2016:
Art & Commitment
Invited Talk at the Master-Seminar series hosted by Lukas Pairon at the School of Arts (JASK Conservatorium), Ghent, Belgium
2015:
Transitive Wearables
Invited Talk of Open Lecture series at the Copenhagen Institute Interaction Design, Denmark
2014:
Transitive Wearables toward Poetic Aesthetics
Keynote Presentation at the Symposium on Fashion Technology(SOFT), Royal Academy of Art, The Hauge, The Netherlands