“Welcome to Thistopia“

Welcome to Thistopia” envisions the year 2077, when Earth has become increasingly inhospitable due to climate change. In this speculative design project, So Young Song presents “Thistopia,” a fictional department store that curates and sells climate adaptation kits, as a platform for imagining how humans might adapt, survive, and even thrive in a radically altered world shaped by environmental catastrophe.

Drawing from her own experiences—ranging from grappling with a shopping obsession as a consumer to witnessing overproduction and greenwashing as a marketing designer in profit-driven corporations—Song critiques how companies manipulate consumer desires through advertising and marketing tactics. At the same time, she invites audiences to reflect on their own roles: How do you position yourself in this future—as a consumer, or as a citizen? With this exhibition, she hopes to open new perspectives and spark meaningful, urgent conversations about the vast environmental challenges we collectively face.

So Young Song is an interdisciplinary artist and designer whose work investigates the inextricable relationship between climate change and consumerism through speculative design. With over eight years of experience in the commercial industry specializing in branding and advertising, she now lectures in art and design at Purdue University, where she also earned her MFA in Electronic and Time-Based Arts. She previously earned her BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2025, Communication Arts magazine recognized her as one of the most promising students worldwide. Additionally, her work has been exhibited internationally, with shows in the United States, Germany, and South Korea.

Website: soyoungsong.com
Instagram: @not.so.old