Differentiates humans from machines, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of sensory experiences.
AI can process knowledge, but only humans can feel, reinterpret, and grow from those experiences.
Creativity stems from how humans interact with the external world and evolve through it.
"Making Art in the Age of AI"
Our sensory experiences—taste, smell, heat, cold—help us reinterpret reality through personal experiences. The core idea I started with is that encountering the external world changes us. We, as humans, cannot compete with machines—cars are faster, cranes lift more weight. That’s reality. But what we can do is experience and feel. AI, like ChatGPT, can connect us to immense knowledge, but how we react—whether with joy, awe, rejection, or even disgust—is uniquely human.
This ability to feel and experience is central to creativity and living as oneself.
While mechanical explanations of creativity exist, what matters is enjoying the creative process, exploring the world, and expressing emotions through art. As a photographer, I encourage you to find a way to express yourself—whether through photography, video, painting, or writing. This practice will become a vital support and source of comfort in navigating the world. That concludes my story. If there’s time later, we can discuss more.
Thank you.
[00:02-01:06] Experience in Africa (N. Sudan)
Where we are right now is the Nile River. Yes, it’s in Africa, flowing through Egypt and Sudan. The Nile runs very long, and if you look behind(background), this was originally a city. This is where the White Nile and the Blue Nile meet. I erased all the buildings in this area from the photos. The reason I erased them is because, when I first went to Africa, I had certain impressions and biases. You know, people imagine giraffes, rhinos, lions, and so on. But when I landed at Khartoum Airport, the air quality was terrible. When you go into downtown Khartoum, the smell of exhaust fumes is overwhelming. I expressed my own impressions of this through photo editing. And so, this is where it all began. I went to Khartoum in 2017, departing from Seoul, Incheon. This is a photo of the hotel I stayed at, called the Corinthia Hotel, in Khartoum.
[01:06-02:11] Azerbaijan and Gobustan Petroglyphs
On the entrance road to the hotel, there were armored vehicles stationed for security. Then, from there, I went to Azerbaijan. I visited a region called Gobustan. This journey became a very important turning point for me. Gobustan is known for its petroglyphs, a preservation area for ancient rock carvings. It’s right next to the Caspian Sea, and the scenery there is stunning. I started creating works inspired by this place. The key themes in these works are about the mediated nature of human perception of reality, the conditionality of reality, and how knowledge holds power over reality. The photos of the sculptures that made entirely with 3D printing were exhibited with the idea that everything humans create is an artificial construct.
[02:11-03:17] Exhibition at Ewha Womans University
One of the pieces was titled “Exploring Polyhedrons,” a name I gave it, and it was displayed at an international seminar hosted by Ewha Womans University’s LG Convention Hall. They even put a single line about my work in the program.
After that, I began rethinking my approach, which has influenced the work I’m doing now. One project, invited to the Incheon East Asian Cultural City Photo and Video Festival, was exhibited as the representative artists showcase. Out of 13 participating artists, 3 were from Korea, 3 from Japan, and the rest from China. The works I exhibited as part of this project were titled Horizon A and Horizon B. These were created in a place called Nong-yeo Beach on Daechongdo Island(대청도 농여해변), where you can see landscapes like this.
[03:17-04:22] the East Asian Cultural City Photo&Film Festival
By 2021, during a solo exhibition, my work had reached near completion. The themes became a bit complex, but I started addressing these ideas. Some people might wonder how this ties into earlier themes. When we think of Buddhism, we often associate it with China or India, but it’s hard to imagine its connections to European culture. However, Buddhism, as it developed, borrowed significantly from European linguistic traditions and criticized verbal expression, evolving as a result. This is where the concept of “emptiness” (śūnyatā), as we see in texts like the Heart Sutra, became fully formed. Nāgārjuna, or Lung-shu, built the foundation for this idea, rejecting dualistic perspectives that separate essence and phenomenon and instead emphasizing mutual dependence: “If this exists, that exists.”
[05:27-06:31] Evolving Projects
I displayed works themed around śūnyatā at a Chinese photography festival during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Though invited, I couldn’t attend due to the month-long quarantine requirement. Nevertheless, my work was exhibited there. Later, I developed the project titled Gaze: Sense of Pollution, which I’m still working on. Some of my work was featured in a renowned photography art magazine in Korea. In 2019, I wrote over one of my previous works with a marker, stating that I deny my thoughts from that time, reflecting the evolving nature of my work.
[06:31-07:33] Horizons and the Idea of Infinity
One of my solo exhibition pieces was titled Karma, with a subtitle asking,
“How did the jars in the backyard become sacred relics?”
This questioned how concepts become distorted over time. Another work, displayed at Sun Gallery, combined video and sound for an immersive experience. It also explored horizons as a recurring theme in my work. Horizons symbolize limits. On a round Earth, a horizon forms because of the planet’s curvature. As you move closer, the horizon recedes by the same distance, symbolizing unattainable proximity. The rectangular frame of a photograph adds another layer, referencing Archimedes’ attempts to measure the circumference and area of a circle before the concept of pi emerged.
[08:37-09:40] Human Experience & AI
Differentiates humans from machines, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of sensory experiences
In theory, infinity allows a circle to become a rectangle. But infinity is a conceptual construct and doesn’t exist in reality. Our sensory experiences—taste, smell, heat, cold—help us reinterpret reality through personal experiences. The core idea I started with is that encountering the external world changes us. We, as humans, cannot compete with machines—cars are faster, cranes lift more weight. That’s reality. But what we can do is experience and feel. AI, like ChatGPT, can connect us to immense knowledge, but how we react—whether with joy, awe, rejection, or even disgust—is uniquely human.
This ability to feel and experience is central to creativity and living as oneself. While mechanical explanations of creativity exist, what matters is enjoying the creative process, exploring the world, and expressing emotions through art. As a photographer, I encourage you to find a way to express yourself—whether through photography, video, painting, or writing. This practice will become a vital support and source of comfort in navigating the world. That concludes my story. If there’s time later, we can discuss more. Thank you.
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