AI artist KEEPKWAN, Yoon Seok-kwan
'Find your material in what's most familiar'
'We must reawaken human mode, not AI mode'
"Technology keeps advancing while human senses grow increasingly dull. I hope we can take time to reawaken the instincts we have always had — and can develop even further."
Yoon Seok-kwan, an AI artist who works under the name KEEPKWAN, delivered those words Friday at Herald Design Lounge 2026, held at the art hall of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Jung-gu, Seoul. His lecture was themed "The most familiar things, the newest creations."
Yoon is an AI artist and creator who collaborates with AI to reinterpret Korean heritage in a contemporary context, working across editorial photography, video, advertising and exhibitions. Drawing on traditional Korean culture, he has expanded his practice beyond images and video to include wearable garments and fragrances.
Yoon first used AI to generate images in 2022. He recalled being amazed simply by the fact that typing text into the generative AI tool Midjourney could produce an image. "AI can express the world I carry inside me in an enormous variety of ways," he said. "We have entered an era where my own story alone can take countless forms — I believe the scope of expression has opened up."
Even so, he said what must come before the technology is "your own story." "Working alongside AI, I kept asking myself: what can I create while still protecting my own identity?" Yoon said. "References and raw material are always close at hand — I believe you can find them in what is most familiar to you."
His method for finding ideas is not a special technique but simply walking. "My footsteps generate my ideas," he said. "I walk, observe, feel and record everything — that is how ideas are made." He added that the greatest gift AI has given him is time. "How you use the time AI frees up is very important," he said. "I hope people will spend some of that time gaining experience through their bodies."
Yoon said self-cultivation is essential to using AI well, and he described this quality using the Korean concept of "gyeok" — a sense of depth and refinement built through learning. "Gyeok is not an outdated formality; it is the understanding that makes bold departures possible," he said. "The more you know, the more accurately you can translate your own thinking into instructions for AI."
Even as he uses AI extensively, he deliberately carves out time away from it. "I use AI more than almost anyone, but I also work harder than almost anyone to keep my distance from it," he said. "I took up pottery to sharpen the sensitivity in my hands, and I started practicing bonsai to train my mind."
Yoon calls this practice "human mode" — a conscious effort to keep his senses, thinking and philosophy from going numb even as he continues working with AI. "If you keep AI mode switched on all the time, you gradually lose your own sense of self," he said. "I felt that the philosophy I need to bring to my work with AI was also growing dull."
Setting personal goals is another way he protects his identity in the age of AI. Each year he draws up a set of personal key performance indicators and works to fulfill them. This year his focus is fragrance — he went beyond visualizing scent to actually composing his own. Next year he plans to take on the theme of taste, working to create something entirely new to eat.
"If you approach your work with the depth built through personal experience and self-cultivation, and with clear goals, no AI that comes along will shake who you are as a person," Yoon said. "Through the things we have always been good at, we will be able to create something that resonates far more deeply."
He closed with a reminder of why creative work matters. "The reason we make content is not to deliver it to AI — it is to deliver it to people," he said. "Look at people, look at yourself, and use what is most familiar to you to create something entirely new."
korean@heraldcorp.com
