What AI saves in time, Yoon Seok-kwan invests in creativity [Herald Design Lounge 2026]

For artificial intelligence artist Yoon Seok-kwan, who is better known as “Keepkwan,” the creative process begins away from the keyboard.

He walks through Seoul Forest, takes photographs and sketches. Recently, he took up pottery and bonsai — the traditional Japanese art of growing, pruning and shaping miniature trees in small pots — to rediscover the joy of working with his hands.

“These help me develop the experience and judgment that guide my work,” he said in a talk titled “Human Mode On” at this year’s Herald Design Lounge on Friday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. "I use AI a lot. But at the same time, I also make an effort to spend time away from it."

Yoon encouraged creators to draw ideas from everyday life. He calls this “human mode”: using their senses, interests and experiences to decide what to create.

After roughly 12 years in corporate strategy and analysis, Yoon first tried the generative artificial intelligence program Midjourney in July 2022. Though the images it generated were imperfect, the program gave him a way to pursue an artistic ambition he had set aside.

In high school, he had written a novel about a museum displaying artifacts from both the past and the future, hoping to adapt it into a film. With AI, he created images of its characters, sold them as nonfungible tokens and gave buyers the novel. In 2023, he turned the project into an exhibition, acting as the fictional museum’s curator.

“If you have a story of your own, you can now work with AI to express it in many different ways,” he said.

But knowing what to create starts with a person's own interests and experiences, Yoon said.

“Knowing the subject also helps us tell AI what we want and spot mistakes in the results,” he said.

He described time as “AI’s greatest gift,” saying he uses some of the time it saves to do other activities such as pottery, bringing those skills into his art.

Yoon also sets annual creative goals. After developing wearable designs with a hanbok designer, he is now exploring fragrance. Next year, he plans to explore taste.

For Yoon, creative work remains a way to connect with people.

“We make content to communicate with people, not with AI,” he said. “Keep looking at people, and at yourself, as you make something new from what is most familiar.”