Following in the footsteps of Nam June Paik—the pioneer of video art and one of South Korea’s most celebrated cultural exports—a new generation of media artists is capturing global attention. Among them is Korean artist Ayoung Kim, who was recently named the recipient of the 2025 LG Guggenheim Award, an international honor presented by the Guggenheim Museum in New York for artists who push the boundaries of artistic expression through advanced technology.
“The Nature of Art Has Irrevocably Changed Since the Emergence of AI.”
At the award ceremony held on May 8, 2025, at the Guggenheim Museum on 89th Street in Manhattan, Kim was introduced as “a pioneering artist who expands the possibilities of art by realizing future-driven imagination through AI technology.” Her work, deeply rooted in digital media, spans a wide range of themes that explore the intersection of technology, temporality, and human experience in the digital age.
From Game Engines to Geopolitics
Kim's artistic process fuses cutting-edge technologies like 3D graphics powered by gaming engines, AI-generated images, and multi-voice audio compositions. But her art is not merely a spectacle of technological prowess—it carries conceptual weight. Her works probe into contemporary social and geopolitical issues: oil economies, urban spatial politics, labor structures, and diplomatic tensions.
Her approach to media art shows that technology is not just a tool, but a medium, a subject, and an aesthetic logic in itself.
From Pandemic Delivery Workers to AI-Created Worlds
Kim’s engagement with complex societal themes isn't new. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she presented a piece titled “Delivery Dancer”, which metaphorically examined the urban reliance on gig-economy platforms. This work later evolved into a sequel titled “Line of the Delivery Dancer: Inverse”, incorporating LiDAR scanning and 3D modelingto expand the narrative and spatial depth of the original.
Her forthcoming works will delve even further into generative AI. The visuals will be entirely AI-generated, and the art-making process itself will be dialogue-based, involving interaction with generative models. This signals a clear departure from traditional media—the technology is not just assisting in the creation but becoming a co-creator.
Art in the AI Era: Interpretation Demands More Than Emotion
As Kim’s work suggests, interpreting art in the era of AI demands a new critical literacy. Viewers and critics alike must begin asking:
Why this technology?
What conceptual function does it serve?
What does the artist intend to communicate through this medium, and why now?
Art is no longer merely an emotional or symbolic expression. Increasingly, it is also a technological proposition. The day may not be far off when art technologists—specialists who analyze the code, logic, and ethics embedded in digital art—will be as crucial as traditional curators and critics.
Conclusion
Ayoung Kim’s work reminds us that we are entering an era where AI is not just influencing how we live, but how we imagine, create, and interpret art. As tools become subjects and mediums become meanings, the future of artistic expression will likely depend on how deeply we can engage with the technological architectures behind the canvas.
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