구름이 바위가 될 때 사유는 시작된다…AI 시대, 예술이 필요한 이유

The meaning of "reason" often arises spontaneously in a person's mind. It was during this realization while studying the "History of World Philosophy," a three-thousand-page work compiled by philosopher Je Jung-woo, that he learned about the nature of "reason." We constantly think about something, but can all of these thoughts be considered "reason"?

Not remembering something is not "reason," but a form of recalling through memory, and making judgments or calculations is a type of calculation based on one's own estimated weights. Comparing consistency with existing data or making mechanical inferences and calculations are areas where artificial intelligence (AI) is better than humans.

So, is "reason" now an area of expertise for artificial intelligence? While writing, the text itself writes the text, and sometimes unexpected sentences pop up, and in a speech not prepared in advance, words suddenly come out. So, could writing or speaking be something similar to "reason"? It seems that "reason" might be when an unknown thing suddenly appears like a lightning bolt, and a new neural pathway is created.

However, I also discovered that the definition of "reason" given by French writer Jacques Rivierryat in his collection of speeches, "Inhuman," is similar to this. He defines "reason" as the ability to produce more information rationally, to accept and approach things in the language environment, which is the acceptance and facing of language.

Therefore, "reason" is not something we are prepared for, but a capacity that allows us to rationalize. In this context, "reason" is an event that just happens, like a situation we cannot write about, and the resulting sentence is like saying, "I don't know. The moment it came into my mind." Recently, at the Kim Jong-yeon Art Gallery, where one talented writer is chosen annually for a two-year exhibition preparation and a solo exhibition, I saw Je Uyung's exhibition.

The exhibition, like Rivière's definition of "reason," was filled with inspiration. The exhibition's "Landing," with clouds resembling ice cream and cloud formations resembling flat strips, challenged the viewer's perception of a familiar landscape. As the clouds appeared, a gap in the memory circuits that had stored the image of a forest opened, and the clouds in the sky gave a sense of being shattered.

At that moment, my "reason" began, and the forest and clouds, which had been ingrained in my mind, expanded to reveal new aspects. Je Uyung, who graduated from Goldsmiths University in the 2000s when the Young British Artists (YBA) movement was at its peak, was introduced to the art world through a TV interview with the university's chancellor.

His work involves transforming 3D objects into 2D images and then back into 3D images, creating a new perspective and identifying differences and errors in the transition between dimensions. Over time, the gap between 2D and 3D in Je Uyung's work has been increasing. Initial works focused on magnifying the visual sensitivity of objects, while later works expanded the representation methods to become more vague or suggestive, eventually presenting images that are almost hallucinatory, blurring the line between 2D and 3D spaces.

When we encounter the simple objects of a cloud and a forest in this exhibition, we come to realize that the forest is a combination of yellow and green colors, and the cloud is a mass of air that can bring rain, snow, or even ice shards. As we gaze upon these seemingly solid clouds, their solidity disappears, and our sensory perception is challenged.

When we cannot simplify a target, "reason" truly begins, and our neural circuits stop working, allowing new pathways to form in our neural network. Artificial intelligence, which primarily works on data learning, has limitations when it comes to implementing unlearned data. However, there may still be a region of "reason" that can be compared to artificial intelligence, where we create new data and circuits instead of following established routines.

In this case, "reason" is a creative and empathetic work that bridges the gap between 2D and 3D spaces, revealing new dimensions and opening up new possibilities for perception.