Jae Yeon Kim, 3D artist

Jae Yeon Kim is a multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Seoul, who explores non-existing fantasy and real world observations from Berlin.

APOSSIBLE™ is a non-profit bringing psychologists, technologists, artists and creatives together to explore how technology can better support creativity and human fulfillment. In this ongoing interview series we’re discovering what people value, what makes their lives fulfilling, and what kinds of relationships to technology they already cherish.

1. What is a ritual, practice, or routine in your life that is important for your psychological wellbeing and/or fulfillment? Why?

For me, disconnection is really important. Disconnection and also silent time. Down time from everything: physical and digital. It’s necessary for all of our bodies; to recover, to reorientate. Disconnecting is when I can have cognition, and let my mind slip.

It’s about reorientation and also organization. Just taking in the silence. This is such an important practice for me; turning off my phone and doing nothing.

I do it for at least 30 minutes a day, after work. Airplane-mode doesn't help me. I have to really turn off my phone and be fully disconnected, in silence.

I do this a lot in my bathtub. I love to be inside of the water, calm water. A chance to get away from all the digital and also physical attachments, just being inside of water and being calm.

I'm actually curious about myself: why am I doing this every single day? Almost five times a week. This is super personal anyway. I love it though.

2. What is a human-made creation that brings out the best in you? Why?

I'm a painter, a digital painter, and also a sculptor. So, pencil and paper are still such an important material to me. It’s so OG. It makes me feel very initiated and limitless when I work with those traditional types of materials as an artist.

I work in digital but somehow when I use these organic materials I don’t judge my process as much, it just feels ok to be authentic.

The second answer would probably be the city. It’s where people gather from all different backgrounds. I’ve lived in Seoul, London, and now Berlin, and when I think about myself, I'm just– Yeah, I'm so complex. My personality and my identity is just so complex. And that’s in part because I met so many different types of people in the city, people from everywhere.

Because when we meet somebody else, then we kind of see ourselves from their side, we develop ourselves by interacting with them. So then the city really allows for this, more than when you’re in rural areas.

3. When do you cherish the slow or hard way of doing something? Why?

I also have two different answers for this. From my life and also my artistic practice.

Life-wise, I still want to wash the dishes by hand. I don't know, it might be related to water as well, just like the bath ritual. Maybe I have an obsession with water, now that I think about it.

It also feels very soothing and calming when I see the dirt come off the dishes; this whole process, like cleansing, a fresh start.

Artistic practice-wise; I like making the composition and the narrative. I don't want to hand this over to an AI generated prompt. For example, when I'm making some image, everything always starts from the white background, the blank page. So I'm putting elements inside of the frame, and then I think about, oh, what kind of object or what kind of figures make sense in the next part? It’s association. I could use a prompt to fill this empty spot, very efficient time-wise, but as an artist I don't want to randomize. Every single part should be filled by my cognition. My cognition and reason; this is why I did this. I want to be honest. Cognition, reason, honesty; these are the three big terms I’m going after. My morality.

4. What is something you appreciate or long for from the past? Why?

I don’t think I have an answer for this question, actually. It's a really hard question for me somehow. I don't know.

Maybe the time before social media. Everything is so consumable these days. This makes me really sad. Everything is attached to consumerism, capitalism, and popularity.

Before I started to upload my work to social media, I remember my process was very different. Really craft-y. I create things digitally but it’s still very DIY, I’m a very hands-on person, it’s all about textures. Every part done by my cognition.

But before Social Media I was even more craft-y. I wrote stories on paper, printed out images to make compositions. As soon as I became more professional and started to put my art in digital circulation it changed a lot. People expect that you're probably gonna drop another post very soon. These expectations have really affected me. Sometimes I think about getting rid of my accounts, but at the same time it’s such a powerful tool to promote myself as an artist; not having to do the manual emails or go to every event, etc. I’m always questioning it though.