Latest news with #StarWars-style
Korea Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
The AI artist who refuses to lose himself
AI artist Keepkwan keeps his own voice with ground rules for working with AI -- so he doesn't 'get swallowed by' it When one introduces oneself as an 'AI artist,' the question almost always follows: Who is the true creator -- the machine or the human behind it? The recent boom in AI-generated images, particularly those mimicking the look of Studio Ghibli, has made this question become even more widely asked. Yoon Seok-kwan, an "AI artist" who works under the pseudonym Keepkwan, shares this concern. While he believes originality is still possible when working with AI, he worries that much of what is being produced lacks a personal, authentic voice. 'What I worry about most is the absence of originality in the recent Ghibli image trend,' he said during his interview with The Korea Herald. 'It would be great if, by working with AI, people could create something unique. But instead, many just go for whatever looks good or is easy to replicate.' To avoid falling into that trap, Keepkwan has established a set of boundaries and creative habits that help ensure his work remains his own. 'That's why I don't use pre-existing styles. No Ghibli-style, no Star Wars-style, nothing borrowed,' he explained. 'I make my own mood and color boards. I try to develop my own visual language and create based on that.' At the same time, he acknowledges the complexity of the issue. 'It's not so easy to draw a clear line,' he said. 'When AI enters the realm of creation, we have to ask, 'What exactly is the role of the human artist?'' For Keepkwan, the key lies in transparency, being clear about how much of the work is truly his. 'What matters is how much the creator contributes, and in what ways,' he said. 'That contribution needs to be documented and proven.' To ensure that, he records his entire creative process, from the first spark of an idea in the shower to the sketches and refinements that shape the final image. 'I keep track of everything,' he said. Playing catch with AI Keepkwan describes creating art with artificial intelligence as a bit like playing catch. But he has a set of rules he never breaks. He always throws the first ball, and he decides when the game ends. 'It always starts with me making the ball,' he said. 'Meaning, it starts with my idea. If I just ask the AI tool to make something from the beginning, then to me, that's not really mine. It's the AI's.' Keepkwan says he uses multiple AI tools for his work, some of which he shares on his Instagram account and notes were "created in collaboration with AI." Also, before typing a single prompt, he spends days, or sometimes longer, researching, outlining and clarifying the purpose of the work. To him, AI is a tool best used after his creative vision is fully formed. 'To get the right answers, I need to know enough myself,' he said. To prove his point, he shared a recent project involving AI-generated images of hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. 'If I didn't know anything about hanbok, I wouldn't have been able to tell when something was off,' he said. 'The AI showed me a design that was a mix of Chinese and Japanese. But because I knew the difference, I could correct it.' That same philosophy guides how he finishes each piece. Regardless of how many rounds he goes with AI, the final touch is always his. Even his artist name reflects this philosophy. Keepkwan combines 'keep,' symbolizing his commitment to staying true to himself, and 'kwan,' drawn from his given name. 'I want to make sure I don't lose myself,' he said. 'That I don't get swallowed up by AI.' This clearly defined collaboration has taken him far. His work has been featured at Art Basel Miami Beach and New York's Superchief Gallery. From high school fiction to art world Keepkwan's journey began with a story he wrote in high school. He was working in strategic planning at SM C&C, a subsidiary of SM Entertainment, when he first began exploring AI in 2021. 'The job was about finding new business ideas that could support the company five or ten years down the line,' he said. As part of his research, he started looking into artificial intelligence. 'I had a feeling AI could become a big deal. But in a company, you need hard proof. You have to show how it makes money and how fast it can grow,' he said. 'At the time, there wasn't much data in Korea, so I thought, 'I'll just try it myself.'' In his spare time, he began experimenting with AI and sharing the results online, starting with visual interpretations of the story he had written years earlier. The fictional story envisioned a museum where artifacts from different timelines coexist, some from the past, others from imagined futures, each carrying its own unique backstory. 'I always dreamed of turning that story into a film,' he said. 'With AI, that dream started to feel real.' Today, in addition to his creative work, Keepkwan lectures on AI at companies like Cheil Worldwide and SM C&C. His message varies by audience, but the core remains the same: AI is a tool that can amplify creativity. 'Anyone can create something meaningful using AI,' he said. 'Just like how I brought an old story back to life.' ssh@
Korea Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
The AI artist who refuses to lose himself
AI artist Keepkwan keeps his own voice with ground rules for working with AI -- so he doesn't 'get swallowed by' it When one introduces oneself as an 'AI artist,' the question almost always follows: Who is the true creator -- the machine or the human behind it? The recent boom in AI-generated images, particularly those mimicking the look of Studio Ghibli, has made this question become even more widely asked. Yoon Seok-kwan, an "AI artist" who works under the pseudonym Keepkwan, shares this concern. While he believes originality is still possible when working with AI, he worries that much of what is being produced lacks a personal, authentic voice. 'What I worry about most is the absence of originality in the recent Ghibli image trend,' he said during his interview with The Korea Herald. 'It would be great if, by working with AI, people could create something unique. But instead, many just go for whatever looks good or is easy to replicate.' To avoid falling into that trap, Keepkwan has established a set of boundaries and creative habits that help ensure his work remains his own. 'That's why I don't use pre-existing styles. No Ghibli-style, no Star Wars-style, nothing borrowed,' he explained. 'I make my own mood and color boards. I try to develop my own visual language and create based on that.' At the same time, he acknowledges the complexity of the issue. 'It's not so easy to draw a clear line,' he said. 'When AI enters the realm of creation, we have to ask, 'What exactly is the role of the human artist?'' For Keepkwan, the key lies in transparency, being clear about how much of the work is truly his. 'What matters is how much the creator contributes, and in what ways,' he said. 'That contribution needs to be documented and proven.' To ensure that, he records his entire creative process, from the first spark of an idea in the shower to the sketches and refinements that shape the final image. 'I keep track of everything,' he said. Playing catch with AI Keepkwan describes creating art with artificial intelligence as a bit like playing catch. But he has a set of rules he never breaks. He always throws the first ball, and he decides when the game ends. 'It always starts with me making the ball,' he said. 'Meaning, it starts with my idea. If I just ask the AI tool to make something from the beginning, then to me, that's not really mine. It's the AI's.' Keepkwan says he uses multiple AI tools for his work, some of which he shares on his Instagram account and notes were "created in collaboration with AI." Also, before typing a single prompt, he spends days, or sometimes longer, researching, outlining and clarifying the purpose of the work. To him, AI is a tool best used after his creative vision is fully formed. 'To get the right answers, I need to know enough myself,' he said. To prove his point, he shared a recent project involving AI-generated images of hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. 'If I didn't know anything about hanbok, I wouldn't have been able to tell when something was off,' he said. 'The AI showed me a design that was a mix of Chinese and Japanese. But because I knew the difference, I could correct it.' That same philosophy guides how he finishes each piece. Regardless of how many rounds he goes with AI, the final touch is always his. Even his artist name reflects this philosophy. Keepkwan combines 'keep,' symbolizing his commitment to staying true to himself, and 'kwan,' drawn from his given name. 'I want to make sure I don't lose myself,' he said. 'That I don't get swallowed up by AI.' This clearly defined collaboration has taken him far. His work has been featured at Art Basel Miami Beach and New York's Superchief Gallery. Keepkwan's journey began with a story he wrote in high school. He was working in strategic planning at SM C&C, a subsidiary of SM Entertainment, when he first began exploring AI in 2021. 'The job was about finding new business ideas that could support the company five or ten years down the line,' he said. As part of his research, he started looking into artificial intelligence. 'I had a feeling AI could become a big deal. But in a company, you need hard proof. You have to show how it makes money and how fast it can grow,' he said. 'At the time, there wasn't much data in Korea, so I thought, 'I'll just try it myself.'' In his spare time, he began experimenting with AI and sharing the results online, starting with visual interpretations of the story he had written years earlier. The fictional story envisioned a museum where artifacts from different timelines coexist, some from the past, others from imagined futures, each carrying its own unique backstory. 'I always dreamed of turning that story into a film,' he said. 'With AI, that dream started to feel real.' Today, in addition to his creative work, Keepkwan lectures on AI at companies like Cheil Worldwide and SM C&C. His message varies by audience, but the core remains the same: AI is a tool that can amplify creativity. 'Anyone can create something meaningful using AI,' he said. 'Just like how I brought an old story back to life.' ssh@
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Erinsborough asteroid attack! Now that Neighbours is doomed, it needs to end with a bang
It's always sad to write an obituary, especially so when it's for the second time. Neighbours, the Australian soap opera that made stars of everyone from Kylie Minogue to a man who will forever be known as Toadfish, is five months away from death. Again. Yesterday, the show announced that Amazon, the company that resuscitated Neighbours two years ago after its dramatic 2022 finale, would be bringing production to an end. In July, filming will cease. In December, the final episode will be shown. True, there is the possibility that another buyer will leap in and save it, but that is looking more and more unlikely. After all, as the saying goes, you can't make a zombie out of a zombie. Obviously, there's a lot to examine from the news. Perhaps the most important lesson is that legacy franchises should really think better of jumping into bed with big tech companies. Amazon proved this twice over yesterday alone; first by buying out Eon Productions, the British company that makes the James Bond films, hinting that it will transform a venerable 63-year-old property into a nightmarish Star Wars-style sausage factory of spin-offs and TV shows, and now this. When Amazon bought Neighbours, fans hoped it was a permanent solution, continuing the soap in perpetuity. But streamers operate on a different metric to traditional broadcasters – a long-running show with a loyal audience won't increase the number of subscribers as much as something buzzy and new – and so it has once again been snuffed out of existence. But hope springs eternal. Inevitably, someone has created a petition to save it. But even that barely has the energy to sustain itself, scraping together just over a thousand signatures in a day. Perhaps the time is right to let it go. After all, the entire history of the show has been spent teetering on the brink of cancellation. In Australia, the Seven Network cancelled it after four months before it was revived by Network Ten. It ran for 22 years on BBC One in the UK, until the channel abandoned it in 2008 after Freemantle demanded £300 million for the rights. It was saved when Channel 5 agreed to show it, paying for the bulk of production costs in the process. But even that started to go south over financial disputes in 2017, before Channel 5 officially pulled the plug in 2022, tanking the show for the first time. You will remember that because the finale was a big deal. Several big stars who had outgrown Neighbours returned to mark the event, including Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce, Jason Donovan and a bizarrely mute Kylie Minogue. In truth it was a pretty good finale, ending with a wedding that served as a celebration of the history of Ramsay Street. If you're old enough to have enjoyed Neighbours at its peak, it was a near-perfect send off. And then it was all undone the moment that Amazon bought the rights. The new series has been, well, fine. It's Neighbours, so it's still equal parts plodding and implausible, but after using up all that energy saying goodbye to it once, it was hard to fully embrace its new incarnation. What was once a communal experience – play Suddenly by Angry Anderson, the soundtrack to Scott and Charlene's wedding in 1987, to a roomful of people in their mid-40s and they'll all end up snivelling with nostalgia – had become impossibly fragmented. At times it felt like you were the only person in the world watching Neighbours. Now there's nowhere else to go. It seems like Neighbours has run out of road for good. Hopefully, this time it will do the dignified thing and stay dead. If nothing else, a new ending means that it will soon be time for a new finale. This is something to be excited about, at least. After all, the show has blown the chance of another celebrity-filled nostalgiafest because Kylie Minogue clearly isn't going to risk her reputation by showing up to say goodbye again. So that only leaves the route of harrowing finality. This is Neighbours' chance to go big or go home. Nothing short of total destruction will do. We're talking plane crashes, volcanoes, axe murderers. By the time the end credits roll, I want the few remaining viewers permanently traumatised. We cannot risk the possibility of another embarrassing about-face here. If someone wants to make a petition to destroy Erinsborough with an asteroid attack, I promise to sign it first.
