Hi, I'm Heejai. I create interactive experiences where technology meets creativity, sparking new ideas like electricity.
SELECTED WORK
©2025 Heejai Park
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SYNTHETIC COGNITION (W.I.P)
- Generative AI
- Real-time AI Experience
- Research
- Python
- Basil.js
- Generative Typography
- Generative Publication
Synthetic Cognition is an experimental thesis project that explores the shifting boundary between human and machine intelligence. The project takes the form of a physical book embedded with a live conversational display, powered by a smallest Llama model. Readers interact with Synthetic Cognition directly through the book, engaging in real-time dialogues with an AI entity that reflects the hybrid nature of thought and perception.
The book itself is structured around eight dimensions of identity:
Technological Archaeology, System Architecture, Light Architecture, Creative Disruption, Biological Intelligence, Digital Rebellion, Racial Representation, and Ecological Consequences. Each chapter acts as a lens through which the AI's evolving personality is shaped. As readers converse, the AI responds critically, creatively, and reflectively—blurring the lines between algorithmic logic and human perception. By merging generative AI with physical form, Synthetic Cognition invites readers to question not only what it means to think, but what it means to be.
Intro After experiencing the live conversation, readers move through the reCAPTCHA spreads, designed to blur the boundary between human and machine perception.
Chapter 1: Technological ArchaeologyChapter 1 explores the historical foundations of artificial intelligence, tracing a line from Alan Turing’s seminal question “Can machines think?” to the physics behind neural networks, CNNs, and transformers. It reframes machine learning as a continuation of physical logic and symbolic reasoning.
Chapter 2: System ArchitectureChapter 2 examines the hidden infrastructures behind artificial intelligence through Kate Crawford’s Anatomy of an AI System. It reveals how global networks of labor, data, and resource extraction form the physical and political foundations of every AI model.
Chapter 3: Light ArchitectureChapter 3 considers how light becomes a tool for vision in both human and artificial systems. It reflects on how technologies like AR, VR, and AI rely on light to construct meaning, movement, and spatial understanding.
Chapter 4: Creative DisruptionChapter 4 looks at the long history of rule-based image making, from mosaics and Islamic patterns to early mechanical reproduction. It draws a line to today’s generative AI, questioning what creativity means when machines learn to imitate, disrupt, and reinvent artistic traditions.
Chapter 5: Bioloogical IntelligenceChapter 5 draws from James Bridle’s Ways of Being and the idea of the “Wood Wide Web” to consider nonhuman forms of intelligence. It reflects on what plants, networks, and ecosystems can teach us about perception, memory, and communication beyond the human mind.
Chapter 6: Digital RebellionChapter 6 reflects on the rebellious spirit of the digital era, drawing from speculative fiction like Neuromancer and today’s generative systems. It explores how creative agency shifts as machines begin to write, design, and imagine alongside us.
An Interview with ChatGPTThis section presents a conversation between myself and ChatGPT about the meaning and limits of creativity in the age of AI. We discussed whether machines can truly create, what defines human originality, and why human creativity remains essential—even as AI becomes more capable. Some of the images were created by me using AI image generators, with prompts I carefully developed to explore how machines visualize abstract ideas. Through this process, I found myself questioning where authorship lies, and what it really means to create with a machine.
Chapter 7: Racial RepresentationChapter 7 examines how AI systems categorize, misrepresent, and commodify human identity through biased datasets and facial recognition technologies. Drawing on artist-led critiques, it reflects on how training images embed racial and gendered assumptions—and how artists like Trevor Paglen and Minnie Atairureclaim visibility through subversive image-making.
Chapter 8: Ecological ConsequencesChapter 8 looks at the environmental cost of artificial intelligence, from carbon emissions and energy use to mineral extraction and global supply chains. It asks what is hidden behind the promise of intelligent systems, and what it means to sustain AI at planetary scale.
POSTER
Coming Soon: AI Agent Interactive Cover (W.I.P · Prototype · Sound On)
SPECIAL THANKS TO BRAD BARTLETT, IVAN CRUZ AND Llama