The Coreana Museum of Art holds a thematic exhibition titled Synthetic Fever, which examines the possibilities and limitations of generative AI, a rapidly evolving technology that increasingly shapes our daily lives.

With the arrival of the era of Artificial Intelligence, the relationship between humans and technology grows more complex. Generative AI, in particular, has become a transformative force, driving innovation across industries and profoundly impacting society, culture, and the economy. It also challenges long-held notions of ‘creativity,’ traditionally seen as an exclusively human domain, prompting a fundamental reexamination of what it means to create.

The exhibition title draws inspiration from Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever (1995), in which the philosopher reinterprets the archive as a dynamic space entangled with memory, forgetting, power, and desire. Synthetic Fever extends this discourse into the realm of AI-generated media. Synthetic highlights AI’s generative mechanisms—its ability to learn from and reconstruct data—while Fever captures both the fervor surrounding AI’s potential and the underlying anxieties it provokes.

Through approximately 30 works spanning photography, painting, and media installations, the exhibition delves into key issues of the AI era, including human subjectivity, the evolving role of the artist, data extraction and bias, AI hallucinations, and ghost works. By engaging with these critical themes, Synthetic Fever invites reflection on the profound shifts we are witnessing—many of which we are only beginning to grasp.