The case for making art in a crisis | Yiyun Kang | Your Body on Tech
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We have more data than any generation in history, yet reality has never felt harder to grasp. Artist Yiyun Kang is on a mission to translate the invisible crises of our time — from vanishing fresh water and collapsing ecosystems to the black box of AI — into physical experiences that people can feel. Art isn’t a luxury, she says. It’s essential to understanding and acting on our biggest problems.
And stick around after her talk for a deep dive conversation with our guest host for the week, author and podcaster Manoush Zomorodi, into the ideas she shared on stage and beyond.
This is episode six of a seven-part series airing this week on TED Talks Daily, where Manoush — and the seven speakers she curated for TED2026 — explore how you can live a healthier life in our high-tech era.
To hear more from Manoush, listen to TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts. Check out her new book, Body Electric, to learn more about the hidden health costs of the digital age
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:10.8 | I am Manus Shumerodi. I am a journalist, an author, a two-time TED speaker, and you may recognize my voice from the TED Radio Hour podcast over on NPR. |
| 0:20.7 | This week, I am taking over for Elise Hugh with a series of episodes. my voice from the TED Radio Hour podcast over on NPR. |
| 0:26.7 | This week, I am taking over for Elise Hugh with a series of episodes all about how you can live a healthier life in our high-tech era. |
| 0:29.7 | So why am I here? |
| 0:31.3 | I had the honor of guest curating a session at TED26, full of speakers whose work will make you think differently, about your body, |
| 0:40.3 | technology, and what is keeping us human in this digital age? |
| 0:44.3 | One of the many things that feels so strange and disconcerting about our modern era is that we are surrounded by invisible systems that shape our behavior. |
| 0:54.4 | Take AI. |
| 0:55.9 | It is run by algorithmic black boxes. |
| 0:59.3 | We see the data coming in and we see the text or messaging or information that comes out, |
| 1:07.5 | but we don't know exactly what's going on inside the machine. |
| 1:11.4 | We can't touch it or see it. |
| 1:15.0 | We don't even fully understand it. |
| 1:18.0 | Yu Yun Kong is a mixed media artist whose work is about spanning that gap between us and those invisible forces. |
| 1:26.3 | The mission became clear to render the invisible visible. |
| 1:31.3 | I want to translate these wicked problems into physical experiences |
| 1:36.3 | so that we can truly care. |
| 1:39.3 | And when I say mixed media, I mean mixed. |
| 1:42.3 | She is trained as a painter, but now works with data, lasers, graphic design, and, of course, AI, too. |
| 1:49.3 | She is as high tech as the technology she interrogates. |
| 1:53.6 | But the beautiful stories she tells feel connecting rather than alienating. |
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