In a quiet yet emotionally charged dialogue between human experience and artificial intelligence, visual artist Yachan Yuan presents We Heard of You, an experimental video that reimagines language, memory, and emotion through algorithmic collaboration. The project centers around six “untranslatable” words—terms that exist in other languages, but have no direct equivalent in English. Through image and sound, the work asks: can machines help us express what language cannot?

Rather than using AI as a tool of automation, Yuan treats artificial intelligence as a poetic co-author. MidJourney and Kling AI are embedded in the creation process—not to replace the artist’s voice, but to shape textures, emotional atmospheres, and narrative rhythm. The result is a hybrid form of storytelling that feels visual and deeply human.

Untranslatable, Yet Understood

The six featured words originate from various cultures and linguistic traditions, each carrying layers of emotional complexity:

• Forelsket (Norwegian): The fluttering, breathless sensation of falling in love
• Toska (Russian): A haunting, unnameable yearning
• Shinrin-yoku (Japanese): Forest bathing; to heal by slowing down in nature
• Goya (Urdu): Total immersion in a powerful story, losing distinction between real and imagined
• Hiraeth (Welsh): A homesickness for a place that no longer—or never—existed
• Saudade (Portuguese): A bittersweet nostalgia for something lost or unreachable

Rather than define these words, We Heard of You renders them as immersive emotional spaces. Through chalk-dust aesthetics, diffusion model visuals, and softly delivered narration, the project invites viewers into a space where emotion becomes image, and silence becomes a kind of speech: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ3-0wUOM5i.

Photo Courtesy: Yachan Yuan

Not a Statement, but a Listening

This work offers no declaration about AI’s future. Instead, it presents a series of quiet provocations:

What does it mean when a machine helps visualize emotion?

If we co-write longing with an algorithm, is it still ours?

Each section of the work invites reflection through visual rhythm and restrained narration. The  AI generated sound functions less as explanation and more as a poetic guide. The voiceover speaks gently:

Languages, they live in us — quietly, deeply.

…

This final phrase—“Some words cannot be translated.

But we heard of you.”—encapsulates the project’s essence. We Heard of You does not attempt to explain or resolve; it listens and reflects.

International Recognition and Exhibition

Since its premiere in late 2024, We Heard of You has been selected for multiple international exhibitions across Europe and the UK, including:

• Boomer Gallery, London (May 9–14, 2025)
• Threads of Connection, Cista Arts, London (May 21–30, 2025)
• 27th Community Art Exhibition in Virtual Reality, Bristol (May 21–June 22, 2025)

Across both physical galleries and digital spaces, the film has resonated with viewers for its emotional clarity and conceptual subtlety. It bypasses spectacle in favor of introspection, creating space for stillness, empathy, and recognition.

Photo Courtesy: Constantin Cosmin / Boomer Gallery

A Mirror, Not a Machine

Aligned with curatorial themes such as “Artificial Minds, Creative Souls,” We Heard of You reframes AI as not merely a generator of content, but a refractor of meaning. It bends our own emotional language back to us in forms we didn’t expect—slightly distorted, yet uncannily intimate.

This is not a work about technology. It is about memory, silence, and being understood. In an era obsessed with speed and output, We Heard of You is a whisper across languages, asking us to slow down, to feel, and to recognize something in ourselves—something that perhaps even we could not put into words.

Published by Joseph T.