ASJC Reading List is an online reading group that invites participants to read and study texts discovered during the research process of exhibition preparation. This edition of the ASJC Reading List is presented in conjunction with Yang Ah Ham: Undefined Panorama, opening July 31, and invites participants to read and discuss Dayk Jang’s The Radius of Empathy together with the author.

Yang Ah Ham has long explored her ongoing project Undefined Panorama as a means of reflecting on the crises and anxieties of contemporary society while examining the possibilities of coexistence in the future. Ham’s new work Undefined Panorama 4.0 (2026), presented in upcoming exhibition, questions the possibility of coexistence within a life community that encompasses both human and non-human beings in today’s entangled world, and explores the meaning of empathy toward the other as its fundamental premise.

The Radius of Empathy is a text that the artist read while developing her work. Using the concepts and scope of empathy that the book puts forth as a starting point, this gathering seeks to collectively reflect on the questions of coexistence that the exhibition opens up.

Dayk Jang, The Radius of Empathy
The Radius of Empathy argues that the conflicts and divisions in our society may stem not from a lack of empathy, but rather from an excess of it — an over-immersion in the perspectives of particular groups and positions. Starting from this premise, Dayk Jang moves beyond mere emotional identification to propose “cognitive empathy”, an orientation toward understanding the perspectives and conditions of beings different from ourselves.

Dayk Jang (Distinguished Professor, Gachon University)
A philosopher of science, evolutionary psychologist, and entrepreneur. After studying mechanical engineering at KAIST, he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the Interdisciplinary Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Seoul National University, with a focus on the philosophy of biology. He pursued research on human cognition at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (and the Darwin Seminars) at the London School of Economics (LSE), the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, and the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He previously served as a professor in the College of Liberal Studies at Seoul National University, and since 2022 has been the founding dean and distinguished professor of the Gachon Cocone School (Startup College) at Gachon University. During his time at SNU, he founded the education startup Transverse, and he has served as president of the Korean Society for Cognitive Science and director of SNU’s Institute of Cognitive Science. He received the 11th Korea Science Culture Award (2010). His books include The Radius of Empathy (2025), Ultra-Social (2017), Darwin’s Garden (2017), Darwin’s Table (2008), and Religious War (co-authored, 2009), and his translations into Korean include On the Origin of Species (2019), Consilience (co-translated, 2005), and Chimpanzee Politics (co-translated). Since February 2024 he has written a regular column for the Chosun Ilbo (“Chosun Column”), having previously contributed the “Dayk Jang Column” and “Dayk Jang’s Evolution” to the Kyunghyang Shinmun. He also runs the YouTube channel Dayk Jang’s Hardcover, devoted to books and ideas.