Restless (2024)

The work is a video projection that shows the process of making circles of a computer. Circles are generated at random sizes, colors, and places, with the machine exercising total discretion. However, the number of circles that the machine must draw equals the present population of Vietnam.

Over the past twenty years, the field of generative art has also been inspired by ideas of emergence, evolution, embodiment, and self-organization. Current uses of the term are focused on the work created by activating a set of rules, in which the artist lets the computer system take over at least some of the decisions (although, of course, the artist determines the rules). Rules are at the heart of this art form. Another way to express this is to say that the artist lets the computer do its thing without knowing what the computer will do. In other words, rule-based systems appear to have a higher degree of autonomy than the conscious decisions of human artists. That phenomenological fact is significant because autonomy is a concept that is closely linked to artistic creation. The rules determine the form. Generative art allows the artist to focus on the fundamentals: the structures that define the work of art. This reminds me of the questions that political philosophy seeks to address such as why do we have to obey the rule? Who makes the rule? What is the relationship between freedom and power?

In addition, the work also partly reminds me of the constitution of a regime from its citizens in Aristotle’s theory of political regimes. Citizens are people who share a common way of life and can therefore participate in political governance. A citizen is someone who is not only protected by the law but can also participate in law-making, governance and political discussion. Collectively, the citizens who make up a regime do more than simply occupy a common space or associate for purposes of mutual protection or convenience; they are bound together by common emotional bonds, loyalty, trust and friendship. What does Aristotle mean by this? “This kind of thing [political partnership], he writes,” “is a labor of love for which affection is a deliberate choice to live together.” He notes that Philia or friendship is “the greatest good of cities,” because when people feel love for each other, they are less likely to fall into conflict.

Circles of different sizes are drawn overlapping, forming a circle composed of small circles, which reminds us of the formation of matter from atomic particles. Static matter is actually a maze of motion. Not only do all atoms vibrate back and forth, but each atom is also an internal center of motion. Even the tightly bound protons and neutrons inside the nucleus are moving back and forth with each other. Nothing stands still in this “Restless Universe”. In addition, the concept of an atom that is invisible to the human eye and immutable was first proposed by Leucippus and Democritus to explain the impermanence of matter. According to them, although the nature of atoms is unchanging, changes occur at the macroscopic level of matter as different combinations of atoms form and then re-form. In the early 1800s, John Dalton was the first to consider the heat of an object to be the result of the internal motion of atoms. This is what I associate with population growth leading to climate change.

According to the UN, the continuous growth in population is also a factor in causing climate change by leading to consumption growth and a high amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists predict that Vietnam is one of the countries that suffers from the most severe impacts of global warming and sea level rise. In recent years, El Nino, La Nina, and other extreme weather conditions have constantly appeared with an increasingly higher density, longer duration, and wider coverage across Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam is among 10 countries regularly suffering from natural disasters, namely storms, floods, landslides, and drought. 80%–90% of Vietnam’s population is affected by storms. The Mekong Delta suffers the most from sea level rise. Mountainous and midland regions of the North, Central Region, and Central Highlands are often affected by floods, flash floods, landslides, forest fires, and droughts. Urban areas are severely damaged by the phenomenon of sea level rise, storms, and floods because most of the large urban areas of our country are plains and coastal areas. If sea level increases by 3 meters, about 25% of the population will be in direct contact.

The work is also inspired by Timothy Morton's philosophy. He maintained that we are inherently part of the environment in which other non-human species dwell, and that they have or should have the same right to flourish as we have. Morton argues that this is represented in art, which, as the title of his book All Art Is Ecological implies, is "ecological" in nature. Professor Josie Cockram recommended this theory to me when she posed the question, "What is nature?"

In other words, this work is a depiction of Vietnam's demographic statistics, a type of representation. Representations circulate and shape identities, teaching us not only what others look like but also who we are, what we should be, and even what conduct is proper for us. Simultaneously, representation shapes how others view us. We form our identities by following sets of norms for movements, attitudes, pictures, and even clothing styles that have been 'given' to us. These codes provide people from different cultures with clear interpretations of who we are and where we came from. They gained popularity and familiarity over time, and individuals began to rely on them as a shorthand for expressing their identities. Such statements can get naturalized into common understandings over time, such as regarding a nation and its people, as well as its diversity and complexities. However, representation is always a very limited range of representation compared to reality.

• Boden, Margaret A.; Edmonds, Ernest A. 2009. What is generative art?. Routledge Publisher.

• Jenny Kidd. 2015. Representations. Taylor & Francis Group.

• Robert K. Logan. 1939. The Poetry of Physics and the Physics of Poetry.
  Singapore, Hackensack, N.J.: World Scientific Pub. Co.

• Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. 2015. Climate change and population problem in Vietnam.

• Smith, Steven B. 2012. Political Philosophy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

• Timothy Morton. 2021. All art is ecological. London : Penguin