http://thi-nguyen.com Sun, 05 May 2013 07:51:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://thi-nguyen.com/design-by-nature/ http://thi-nguyen.com/design-by-nature/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:07:31 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=56
Design by nature is very free. There is nothing in design that says certain things must be a certain way. Small ideas are useless. One does not know what the extremes are. Actually, there are no extremes to begin with, because design is like a living creature. Design is something that you feel, and that is why it is enjoyable.

People look at my work and assume I’m using new materials or technologies. This is far from the truth. It is likely that people have merely glimpsed beauty where they never have before. This involves seeing the true beauty of materials. The paper that could be crumpled up or even torn; it can still be beautiful. Perhaps beauty is only first perceptible when a person stops judging value using the intellect. Unexpected coincidences are the finest experiences. I suspect that only a small portion of things possible are attainable through the intellect.

I’d like to create more work demonstrating the kind of beauty that results from happenstance and randomness. It is the sort of beauty that is driven not by any intent to achieve a particular result, but rather conceived through naturally occurring forces, almost serendipitously. As I see it, this is precisely the process in which things arise, and these things cannot be created with preconceived drawings or computer-generated technologies. They are designs that result not from the act of thinking, but feeling. I am made to realise that it is just like seeing a breathtaking sea of clouds from an airplane. Such scenes change, and it is impossible to make the same appear again. They become fragments of memory and gradually fade away.

Nature never shows you the exact same thing twice, and that in itself is proof that it is alive. That is the beauty of living things. The beauty inherent in flakes of snow can never be matched by any design. People are moved by the beauty of happenstance. I wish I could take a cloud home with me. I believe that nature is the greatest design in existence.

When it comes to light and air, no amount of intellectual knowledge or discussion can surpass experience. The experience of each, plus the memory of beauty that is awakened from the slumber of the human mind and thrust into the imagination by something… these are what help me complete my designs. Think about when you look at paintings that are by any measure well-executed. Why do some of those paintings fail to affect you? It is because the energy in them comes from completely difference places. People need to be emotionally moved in new ways. From profound experiences of emotional events to the small, everyday joys of life… true design is produced by changes in emotion.

Some people maintain that design is not art. People often ask me the difference between design and art. Ancient beings had no concept of design, yet there was art and music. Why do people listen to music? The answer probably lies within that question. If all designs were simple and practical, there would be no richness to life or the desires of the heart. Our lives are imbued with things like moving music, evocative cinema, uncontrollable feelings of love, and an appreciation for the mysteries of the natural world. ]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/design-by-nature/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/white/ http://thi-nguyen.com/white/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:05:21 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=50
Of course, colours are wonderful. Monochrome photos are beautiful, but how desolate would we feel if colour disappeared from the earth? I also wouldn’t say that artificial colours are ugly. In fact, I actually feel envious of some people’s talent for liberally using a variety of primary of vivid colours. And I do see the possibilities in the world of colour computing, where it is possible to manipulate colours within a virtual reality that is void of the feeling of real life. And, of course, in my usual design work, I don’t shun colour. As a graphic designer, I naturally use colour. However, when I do so, it’s with a consciousness of its function, or because it represents an emotion I’m after: the red of emergency call buttons, brand colours that have to be remembered, colour coded-indexes… But if there’s no particular reason for them, you’ll find no extra colours on my design table. Where it’s a high-tech or a natural material, I always look at the colour of the material itself. Doing this, I gradually become conscious of white. White is a colour from which colour has escaped, but its diversity is boundless. When I encounter a really good white, I get this feeling that the collection of senses stored in my brain has increased by one.

White is not just a colour. White must be called a design concept. White is not white. The receptivity that sense white is what gives birth to whiteness. So we cannot look for white. We need to search instead for a way of feeling that will sense white. Depending on this search, for the receptivity that senses white, we will be able to aim our consciousness towards a white that is a little whiter than average white. With that ability, we will become conscious of white. And then we will become aware of white enmeshed in an incredible diversity in the world’s many cultures. We will become able to understand words like “tranquillity,” or “emptiness”, and discern the meanings dormant within them. As we turn our attention toward white, the world gathers more light, and shadows deepen in degree.

When I act in concert with a consciousness that is subtly receptive to white, and in that state of mind look at architecture, spaces, books or gardens, I feel as if I’m able to make sense of all kinds of things. I believe white is a special message meant just for the roots and trunk of human sensibility.

If you mix together all the colours of light, they become white. If you discard all the colours in paint or ink, they also become white. White is a synthesis of all colours and, at the same time, the lack of colour, achromatic. As a colour that escapes colour, it is a special one. Put another way, colour is no more than a single aspect of white. Insofar as it avoids colour, and thus more strongly awakens physicality, it is a materiality; like empty space or a margin, it is pregnant with time and space. It even entails abstract concepts like absence and absolute zero.

It goes without saying that the white to which we refer does not have the attributes of ordinary trendy colours, colours that are consumed, nor does it serve as an object of colour theory. Neither can it features be elucidated according to the genealogy of traditional colours. White has always been a concept and a resource underpinning aesthetics, which is an invariable object of human existence.

White has risen from chaos and is the original form of life and information. White is the extremity of negative entropy, driven to cleanly escape from every sort of chaos. Life glitters as colour, but white is the inclination to reach the pole opposite from chaos, and in purity, escape even from colour. Life is born into the world wrapped in white, but from the moment real, exteriorise life sets foot on the soil, it takes on colour, just as life in the form of a yellow chick begins with the hatching of an egg. White is something that cannot be realised in the actual world. We may feel as if we have seen or touched white, but this is an illusion. White in the real world is categorically soiled; it is merely the trace of the aspiration towards white. White is delicate and easily damaged. Even at the moment of it’s birth, it is not a perfect white. It is already soiled to the degree that we cannot even sense it when we touch it. And yet this gives white all the more prominence in our consciousness. ]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/white/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/sense-driven/ http://thi-nguyen.com/sense-driven/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:04:35 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=47
A human being is a bundle of senses working hard to receive the world. Eyes, ears, skin and the others are called sensory receptors, but the images carried by these words are much too passive for sensory organs. Human sensors are boldly open to the world. They aren’t “receptors”, but active positive organs. An unlimited number of invisible sensory tentacles sprouting from the brain are exploring the world. Let’s think about humans with this image in mind.

Long ago technology began to lead society and the economy. We describe this situation of technology motivating the progress of all sorts of things with the term “technology-driven.” Design and technology have faced one another on the question of how to utilise the media and material produced by progress in scientific technology: web design for the internet, the competition in architecture to use new materials, impressive forms in product design using new materials and technologies, computer graphics generated by numbers. This may just be the appropriate form of design for an era in which technology has been a driving force for development.

But if we were to reset the motivation for the manufacture of objects on the side of the sense, we would have a design process that begins not from technology, but from sensory perception, which would progress parallel to the various scientific disciplines. From this we can imagine a world that would be called “sense-driven”. We are not able to make our bodies abstract and we should not forget the fact that the greater part of science is about human existence. We used to fill our imaginations with the glamour of achieving happiness by sending a virtual self to live in cyberspace (thanks to Facebook), but we’ve realised that virtual happiness cannot become real happiness. In time, dust will cover even modern structures designed to be aesthetically light, and products made of new materials will gradually evolve to antiques. We don’t know what to do with our physical bodies, which need massages such as messages.

Looking around, I notice that people today have been gradually developing thick skins because of technology. Marketing is the business of scanning and analysing the various aspects of people’s desires. And these aren’t only positive desires, but also the unconscious desire towards idleness: slacking off. In convenience stores and supermarkets, products are in constant competition. Only those that sell survive. Not long ago, people would buy roasted coffee beans, grind them with a coffee mill at home and percolate it through a flannel bag. This is now a rare scene, thanks to the speed of electric coffee makers and now there’s been a gradual increase of disposable single-use coffee pods. Basically, consumers unknowingly move in whatever direction allows them to lead an idle life. We can’t always claim that everything that’s convenient is no good, but certainly the human tendency to slack off has intensified remarkably due to marketing backed by technology.

Some are of the opinion that we gain far more than we lose. It is true that newly invented technology and media have immense possibilities for cultivating wisdom and our senses. Anything that matures changes shape. Human beings and cultures both mature and metamorphose – with the desire to metamorphose into better things.

The computer can bring us sensations that were beyond the reach of designers of the past. It inspires us such a dynamic and uplifting motivation that we’re persuaded to abandon our antiquated sensory approach. The computer develops our sensory dexterity on a different stage than the one cultivated with out conventional method. On the other hand, however, unless we intentionally keep our sense active as well as receptive, software will only blunt them. Fettering the senses to an overweight body that has neglected physical activity not only means giving up the extremely delicate sensitivity accumulated over a long periods of time, it also threatened to destroy the possibility of a new field of design in which delicate sense and technology are encouraged to interrelate. ]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/sense-driven/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/understanding/ http://thi-nguyen.com/understanding/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:56:05 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=43
The whole world looks different if you just put your chin in your hand and think. There are an unlimited number of ways of thinking and perceiving. In my understanding, to design is to intentionally apply to ordinary objects, phenomena and communication the essence of these innumerable ways of thinking and perceiving. ]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/understanding/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/chromatic-motions-vivid-light-media-release/ http://thi-nguyen.com/chromatic-motions-vivid-light-media-release/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:28:48 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=34 CHROMATIC MOTIONS is a virtual instrument that allows users to paint on a virtual canvas with their body. The installation analyses live-feed from users and converts shape and motion into colours. This is designed to work with any number of people and in the interaction is very simple – touch creates colour.

While the installation is suitable for a single user, when multiple users are present a new dynamic emerges between people. A user-to-user interaction is born when the users start playing with each other, working collaboratively to create shared artwork.

The sensation one experiences and reacting in real-time to their own movements is what matters – similar to a musical instrument. While one often plays a piano to compose and record, it is quite common to just play and improvise without any concern for recording. Every note is just for the moment, a real-time reaction coming from within. Hence when you stop interacting, the colour fades away, leaving only the memory, like the song you’ve just played.

Hi-res images for press and media are available upon request.]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/chromatic-motions-vivid-light-media-release/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/masked-intentions/ http://thi-nguyen.com/masked-intentions/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:03:15 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=1
Opening night May 22nd 6pm at He Made She Made – 70 Oxford St, Darlinghurst.

The show will run from May 22nd – June 9th.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Benja Harney, Dion Horstmans, Juliet Rosser, Louise Ruttley, Numskull, Eduardo Wolfe Alegria, Thi Nguyen, Kit Palaskas, The 49 Studio, Bryn-Desmond Jones, Naughty Fish, Hollie Martin, Christel Hadiwibawa, Luke Chriswell, Carly Altree-Williams, Vert Design, Jake Stollery, Mia Taninaka, Kareena Zerafos, North Left and Patric Withakay.]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/masked-intentions/feed/ 1 http://thi-nguyen.com/vivid-light-2013/ http://thi-nguyen.com/vivid-light-2013/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:00:15 +0000 thi http://2013.thi-nguyen.com/?p=16 I am pleased to announce that my interactive light sculpture CHROMATIC MOTIONS will be part of VIVID LIGHT 2013 and will be located at East Circular Quay.

Since 2009, creative industry leaders and practitioners, artists, innovative and creative thinkers have transformed the city into a breathtaking canvas of innovation and inspiration. VIVID SYDNEY will take place over 18 days from 24 May – 10 June 2013.

VIVID LIGHT transforms Sydney into a magical wonderland of colourful lights and surprising adventures with interactive light sculptures, innovative installations and grand scale projections throughout Circular Quay, The Rocks, Walsh Bay and CBD precincts. It is an outdoor gallery of design excellence.]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/vivid-light-2013/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/2012-agda-design-biennale-wins/ http://thi-nguyen.com/2012-agda-design-biennale-wins/#comments Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:38:16 +0000 thi http://thi-nguyen.com/?p=155 I am humbled to have won two awards at the 2012 AGDA Design Biennale in Experimental Typography and Branding/Identity. The AGDA Design Bienale is Australia’s most prestigious graphic design awards program. I’m pretty chuffed to have won awards amongst the best design studios in the country when my career is still at it’s infancy. I’m motivated and pumped to push even harder to deliver a higher standard of design.]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/2012-agda-design-biennale-wins/feed/ 0 http://thi-nguyen.com/who-shot-the-serif-exhibition/ http://thi-nguyen.com/who-shot-the-serif-exhibition/#comments Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:55:17 +0000 thi http://thi-nguyen.com/?p=164 One of Sydney’s newer galleries, He Made She Made, presented a group show that focused on the art of typography. I was thrilled to be part of an amazing line up of designers and to have had four of my pieces selected for the exhibition. Good fun.

PARTICIPATING DESIGNERS

Thi Nguyen, Fromague La Rue, Sam Mitchell-Fin, Maricor Maricar, Province, Craig & Karl, The 49 Studio, Dion Horstmans, Tamara Maynes, Gemma O’brien, Luke Lucas, Numskull, Ellie Nuss, Yellow Diva, Coco Reynolds, Naughty fish, WBYK, Wing Lau, Edward Woodley, Luxx Box, Charles Wilson, Tim Mcpherson, Yok, Nicole Liedberg and Timothy Jackson and Tubert Yule.]]> http://thi-nguyen.com/who-shot-the-serif-exhibition/feed/ 0