The 37th Design Fringe, an open access design program, opened last night in collaboration with Melbourne Fringe and Linden New Art.

“This year’s Design Fringe asks participants to speculate on what their utopia looks like, not necessarily with answers but rather as prompts for conversation,” said Linden New Art’s Curator & CEO, Vincent Alessi. A key exhibition in the program is Speculation: Eight Billion Little Utopias, showing modern works that imagine our society's structure. The theme sets designers free to craft unconventional materials into playful and provocative object designs, imagining alternate utopias.

Among the twelve artists to showcase in the exhibition is Hung Hin Chan, a Melbourne (Naarm) based artist and product designer. Hin’s sculpture, ch-AIR is a reflection on art and design in the age of AI through a metaphorical play between the algorithms that underpin the digital world, and human creativity. Before the launch, we met with Hin to understand his work and how digital technology and data are changing design practices.

NV: How did you start in art and design?

HHC: I started as an industrial designer, specialising in object, furniture and lighting designs. I am always fascinated by well-crafted design with good storytelling.

What influences have shaped the stories you tell through your own artistic practice?

My influence came from my obscure perception of little things in life, a simple way of storytelling using material. I often pull apart ordinary objects and explore the intricate details, tinkering in my studio to find new ideas. My cultural background also plays a huge role in my art and design. Growing up in Hong Kong engraved some traditional rituals and mindset in my practice.

In my process, I would use lucky numbers like 0,1,2,3,6,8 or even numbers; symmetry and balanced shapes; white and red colour combinations. Living in Australia and the Netherlands as an adult exposed me to Western culture and taught me about European art and design. This led me to today where I am constantly developing my work through my ever-changing identity and mixed cultural perspective.

It’s interesting to hear your reflection on a mixed cultural perspective. I imagine there’s a sense of friction that comes with it that, in part, enables you to create works like ch-AIR that have their own sense of friction embedded through the materials you use. What made you settle on the clear acrylic and handwritten code?

I used clear acrylic because it is transparent, but when constructed, it gives a subtle outline of the shape. It is quite invisible, but when the numbers are, it levitates a one-dimensional object into a three-dimensional space. Working with acrylic is quite simple, but clear acrylic is really hard to hide any imperfections. You can see every seam line, every cut mark. I did not hire a professional to fabricate it because I wanted to have those imperfections to show it’s emotions and uniqueness. The way acrylic works is different to timber and metal which I predominantly used, joining acrylic is the most hard part. 

Figuring out the orientation when the butt joins two pieces is the most important part, then use a fine needle to apply adhesive between gaps, ensuring I properly assembled it. I used cotton gloves while building the acrylic to avoid attracting dust, fingerprints, and scratches, like a museum conservator.

Of all the coding languages available to us today, what made you settle on binary code? 

The choice of using binary code was deliberate, as it symbolises the fundamental language of computers. Binary numbers are cold, emotionless and rigid, but handwriting all the numbers, and the imperfection of each digit, makes it special.

How long did it take to hand write all the 1's and 0's on ch-AIR? What were you thinking while writing?

The process of hand-drawing each ‘1’ and ‘0’ onto the acrylic took several hours. There were moments of boredom, but the repetitive motion became a meditation. I think boredom is quite important for creative practice. It refreshes your ideas, allows thoughts to sink in, and reappears in your brain.

I must say, my hand hurts just by looking at all the code you wrote.

Writing lines of random numbers is challenging. I had a mild headache from writing thousands of 1s and 0s, and I lost my depth perception when I started writing from different angles through the clear acrylic.

I haven't seen software engineers lose their ability to judge distances while coding. However, I'm sure there have been many headaches. I read in your description of ch-AIR that “data, like air, is integrated into our existence, becoming vital for modern society functioning.” Can you tell me more about that, and how data informs your artistic process?

Data and algorithms from the internet influence my creative process. It's a double-edged sword. On one hand, we get many ideas from around the world. On the other hand, too much inspiration can be overwhelming and suppress our creativity. It is easy to fall into this rabbit hole and consume ideas, but it will end up being quite ordinary and mainstream. 

Data helps find new ideas, but when it comes to art, we should be aware of how we step away from data and use our creativity to make something unique. Otherwise, the data will not change, and our creativity will stagnate. 

It’s a symbiotic relationship between the two in many ways. When you think about the increasingly blurred lines between digital and physical, what role do artists have to play?

Through their creative artwork, artists can use various mediums, including technology, to convey emotions and information. They can express their thoughts on the latest innovations in unique ways. When photography was introduced in the early 19th century, with the ability to create realistic images. In the beginning, photography got a lot of debate about whether it is art, mostly criticised by traditional painters.

In the 20th century, cameras have developed drastically. People figure out new ways of making photographs more interesting with new techniques, new perspectives, and new lenses. Eventually, it became art itself. Today, photographs serve a powerful role in storytelling and capturing emotions.

As digital data and AI algorithms emerge, I think it is boring just letting AI create things. Our role as an artist is to adopt what technology provides us, like photography. Every new technology challenges traditional artists to evolve, and find a creative way to utilise it in our practice, to create more interesting work.

What do you hope people who engage with ch-AIR take away from the sculpture?

I think it is quite personal. For me, it is a data algorithm of my mind in physical representation. I want people to submerge their thoughts in overlapping lines of numbers and reflect on the influence of data algorithms in our lives. When all the data is present to them physically, what would their data look like? Appreciate each stroke of the hand-written number as it’s a classic oil painting.

That’s a beautiful opportunity for any of us to partake in—to appreciate each data point of our own lives as much as we would a work of art. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the sculpture?

I have hidden 3 secret words in “ch-AIR”. Take a DEEP look and you will see me.

Design Fringe runs from September 22 - 26 in collaboration with Melbourne Fringe and Linden New Art. The exhibition "Speculation: Eight Billion Little Utopias" runs for the duration of the Fringe, and includes artists Ash Allen, Emma Jackson, Hung Hin Chan, Ilan El, Jacky Cheng, Jake Williamson, Marta Figueiredo, Maryam Moghadam, Moya Delaney, Pattie Beerens, Phong Chi Lai and Sarah Muir-Smith.

To learn more about Hung Hin Chan's product designs and artistry visit Hinko Design.