Design & Discoveries Archives - Danchi Studio

Installation art: sống xa ở gần

Danchi — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:19:00 +0000

I had the opportunity to visit the Mind & Machine art exhibition at the Vietnam Festival of Creativity and Design 2023, and one project that truly caught my attention was Sống Xa Ở Gần (Living Far Away, but Staying Nearby). This Augmented Reality (AR) map, created by Andrew Stiff and Becky Lu offers an interesting experience that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

The map invited me to explore life around the Kênh Tẻ Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, which separates two very different areas. In District 4, the canal runs through a lively, busy neighborhood with narrow alleys, street markets, and a rich history. It felt chaotic but full of energy. In contrast, District 7 was modern and organized, with wide, clean streets, upscale malls, and new developments, showing a wealthier, more planned side of the city.

To discover the stories behind these mapped areas, I need to scan the QR codes on the map. The AR features showed images of different spots along the canal and guided me to visit them. It brought the map to life, letting me see the locations and understand how the canal connects these two very different neighborhoods.

Some thoughts on the map’s navigation

The project did a great job showing how the canal connects District 4 and District 7, but I ended up randomly scanning all QR codes to learn about each place, which felt a bit inefficient.

As a local, I can easily spot the contrasts between the two areas, but for visitors, it might be hard to fully grasp the stories before scanning the codes. I think it would be more helpful if the map not only highlight the contrasts between the districts but also give visitors the option to choose which side to explore first.

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Photography and “City”

Danchi — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 16:11:24 +0000

I recently attended the online exhibition “City” by photographer Christian Berg, hosted by the Goethe-Institut HCMC. The exhibition showcased urban life across various cities in Vietnam, highlighting both their unique qualities and the connections between them. I was inspired by the techniques he used to capture the vibrancy of city life.

Multiple Exposure

My favorite is his “Multiple Exposure” method, where he blends different images together to create a single, layered photo. This technique allows him to show different aspects of a city in one frame, giving a sense of movement, energy, and complexity (as seen in the cover image above)

Uncovering Hidden Patterns within a City

One of the aspects I found most inspiring about Christian Berg’s work is his approach to uncovering the hidden patterns within a city. This process involves a deeper exploration and connection with the urban environment, allowing the photographer to see beyond the surface and capture its subtle, often unnoticed details.

1. Collecting material through walking

Walking is key to exploring a city. It creates a direct link between the photographer and their surroundings.

As you walk, begin capturing whatever catches your interest. There’s no need for a specific purpose or theme, simply take photos freely. The more you revisit a place, the stronger your connection to it becomes, and the more you begin to notice its unique patterns and details.

2. Selecting and sorting the photos

Once you’ve collected your images, review them and group them by category or the stories they tell. This helps make sense of the material you’ve gathered.

3. Hunting with purpose

At this stage, your approach becomes more focused. Returning to places with a clear idea of what you want to capture helps uncover deeper patterns and connections within the city.

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Data visualization

Danchi — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 13:45:00 +0000

When I first thought about the term “data visualization,” the two things that immediately came to mind were charts and colorful infographics. But after listening to the podcast How Do Designers Use Data Visualization to Take the Numb Out of Numbers, hosted by In the Making, I’ve realized there’s so much more to it. It really lead me to the fascinating stories that can be uncovered behind the numbers!

I felt inspired by how people are pushing the boundaries of storytelling with data. It’s not just about making the visualization look appealing; it’s about designing something that makes people feel and even hear the story behind the data.

Simulation Game

Turning data into a simulation game is such a fun way to get people involved! It lets them interact with the data, think about it, and really feel what’s happening. Shirley Wu’s pandemic simulation game is a great example of this – it brings data to life in a way that makes it more relatable and engaging, turning numbers into something you can actually experience and understand

Sounds

Use sounds to visualize data, which is called data sonification. It’s a cool technique that turns data into sound. For example, you can hear the sound of a volatile stock market (like Jordan Wirfs-Brock’s Sounds of a Volatile Stock Market), the calm sounds of a spaceship’s X-ray (NASA’s Cat’s Eye Nebula Sonification), or even the sound of Covid-19 deaths (CarniDC’s Sonification of Covid-19 deaths). It’s a whole new way to experience data and connect with it on a different level!

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Circulative mapping

Danchi — Sat, 29 May 2021 12:15:00 +0000

It’s been about 14 years since my last school project, which was all about ‘Mapping the Invisible’. Honestly, I don’t remember much about how I developed that project using mapping techniques. But recently, I had the opportunity to attend a really interesting talk on Circulative Mapping, hosted by Hanoi Ad Hoc and RMIT Vietnam. The talk covered how Hanoi Ad Hoc’s research team collects data to create maps, and they introduced this useful tool called GIS (Geographic Information Systems). With GIS, users can input data to create all sorts of interactive, data-driven maps. It was quite informative!

So before join the session I also did my study on the term “Circulative Mapping”. It is a way of creating maps that focus on patterns and changes that happen over time. Instead of just showing static information, it looks at how things like traffic, the environment, or city development change and interact in a continuous cycle. It’s a great way to spot trends and see changes that might not be obvious with regular maps.

Two main knowledge that pull me back to idea of Maps & Mapping techniques I learned in school.

The concept of mapping

Mapping is all about representing data that isn’t physically visible or connected.

Information can be anything like traffic flow, material flow, water, time,…
Information can be collected by hand, by photo, by interview,…
Information can be in both digital and analog data.

Invisible data

During the talk, I asked the speakers, “How do you collect invisible information and represent it on a map?” Here’s what I learned:

Data Collection: For things that can’t be seen, like memories or feelings, one way to gather information is by talking to people and listening to their stories. You can ask them for “keywords” that describe their experiences or emotions.
Categorization: Once you have these keywords, you can group them based on the context or stories they relate to.
Visualization: To make these keywords more meaningful in a map, you can link them to physical locations like districts, buildings, or streets.

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Exhibition: Nát giỏ còn bờ tre

Danchi — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 15:14:00 +0000

I visited the ‘Nát Giỏ Còn Bờ Tre’ exhibition by artist Trung Nghĩa. It was touching! To me, ‘Nát Giỏ Còn Bờ Tre’ is a powerful reminder that, even when things change or wear out, our roots and traditions stay strong. The bamboo used in the exhibition symbolizes this connection to our past and the strength that comes from it. It’s a beautiful way of showing how our culture and values remain with us, no matter what.

Trung Nghĩa brought memories from his hometown, Quảng Nam, where bamboo is used for everything, like woven floors, ceiling panels, and everyday items. His artworks reflected the simple, peaceful village life he grew up with. Myself, on the other hand, grew up in a city where bamboo groves were something I only saw in books, movies, and pictures. Because of that, it was hard for me to connect with the artworks installed in the gallery. BUT the story and message he shared throughout the exhibition were inspiring – it’s about finding traditional values → reimagining them → and giving them a place in modern life.

The most meaningful part of Trung Nghĩa’s exhibition, to me, was when he brought the elderly craftsmen to the opening, introducing them as one of the core values of his artwork. These gentlemen, with their deep understanding of bamboo, rattan, and natural materials from their village, are now retired. As the country has developed, their craft has slowly faded, and the younger generation no longer wishes to continue this tradition. Trung Nghĩa sees himself as a bridge, connecting these craftsmen and their traditional knowledge to the contemporary art world.

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Republish: Typography as…

Danchi — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 15:01:00 +0000

republi.sh is such a cool project by Behalf Studio. The team is bringing back and digitizing typefaces from Southern Vietnam in the 20th century, including those seen on hand-painted signs, colonial buildings, and old newspaper and book headlines.

I love how they’re preserving the historical significance of these fonts and turning them into unique design pieces that feel fresh and relevant today. Below are two of my favorite fonts from republi.sh!

The team kicked off the Typography as… (Chữ là chi…) exhibition in early 2021, showing how these typefaces can be brought to life in modern design through a mix of creative approaches. The team also shared their process of developing a typeface from Research → Exploration → Development → Refinement → Output. The Research phase helps them study letterforms and define the style of the typeface they’re designing.

This is something I found really inspiring for my own typeface design project. I didn’t have a research phase at the start, I jumped right to the design of typeface, which made it difficult for me to define a clear style while still keeping the personality of the typeface I was digitizing. Looks like I need to go back to the Research phase sometime!

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Exhibition: Sài Gòn phẳng

Danchi — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 12:05:00 +0000

I recently visited the installation art piece “Sài Gòn Phẳng” (Saigon, Flat View) hosted by Monosketch Art Space, which presented a simulation map of Saigon, showcasing its rivers, canals, and districts. I really liked the concept of the exhibition. The idea was to offer audiences a fresh perspective of Saigon by emphasizing its complex river system, which includes 110 rivers and canals, stretching over 975 km in total.

However, I wasn’t fully convinced by how the artwork was displayed. The use of materials like stone and sand to represent the land and rivers was effective, but other materials such as wood, paper, and cotton felt somewhat random and didn’t really capture the depth of the “intertwined river system” idea. I was hoping the artwork would better highlight the unique connections between the rivers, and it would have been amazing if they could have made Saigon’s invisible river map more visible to the audience.

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