The 6^th  VH AWARD

In Lêna Bùi’s dream(machine, human), the work can be interpreted as a machine dreaming of a human, a machine and a human dreaming together, a machine trying to understand or predict human actions, or any other variation of the three words. The story takes place in an ambiguous time, unfolding as machine-salvaged fragments of human memories or a mythology of human demise and metamorphosis.

Rooted in the folklore of Princess Mandalika, HUDA x MUNGOMERY’s Within Tirta explores mythology and ecological urgency, questioning what we must sacrifice to sustain nature. Tirta, meaning ‘sacred water’ or ‘crossing place’ in Sanskrit, is a portal where past myths bleed into forgotten futures. The artists’ medium, the rare 35mm film Vistavision camera, mirrors the fragility of bioluminescence. As nature fades, humans turn to artificial awe. The closing images reveal a paradox: digital technology is severing our ties with nature, yet it may be the only way to heal them.

‘Yán wéi xīn shēng 言为心声’ is a Chinese idiom meaning ‘words are the voice of the heart.’ But where does the heart go when that voice is displaced from a body? Based on Tianyi Sun & Fiel Guhit’s own journey building and training an AI voice model, 40 Epochs explores the heart of identity, spiritual displacement, and the labor behind voices that engender human-like technologies. As artists of the Asian diaspora, enmeshed within is also the ambivalence that we reckon with as we confront this emerging form of self-reproduction.

Wendi Yan’s Dream of Walnut Palaces is a CGI film reimagining knowledge exchange between China and Europe in the 18th century. Exploring the psyche of a fictional Daoist in a Paris lab, it examines the East-West clash of epistemic visuality and envisions an alternative to techno-Orientalism: a harmonious union of knowledge integrating Daoist metaphysics. Using Unreal Engine, 3D modeling, and AI, Yan transmutes historical images and lost ideas, giving voice to ‘ghosts’ and ‘orphans’ of the Enlightenment.

Inhwa Yeom’s War Dance reflects on Asian women’s entanglement between production and reproduction, love and care, drawing from the Korean myth of Sun and Moon Dogs, known as ‘Bul-gae’ and the natural phenomena of sundog and moondog. Embodying their resistance and transformation in AI-powered audiovisual languages, the work invites audiences to question the unquestionable.