Lucky Places




A visualization of the coordinates I visited in an earlier iteration in HCMC:
 This project is part of my ongoing practice based PhD research with RMIT school of Art.  How to connect to and re-explore a place that one feels almost too familiar with after having lived there for nearly 2 decades? Sometimes the seemingly familiar is the most difficult to explore as it seems hidden in plain sight.  In my project Lucky Places I re-connect to Saigon, my home for most of my adult life by using methods of conceptual and algorithmic art, as well as local customs and knowledge. It all starts with a number. Numerology is deeply embedded in Vietnamese society and beliefs. Lottery is a government sanctioned way of gambling and the tickets are sold at almost every corner of the city, often by the less fortunate. There is however a second game that can be played on top of the regular lottery. It is called số đề and  it has its roots in ancient mythologies. The last two numbers of each ticket represent  legendary creatures  (repeated after 40) and those who win the game not only can earn earthly fortunes but also have proven strong connections  to the spiritual world.
For this project I use the 6 figure numbers of the lottery ticket as a starting point to engage with the city. A small Python script I wrote in collaboration with GPT-4 takes as input a photograph of a lottery ticket and creates as output a random coordinate within the vicinity of Saigon. It is important to note that the same number will always create the same coordinate. In my first project All The Places I Have Lived, I used a similar concept in which the Memory Infuser tool with each text input creates a defined variation of the original image. The given coordinate, the place corresponding with the lottery ticket, then is the Lucky Place. The places that needs to be photographed. Lucky Places is a Game. As with every game the rules can be rewritten, and many different versions can be created. 

Once the Lucky Place has been visited the image gets combined with an AI generated images of the legendary creature represented by the last 2 digits (I created a library of 4000 images based on Albrecht Duerers drawings) - the images get combined through an algorithm in Processing (a Java script based programming language), pixelated, rotated in 3 dimensions space (all of this including colors used are based on the 6 digit ticket number) - the results are abstract intriguing digital images that show the overlap of the real and the spiritual world.  


The Rules of Lucky Places

  1. Buy a lottery ticket (HCMC edition)
  2. Use the app to identify where the place is
  3. If it is in an area that can not be accessed (far from roads, private property, airport or other critical infrastructure) discard the ticket
  4. Drive with a motorbike as close as possible to the place
  5. Take Photos of the place with and without lottery ticket – DO NOT GET OFF YOUR BIKE!
  6. Run processing algorithm
  7. Take Frame based on ticket number
  8. upscale with GigaPixel AI