‘Proxy-mate,’ curated by Nguyễn Hoàng Giang (giang.it) of Vietnam Media Lab, was presented at Gate Gate Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City from 19 to 28 December 2024, featuring works by two emerging artists: Nhân Phan and Long Trần.
Visitors at the Proxy-mate private opening at Gate Gate Gallery, HCMC
The exhibition centred on two distinct yet complementary installations. Long Trần’s ‘>Fate_Cmd (Mệnh Lệnh)’ presented an AI-powered fortune-telling experience, offering one-on-one encounters with a computational oracle. The work interrogated how algorithmic systems come to mimic sacred authority and spiritual guidance, transforming code into ritual and computation into prophecy. Long, who holds a B.A. in Professional Communication from RMIT Vietnam (2016), draws on his background in game design and real-time interaction to create what he calls “meaningful play.”
A visitor encounters the AI oracle in Long Trần’s ‘>Fate_Cmd (Mệnh Lệnh).’
Nhân Phan’s ‘POV’ (2025) unfolded as a film and interactive, game-like installation in which viewers navigated branching narrative paths, encountering fragments of the artist’s past romances, vulnerabilities, and reflections. Nhân, founder of the creative technology collective CodeSurfing, is a recipient of the FutureTense Award 2025 and a finalist for the Lumen Prize 2025. His practice uses programming as a poetic vessel for personal storytelling across themes of identity, culture, and human-computer relations.
Together, the two works traced the blurred edges of intimacy, embodiment, and technological presence—inviting audiences to consider how contemporary companions may be human, machine, or both. The exhibition was additionally supported by Creative Wall, a non-profit project under the Nami Foundation dedicated to nurturing Vietnam’s creative community.
Nhân Phan’s ‘POV’ — an interactive, game-like installation exploring digital intimacy and personal memory.
The RMIT Digital Design and Art Grants programme continues to build a growing ecosystem for digital art in Vietnam. Previous grantees include Hà Ninh Phạm (2020) and the duo Nguyễn Diệu Hương & Hachul (2024), whose works have been showcased at The Outpost in Hanoi and Ươm Art Hub in Ho Chi Minh City as part of the Vietnam Festival of Creativity and Design (VFCD).
Exhibition presented by Gate Gate Gallery
Supported by: RMIT Digital Design and Art Grants – School of Communication & Design, RMIT University Vietnam
Additional support: Creative Wall (Nami Foundation)
Curated by: Vietnam Media Lab (giang.it / Nguyễn Hoàng Giang)