Sea of Remembrance - A Visual Exploration of Sound of The Past
Masters Project
Year: 2025
Category: Art Direction, Mixed Media, Publication Design
Art Direction & Design: Quang Nguyễn
Lecturer/Supervisor (RMIT University):
Hope Lumsden-Barry
Sea of Remembrance is an experimental design project developed as the Studio Knowledge Object (SKO) of Communication Design Studio (GRAP2657) at RMIT University, expanding and diverting from my previous project for HOLECODED by Joel Sherwood Spring. Using a custom-built, experimental audio-reactive visual system, the work sets out to express the multilayered nature of sound — with songs from the Vietnam War era as its subjects, many of which are at risk of being forgotten. Part of the intent was to catalogue and preserve these recordings: to build a small but considered archive of songs that deserve more than quiet disappearance. The broader interest is in how the generative and transient nature of audiovisualisation can bring archived material back into conversation with the present.
The project is inspired by Fustic Studio's new media-integrated classical concert series, Re.Imagine, and is divided into several parts:
Audio Reactive System
Over two weeks of exploration, I developed a real-time, audio-reactive visualisation system using TouchDesigner. Using audio data as input, the system continuously generates frames of abstract, textured oil paintings — each one unique, even when the audio file is looped or reversed.
The final outcome is a five-minute music video for Biển Nhớ (Sea of Remembrance), a 1962 song by Trịnh Công Sơn, widely considered Vietnam's greatest songwriter.
Layers and nodes in the audio reactive visualisation system
Draft option with another colour combination (before finalising the song and theme)
Final version (unmute to listen to the song). Watch full video here
Some of the still frames in the video. As long as there is an audio input, the system can generate infinite unique "artworks"
Printed Format
An additional artefact in this project is a risograph zine series (which would be expanded into multiple volumes in the future) that showcase different Vietnamese musical artists.
The zines provide in-depth context such as project purpose, artist’s biography, timestamps, lyrics and English translation, alongside an assigned QR code for the video. Each portion of the featured song’s different verses would be accompanied with the corresponded audiovisualised frame, further reinforcing the idea of reading and seeing sound.
Typeface:
Petrona by Ringo R. Seeber
Zine spread layout
Riso printed zine pages
Some failed riso prints during test trial
Quang Nguyễn
Communication Designer
is a Vietnamese design practitioner/illustrator currently based in Naarm (Melbourne), and an ongoing Master’s student of Communication Design at RMIT University.
Previously held a Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) degree and throughout years of accumulated independent design learning and practice, Quang is currently focused on brand illustration, brand identity, and communication design, with some of past high-profile clients including Sovico Group, RMIT, and UNESCO. He also frequently collaborates with Hands Collective, an award-winning brand consultancy based in Hanoi, and produces works recognised and featured by Behance, Dieline, and Pentawards.
[GMT+7]
Hanoi, Vietnam
[GMT+4]
Naarm, Australia
As a Vietnamese currently residing and working on the stolen lands in the Kulin Nation, I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples as the Traditional Owners, and recognise their deep and ongoing connection to these lands and waters. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.