2nd Place, 'Watching A Balloon Rise' by Yiming Zhang

This project draws its inspiration from the mathematical study of chaotic systems, in which the degree of freedom is so high that tiny changes in how a system is set up would have ramifications, albeit deterministic, that are profound and unpredictable, given the limits of human computational power and our ability to acquire enough information to characterise the system in question accurately . This theoretical limit to predictability and knowledge of causality echoes and intensifies a similar concern that underlies the daily practice of making decisions: framed in this light, trivial and subconscious acts of decision making could impact one’s life in ways beyond one’s knowledge. This heightened realization of causality and fear of the ultimate futility of attempts at gaining control in this causal process present themselves as a bizarre visual fiction.