CodeSurfing (or Lướt Code) is a backyard-science study club in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. CodeSurfing supports interdisciplinary study in art and technology. Activities at CodeSurfing includes community gatherings, workshops, courses, and collaborative research projects.

Hẹn Lướt, backyard date to talk about intimacy in technology.

Farewell Technology — a funeral for Yahoo 360 Blog, Kpop forums, and all the bygone Internet sensation

Designing software to assist colorblind people with Van Lang University.

Manifesto

At CodeSurfing, technology is at its oneness with life and nature. Our studies seek to understand and foster the harmony between technology, artists, and the surrounding environment.

At CodeSurfing, technology does not limit itself within coding. It encompasses tools, machines, systems, algorithms, and logic that are already integral to our daily lives. Our studies support experiments on learning, archiving, and continuing these valuable local assets.

Participants

CodeSurfing provides a collaborative space for everyone to study, regardless of background, age, sexual orientation, or belief. We welcome art practitioners from all mediums to come have fun with us in the united voice of technology.

CodeSurfing pursues accessibility in technology through education. We believe that given the opportunity to learn, everyone can find their freedom and their unique vision in using technology. From decentralizing tech education, we as a community challenge the capitalistic and patriarchal norms of our current society and the tech industry.

Researching maritime machinery in the fishery village of Phan Rí Cửa, Bình Thuận — Nhân Phan & Yui Nguyễn.

A prototype of an interactive artwork based on the biological structure of ant nests by Khôi Nguyễn.

A resistence practice , catching sun spots, making poems as part of 'Our Vietnamese Project' by thou and Khôi.

thou and Khôi sharing their project with a group of Fulbright University students.

Vietnamese language researchers attending the exhibition of “Our Vietnamese Project.”

Guest speaker Liên Phạm discussing photography practices in Southeast Asia. Throughout the course 'Nhìn Mình', participants reflect on image-making practices in the digital realm.

Team

Phan Nhân

academics
email ● website

Nhan is an educator and technologist in data and machine learning. Emerged from photography, his projects explore the application of coding in len-based practices. He makes prints, zines, and films as a shelter for his memory, dream, and fantasy. Nhan was a fellow of Processing Fellowship 2023. There, he founded CodeSurfing.

Yui Nguyễn

research
email

Yui is a diverse content writer, handling feature articles, social media posts, brand stories, profiling, translations, book reviews, and more. Yui has a deep interest in how language, culture, and historical content are expressed on digital space. Yui's works have been featured in Vietcetera, Saigoneer, and Mekong Review. Yui is also a scriptwriter at India Lost & Found and participated in the Summer 2024 course at the School for Poetic Computation.

Ngọc Võ

visual communication
email ● ig

Design by day, riso by noon, pole dance by night.

Our Vietnamese Project

“Between the mountain ridges and sea strands, bridging two major cultures of India and China, and survived the occupations of three powers: France, USA, and Japan. Trailing the technology from USSR, and went through script transformations, twice. Vietnamese now has its own flexibility to express every concepts, ideas, movements, and feelings that it has been through.”

Initiated in mid-April 2024, “Dự án tiếng Việt” (Vietnamese Project) by CodeSurfing comprises a series of 3 essays on data analysis related to the Vietnamese language. In these essays, we explore the flexibility of Vietnamese by examining its most basic unit ⎯ the syllable. Building on this initial research, the project later expanded into a fellowship involving three emerging artists ⎯ Dmarc Lê, Đông Trúc, and thou. Though they come from different backgrounds and practices, all three fellows share a common passion for our language, Vietnamese.

A slice of the initial research by Yui Nguyễn, Phan Nhân, and Ngọc Võ.

“Bên Kia Của Vần”, zine by Đông Trúc

“Xác Âm”, installation by Dmarc Lê

“Bắt nắng nhặt chữ”, performance by thou

Our p5.js Courses

Level 1 ✶ Khởi đầu

An 8-session courses to engage artists with coding using p5.js. With one month, we will together explore fundamental concepts of programming, including variable and function, flow control, and loop. After this course, students can use p5.js to draw, animate their drawings, and adding meaningful interaction to further extend their works.

The course is in Vietnamese.

Apply

Level 2 ✶ Nhìn mình

The loose translation of Nhìn Mình is `Self-flection`. In the canvas of p5.js, learners are taken to a journey to look back into the image of themselves and their surroundings. We learn to connect with those visual cues using webcam and further process them using computer vision techniques.

The course is in Vietnamese.

Apply

Hangout

☽ Hanoi Pop-up with Wedogood & oBJECTs Studio @ RAAW Cafe (Hanoi/VN)

2024/08

A poetic workshop in the heart, where participants use p5.js to make zine and poems

☽ Audition Tournament @ Khongtrung Bar (HCMC/VN)

2024/06

Reminiscing our 00s, CodeSurfing invites participants to come back to the dance floor of Audition — an online game that was once (and still) the sensation among our generation.