Ziyao Lin
United Kingdom
Artist Statement
Description
An artificial intelligence writing machine by the seaside inscribes lines of love letters, yet the water-written words disappear without a trace as time passes. From day to night, its writing is never completed, and the letters remain unsent. Perhaps many have swallowed their unexpressed emotions, harboring a myriad of words in their hearts but never daring to write the recipient's name or send them out. All the text and images in the artwork are generated by AI. The ceaseless writing of the machine reflects, to some extent, the human ego. The disappearance of the words on paper carries an essence of Eastern Zen philosophy — Zen emphasizes "dependent arising and emptiness." People and things arise due to specific conditions, and when those conditions cease, they disappear. The fundamental nature of the constant flow of people and things is "impermanence," and their intrinsic quality is "emptiness." Behind the absurd repetition of this useless machine lies a reminder: there's no need to negate the sincere passion of the moment due to the impermanence of life, but it's also not worth being enslaved by desires and external circumstances, enduring unnecessary suffering. The sea may dry, the stones may crumble, everything arises from nothingness and returns to it. All things pass away, and a mountain becomes water.
Process
I think it started with a feeling I didn’t know how to express. That’s how the project came: a machine, by the sea, writing love letters that disappear. Over and over. It felt absurd, but also true. That’s how longing sometimes works—it repeats, quietly, even when no one is listening. I used AI because I wanted to see how close it can come to sounding human, and where it always falls short. That gap, between saying and feeling, between machine and emotion, is where the work sits.
Tools
I used ChatGPT to generate the texts, an ESP32 microcontroller to control the writing machine, and disappearing ink for the letters. I also used Runway Gen2 to create AI-generated videos projected onto rocks by the sea.
