HYATT PLAZA RETROSPECTIVE

The Hyatt Plaza was the first big hotel/conference center on the Vihabidi Rangsit highway connecting Don Muang airport to downtown Bangkok. In 1983 the artist programmed an EPSON QX-10 computer to test the power of its built in graphics processor, the NEC-7220. In 1983 the computer generated images were displayed at an international computer trade fair at the Hyatt Plaza. The artist had just written the THAICALC spreadsheet application as an employee of Sahavirya Infortech Computer (SIC), a division of Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI). SIC was the main Thai dealer of EPSON products, so they had a large stall at the trade fair. The graphics program rendered the structural formulae of various organic molecules, and also a series of landscapes with four themes based on the binary choices NIGHT/DAY and RURAL/URBAN. Rural scenes are rendered as alpine forests while the Urban scenes represent a Skyscraper City such as Hong Kong.

Since 1983 skyscraper cities have proliferated all over East Asia while alpine forests are increasingly threatened by unplanned development and climate chage.

Today the images are based on three binary choices:-

NIGHT/DAY, RURAL/URBAN and RANDOM/PLANNED development.