In Asian countries, cherry blossoms occupy a significant place in traditional culture. The symbolism of this phenomenon is most evident in Japan, where the transience of life and the frailty of existence are associated with the tradition of Hanami (contemplation of cherry blossoms). The "finitude" of beauty, its inevitable death, on the one hand reminds us of the finitude of human life, and on the other hand, calls us to humbly experience our personal experience, calling for the need to see beauty.
Hanami draws on the Eastern tradition of cherry blossom viewing, but in a digital context. A dataset of sakura flowers was collected on Russky Island. Through StyleGan2 and post-processing in TouchDesigner, it conveys the metaphor of the irrevocable fluidity of life. The video content is voiced by traditional Japanese haiku: nature and seasons consist of different temporal flows (movements of life), a combination of sounds of the natural and synthetic nature of the neural network, compositionally intertwined with one another into a single whole, with a constant change of emphasis from one to another.