This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass is a game based on the Buddhist conception of the universe. According to the Buddhist understanding, the universe is an endlessly changing, enormous web that is woven of innumerable threads. Mutual dependence exists between the parts and the whole, and the entire universe is interdependent. As a result of the interactions of causes and conditions, all things in the universe come into being and vanish.

As in shooter games, users provide vertical lines to meet horizontal lines that move through a net. The meeting of the two lines implies the interaction of causes and conditions, which produces new images composed of threads that connect to the entire net. These produced images then change and return to the whole.

In this app, users can build anything they want by converting their own photos into images composed of threads. Yet, every built image eventually changes and disappears as part of the interconnected whole. No matter how hard users try, they can not hold onto anything permanently. This reflects the ephemeral nature of human reality, although we often misunderstand that what we make is eternal. It also reminds us that we should see not only parts, but also the whole because each part is merely ephemeral.

This game also contains images of the political conflicts related to North Korea. These images appear and return to the whole, in the hope that politicians remember that their profits are only ephemeral and that they reflect on their narrowminded and selfish policies, which make so many people miserable.