What Did
You See?

This project was created to explore how to give a square shape a conceptual meaning and turn it into a visual outcome through a terminological procedure. It is one of the visual research projects I worked on while studying at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts, London).

The output I created is a woodcut layer-changing object. I crafted four different scenes of a high street in London on each woodcut board. This object is designed to show that reality cannot be easily discerned from surface appearances. By interacting with this object, audiences can see different stories unfolding in the same time and space. This piece aims to convey that everyone has their own perspectives, but it's important to look deeper and remain open-minded. Don't judge without further understanding, because 'The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.' — John Berger.

This is my visual research summary for this project. I have recorded all my explorations and experiments with the shape of a square through different sizes, compositions, number of layers, colours, materials, dimensions, and structures.

I enjoyed exploring layered squares in different rotations and scales, which created movement and a three-dimensional perspective. I also added blue and red colours, making it possible to see the design as truly three-dimensional when viewed with blue and red glasses.

I explored the relationship between 3D square objects and their 2D shadows.

A perspective exploration was conducted using folded paper cutouts to create squares of varying sizes, from large to small.

Through all these explorations, I’ve found inspiration. A square can be likened to a camera window: we look through this window to capture a specific moment and place. We might assume that the stories depicted in the photos are exactly as they were, but is that truly the case? Additionally, do others perceive these stories in the photos in the same way we do?

This visual experiment complements my previous works. I separated the elements of a single photo into four different transparent films, captured at South Bank. Each folded combination tells a distinct story, and different viewers will interpret these combinations in various ways.

Once again, we need to look deeper and open our minds to accept diverse perspectives on what we see. By doing so, we can form our own views and beliefs, rather than making immediate judgments based on a brief glance.

This dummy object represents my intended final output. By changing the order of each scene, audiences can view and interpret them in various narratives.