multimedia artwork | https://livingmirrors.cargo.site/contents-page
Living Mirrors
concept
create infinite, compossible inflections through multimedia
A reflection is required because we are human beings with thinking mechanisms.As long as human beings possess the ability to think, the mechanism of reflection has deeply embedded in their consciousness. Since the start of postmodernism, all forms of knowledge are starting to bound within their localized, fragmented forms without further connection to the universal truth. Of course such view has its own significance. Yet what is resulted from this movement is a complete loss of eternal values within this flux. There remains no trace of thinking, but only scattered debris of knowing. The failure of thinking, which is different from knowing, in Arendt’s terms, would lead to the banality of evil that embedded in human mind. Nonetheless, this is something with further consequences that is beyond good and evil regarding moral principles. Just as in physics, without reflection, there only remains darkness, and furthermore, nihility. Without reflections, we will have no past, get lost in the present, and become malfunctioned to produce better future.
Three forms of reflections in physical terms will be used as the lens to map and analyze existing media works. The three approaches are diffuse Reflection, multiple Reflection, and specular Reflection. Diffuse Reflection, which creates no certain image of the reflected subject, forms the aspect of a communication breakdown resulting from the massive vortex of thinking with a flooded amount of perspectives. One experiment in my portfolio, working with sound-making and visualization of Rashomon, uses this specific mechanism. For Specular Reflection, which generates an unaltered image of the subject based on self-referential means, the study will focus on how one or multiple specific localized meanings that are true to its creator come into being. Multiple Reflection, last but not least, functions as a tunnel of infinite images formed inside the mirrors facing each other. It assesses how reflective works produce a multiverse through both self-referential and externally-reflective qualities.
diffuse reflection
multiple perspectives
no meaning
specular reflection
one perspective
one meaning
multiple reflection
multiple perspectives
infinite meanings
multimedia projection
the meta-experience embodying all forms of reflections and their relations
The video introduces the relation between three reflections, presenting a meta-experience that starts from the actual space while transcending from that stage later. The video is formatted in a more stream-of-consciousness structure to better reveal the idea in a primordial and pre-language approach. In the video, the boundaries between living matters and theories are blurred, so everything is expressed with massive hybridity that transgresses disciplines. It visualizes how the multiplication of specular reflection of intelligence generates diffuse reflection while multiple reflections mediate to create a dynamic equilibrium. Each form of reflection is treated with equality. In other words, we should never deny the significance of these three reflections from the system. The ultimate ideal state is the symphony between the various reflected and the reflections.
diffuse reflection
poems on fabric
Diffuse reflection is the absurdity that born from the confrontation between people’s desire to unity of intelligence and the paradoxical groundless situation they created in relation with the world. Yet, eradicating it means no goods, as Kierkegard trying to cure such irrationality is rejected by Camus. Diffuse reflection is part of the equivalence that one constantly make in their journey to pursuit such intelligence. It is what we should keep and live with in order to restore the majesty of life.
The desert is the main visual for diffuse reflection. It is the place where infinite particles are contained, yet none of these are expressing a valid meaning but absurdity. Yet, the idea for diffuse reflection is never about to remove the desert, but to live with it, and to imagine everyone as a Happy Sisyphus living with absurdity.
specular reflection
french-folded book
In the realm of physics, Specular Reflection is generated when the incident light is reflected into a single outgoing direction. The singularity and limpidity presented here are the core values of Specular Reflection. Like the clear and distinct reflection in a mirror is a singular limpid representation of the reflected, Specular Reflection in this project specifically refers to the coherent, communicative meanings that are produced from one perspective with sufficient certainty and rationality withheld by its creator (no matter how chaotic or irrational it may seem in its outcome). It is the space that embodies the solitude of thought with one’s sole objectivity. Many literature, films, and even psychoanalysis theories are all lucid illustrations of specular reflection.
Via using French folds, books has each page as fold and bind them using perfect binding. The upper image are the external pages while the image on the right shows what are inside the folds.
multiple reflection
prototype of installations
Multiple reflection functions as a tunnel of infinite images formed inside the mirrors facing each other. It assesses how reflective works produce a multiverse through both self-referential and externally-reflective qualities. The cubes displaying texts aim to visualize such infinite plurality
of language.
ideation
visualization, literature review map, prototypes
In order to convey the methodology used in the project better to the audience, I started with visualizing the system in different approaches. I ultimately decided to use the one on the bottom right, which aesthetically is inspired by the neuron systems in human brains, the critical site for reflections (both biologically and conceptually).
visualization
I then construct a foldable brochure to explain the methodology.
explanatory pamphlets
literature review map
Since this project incorporates all sorts of media, theories and works, I also crafted a literature review map to better analyze the resources from my research.
some previous prototypes for the reflections
Since this project incorporates all sorts of media, theories and works, I also crafted a literature review map to better analyze the resources from my research.
Regarding the paper choice, I aim to make each paper match the impression of these reflections. For specular reflection (the left column), it is made out of heavyweight matte paper. Diffuse reflection in the middle is made out of vellum while multiple reflection is a combination of iridescent paper and glossy paper.
You can also view my research dossier here >>