In the early stage of Unit 2, I began with ASCII art to explore how digital symbols reconstruct the form and meaning of images. In p5.js, I converted an image of a chair into characters. During this process, I began to realize that an image is not a continuous whole, but a composition of structures serving different functions. Once an image is broken into parts, its integrity becomes open. This recognition led me to a logic of deconstruction: if an image can be divided into measurable units, it can be dismantled, analyzed, and reassembled. From there, reconstruction became the next step. I used ASCII symbols to reconstruct illustrations of scientific instruments and then transformed these fully symbolized instrument models into 3D moving images. After the visual system is dismantled, rebuilding it under different logics can generate new meanings. My experiment observes, through this process of “dismantling—translation—reassembly,” how each conversion alters what is visible and how it can be understood.
Replacement is the formal method I use for reconstruction, and it also redefines the work’s media framework. This process goes beyond surface-level visual change; it inherently involves acts of selection and omission. It reveals how form can be deconstructed and reorganized into new systems of meaning, becoming a way to re-understand form, structural logic, and the medium itself, and in doing so, it examines the relationships among image, medium, and knowledge.
So my research focuses on approaching tools as systems of seeing. Through three experiments, I explore how meaning is continuously reshaped across media, cognition, and perception.
Building on this exploration of the tool as a system of seeing, my current Unit 2 project extends this idea from the visual level to the cognitive level. Inspired by the idea of“Upward, not Northward” from Flatland, I explore a way of thinking that goes beyond directionality — no longer understanding the world through fixed coordinates. Using the Fuller projection, a deorientational map form, I examine how, when “up” and “down” are no longer predetermined, every point can become a starting point of observation, and whether an information system can also be reorganized in this way. This decentralized structure continues my interest in perspective, breaking the power relations hidden in traditional maps and allowing every viewpoint to be treated equally.
At the same time, I learned about the Gestalt principle — how the human mind tends to reconstruct broken or unfolded images into coherent wholes. When a 3D object is unfolded into a flat surface, the viewer’s perception automatically reorganizes the fragments into a meaningful image. This process of visual completion also implies a cognitive reconstruction: meaning is not only altered by tools, but also by the way the viewer’s perception reorganizes information.
These two projects form a conceptual progression across three levels of reconstruction. The first project focuses on the reconstruction of media, revealing how digital tools restructure images into symbolic systems and reshape the logic of observation. The second shifts toward the reconstruction of cognitive frameworks, using deoriented mapping to rethink spatial logic and the position of the observer. Finally, the work begins to explore the reconstruction of perception, examining how viewers mentally reassemble fragmented visual information into coherent wholes.I gradually realized that my practice is a study of how systems continually deconstruct and reconstruct meaning.
Moving forward, I want to continue working with reconstruction as both a method and a question.I’m particularly interested in how systems—whether built through code, maps, or perception—shape the way information is arranged and meaning is formed.Rather than deliver fixed meanings, I want to use it to make systems visible: to show how form, order, and logic are constructed.
Abbott, E.A. (1884). Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. London: Seeley & Co.
Buckminster Fuller Institute. (n.d.). ‘Dymaxion Map’. Available at: https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/dymaxion-map/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2025].
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Gestalt psychology. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology [Accessed 10 Nov. 2025].