Thesis Presenation

scrying exhibition

 

Inspiration 

“Researchers at Oregon State University have learned that a specific wavelength range of blue fluorescent light set bees abuzz. Fluorescent light is what's seen when a fluorescent substance absorbs ultraviolet rays or some other type of lower-wavelength radiation and then immediately emits it as higher-wavelength visible light—think about a poster whose ink glows when hit by the UV rays of a blacklight.

Like humans, bees have "trichromatic" vision: They have three types of photoreceptors in their eyes. Both people and bees have blue and green receptors, but the third type for people is red while the third kind for bees is ultraviolet—electromagnetic energy of a lower wavelength that's just outside the range of human vision. Flowers' vibrant colors and patterns—some of them detectable only with UV sight—are a way of helping pollinators like bees find nectar, a sugar-rich fluid produced by plants. Bees get energy from nectar and protein from pollen, and in the process of seeking food they transfer pollen from a flower's male anther to its female stigma.”

 

Concept

The unseen as a methodology could be used extensively to a durable existence to contribute to humans’ lives. It could be used as a state of mind of being unseen to understand the inner self, the connection to others and environments. As the old proverb reads “out of sight, out of mind.” The invisible could change the perception of what is essential to our lives and other organisms.

On the one hand, if we think for a moment about the most durable and valuable components for human survival such as Air and Water, we couldn’t ignore the core fact that they are purely invisible. On the other hand, maybe a visible reverse strategy of invisibility is needed to let us appreciate the obscurity of small tiny things that could attract our attention back to many things including ourselves in communications design. How could we understand the invisibility behind any noticeable trait that we perceived through our eyes? Didn’t we spend enough time in the visible world of us “humans? 

Isn’t it now the time to see the unseen from the eyes of other species?

 

Execution

“Scrying Exhibition” Scrying means to use divination to discover hidden knowledge. An invitation card has been designed to invite a random audience to attend an indoor exhibition; the invitation card is a complete semi-transparent empty slack of paper with only an ultraviolet device inside an envelope, the reason behind such a design is to capture the interest of the viewer once they reveal the hidden content using the device. The exhibition aims at large to suggest a new ideology to explore the invisible natural world inside and all around us. The minimalist exhibition is composed of eight frames of printed US letter standard size using invisible ink “can’t be seen by the human eye.” Six frames tell a narrative story, between a Lion and a Zebra about the zebra's secret of survival “Their Stripes.”

 

Finally, the exhibition was associated with abstract audio background music and sound effects of different species that added depth to the overall atmosphere and the experience.