Shane Yeung

A virtual stage with a fictional set design of an ethereal dinner. Production behind the scenes of the Instagram are revealed.

Having completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Kent, Shane worked in an architectural firm in Hong Kong while also working as a social media content creator during her out-of-office hours.

Fascinated by photography, Shane has always been interested in using social media and architectural design as storytelling devices. Her work at the RCA is influenced by her experiences as a content creator in the travel industry. Engaging with different media, such as photography, image making and animation, her practice explores the production of the ethereal digital space on Instagram which operates between fiction and reality.

Phones used in the exam and exhibition set up. Social media, Instagram, screens, film.

“Ether” is a conceptual film which explores the grey space between fiction and reality in image making for social media today, through the use of animation, collage, and storytelling. In the travel industry, Insta-travel features various real locations around the world which are specially selected and framed on social channels with the intention of triggering ones desire to visit. Starting by reconstructing instances autobiographically drawn from my travel content creator journey, I began to explore the construction of smoothness in the process of keeping staged realities alive.

The project takes a close investigation of the city of Las Vegas as the ultimate destination of built fiction. I formulated the stories told within my film by researching fragments of the city’s history and context to analyse critical moments within it’s travel industry over the years. By reading Venturi, Brown and Izenour’s book, “Learning from Las Vegas”, I learnt from their methods of documentation and their understanding of symbolism in the design language of the Vegas Strip.

The stories within “Ether” are told using digital portals and backwards panning reveals. The film is visualised through digital modelling and animation, with aesthetics influenced by imagery created through AI softwares such and as Midjourney. While portalling from story to story through the screens of digital devices mimics the way in which audiences are virtually transported to places around the world through social media, ‘Ether’ pans backwards to reveal moments of production for creating ethereal moments.

Ether: The Grey Space Between Fiction and Reality – A film exploring fiction and reality in image making for social media today.

Medium:

Film Animation

We are transported through the digital portal of a phone screen to an ethereal dinner setting situated within a fictional virtual stage. Guests are immersed in an environment that is both virtual and physical.

We are transported through the digital portal of a laptop screen to a mobile home. This scene romanticises the idea of the journey in a digital age where travel has become detached from its substance and distilled into aesthetics.

As the camera pans backwards, a nuclear industrial site is revealed. This scene explores the realities of selective image framing for social media, while also investigating dark travel in Las Vegas's atomic past.

We are transported through the digital portal of a tablet screen to a movie set of the 1969 moon landing. This scene explores the idea of conspiracy, as curiosities of historical instances falling between fact and fiction have been drawing tourists to Las Vegas for decades.

As the camera pans backwards, an abandoned physical film set in the Nevada desert is revealed. This scene explores how physical stages of built fiction are transformed for tourism.

Diagrammatic drawing showing camera movements from scene to scene.

Medium:

Line Drawings

Reconstructing Moments From My Travel Content Creation Journey – While looking at how an Instagram post can become an architectural typology for world building, the project considers how a post creates a vision and introduction for a place as an illustrative narrative.

Medium:

Photography and Collage

Shane Yeung

Medium:

Medium:

Medium:

Social

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Royal College of Art