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Visual Communication (MA)

Yuxuan Wei

Yuxuan Wei, 魏羽萱, Nora, is a graphic designer from China. These are all her names, like different parts of her life and projects: modern, traditional, freedom, criticism.

She studied advertising at North China Electric Power University in 2017-2021. She is sensitive to the delivery of information and its impact on people in the Internet age. In the meantime, the idea that designers should all have some social responsibility has always influenced and guided her .

TRANSPARENT CITY

Welcome to my space. 

When I was growing up, the Internet started to enter my life and gradually became an indispensable part of it. I could feel its influence on my behaviour, thoughts and so on. 

In my practice, I focus on the public camera. It comes from my discovery that in the age of the internet, people are using webcams as a form of viewing or surveillance. To a certain extent, this behaviour has contributed to the intrusion of cameras into our privacy and the breaking of the boundary between public and private. This is the start point of my project.

newspaper display

Disciplined societies emerged in the 18th century, and discipline is the technique of ensuring the orderliness of human complexity, with the ultimate goal of obedience and utility in the system.

Michel Foucault <Discipline and Punish> 


Cameras are now everywhere and you will find that you are ignoring them. In this environment, surveillance has beyond the original public boundary and in turn, has become a control over people themselves. They make you think you have the power to control them but actually you are the subject of this visual space.And when you gaze at the camera, do you see the camera itself or yourself enjoying the same gaze? How do you ensure that you are not in a giant live broadcast?

 

Medium:

video

Size:

1min35s
research and visual experiment
I did research at the places where the boundary is disappearing or about to disappear and invited people to point out cameras locations in the area they just passed through, the difference between the camera people remember and not notice form the “forgotten area”
future camera design
Based on the cameras in history, a future camera is designed, which is fully transparent and covered with convex lenses. It will be advertised that can appear in all situations at all times and is flawless, even if it is a model with no technology.
logo design
The logo contains three infinity symbols and form an eye, the prototype is refers to the shape of the new future camera. It means you will always be watched by a camera.
AR model display
I cut out pieces from the newspaper and form the 'forgotten areas’, when people scan it, a model will appear through AR technology. The model is the area where the boundary between public and private is disappearing.