Noory
- Decked Out (Identity System)
- I Was Born, I Moved, I Commute (Editorial Design & Installation)
- 2H Gallery (Identity System)
- Andy Warhol (Web Development & Design)
- Connecting to Chinatown (Editorial Design)
- 505 (Editorial Design)
Noory
I Was Born, I Moved, I Commute (Editorial Design & Installation)
Year: 2024
Instructor: Bob Aufuldish
For my senior thesis class, we were all given a word to design any kind of project of any medium: ephemeral. This word inspired me to explore the ephemerality of memory. My thesis statement was:
Memory is ephemeral because recall distorts its details and visual image.
What remains unchanged of a memory is the general story. What distorts is the specific details of what happens. Every recall creates a new version of a memory that layer upon each other.I navigated this process through the records of my own memories that exist in San Francisco, a city I grew up visiting, lived in for school, and then only experienced through a BART ride.
Everyday during my final semester, I was commuting (for the first time) to San Francisco at 6am to get to my 8am class.
I was sightseeing the city through Muni bus windows and BART stations.
Throughout my hour long commute, I couldn’t help but recall the memories of my time at CCA and growing up visiting San Francisco, especially as I was graduating soon. But, the feelings were not fully nostalgic; there was an overwhelmingly feeling of regret and melancholy.
This part of my life was ending soon.
Those parts of my life, the little kid visiting the tree at Macy’s or the college student taking the bus to Haight St. to shop after class, are gone.
My relationship with San Francisco has distorted and changed throughout time like memory. For my thesis, I wanted to reflect on this. Throughout the books, I questioned: Do I remember this? What happened in this memory? Who was I with? What was I doing?
Why do I remember this?
I had to reflect deeply into my memories and be vulnerable in the process. This drove the tone of the books and the visual palette, from my choice of words to the lack of color. Additionally, I enforced the distortion of time through the cropping and layering of photos and text with vellum paper. The photos and videos are also superimposed with similar images of the same memory.
Overall, the storytelling is through the physical experience. The installation is in a small-scale to create an intimate experience with the reader and the project, giving them the space to reflect on their own memories and how it connects to the people in their life or the cities they’ve lived in.