Mediated Senses, 2010-2014

Mediated Senses series probes our dynamic relationship with and sensory responses to our continually evolving physical and virtual environments. Since these phenomena are constantly mediated and manipulated by our increasing immersion in cyber-culture and digital technology, our perceptions and sensory responses to these surroundings are in flux and automatically mediated as well. I take photographs of sites, buildings, and people that I visit. In this series, I’ve appropriated and manipulated my own photos as well as iconic images of man-made structures to create a new locale, to articulate the thought of a mediated sense, a mediated reaction and perception of our continually shifting surroundings. The environments I have created in this series are inspired by the mixed landscape of Silicon Valley, in particular the area in the vicinity of the Western edges of Stanford University campus grounds, where new developments such as The Dish clash with natural surroundings. In various media, ranging from drawing and watercolor to silkscreen and monoprint, my protagonists explore their environments with a sense of wonder, curiosity, and bewilderment.

Shift is a commentary on the gradual transformation of our reading experience and changing relationship with print media, particularly books in an era of proliferation of E-reading and digital gadgets. The books’ visuals are rendered with silkscreen and watercolor mediums and include digitally manipulated electromagnetic radio waves mixed with other iconic natural images to portray a landscape of simultaneously connected and disperse elements. Shift’s hand-written texts are quotes from Alone Together, 2011, by Sherry Turkle, which references our daily sensory experience with high technology and the E-reading phenomenon.